Parliamentary Debates and Freedom of Speech of MPs as Defined in the Rules of Procedure of the 19th Century Croatian Parliament and Other Parliaments

Abstract

This paper presents different aspects of regulating parliamentary debate in the second half of the 19th century in the Croatian Parliament (Sabor) and other parliaments in a comparative discourse. This includes parliament's constituent session, preparation and course of parliamentary debate, MPs’ motions and interpellations, MPs’ freedom of speech, voting and adoption of conclusions. The analysis will be based on a comparison of the rules of procedure of the Croatian Parliament (1861-1918), the 1848 Frankfurt National Assembly (Frankfurter Nationalversammlung), the 1848 Imperial Diet in Vienna (Reichstag), the Imperial Council (Reichsrat), the Hungarian Parliament and parliaments of some German lands in the second half of the 19th century as well as a collection of precedents serving as a basis for the operation of the British Parliament (the so-called Westminster procedure) and the rules of the United States Congress. Moreover, acceptance and modification of individual aspects of the Westminster procedure or provisions in the procedural rules of other countries will be presented as examples suggesting that the transfer of ideas and practices in parliamentarianism in Croatia and other European countries in the 19th century should be viewed through the prism of multidirectional influence and creative receptions.