Options of the President of the Slovak Republic to not call a referendum, especially the „useless“ one

Abstract

The paper is inspired by recent events related to efforts to amend
the Constitution of the Slovak Republic with possibility of holding
a referendum on shortening the electoral period of the National Council
of the Slovak Republic, both by a referendum and by a parliamentary
1 Autor ďakuje Samuelovi Cibikovi a Erikovi Tóthovi za pomoc s rešeršovaním zahraničnej
právnej úpravy vyhlasovania referenda.
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way. Therefore, the aim of the paper is, in the context of abovementioned events, to make systematically classification of cases when the constitutional and legal regulation allows the President of the Slovak Republic not to call a referendum, to call of which he or she was requested. Special attention is paid to possibility of non-calling the so-called useless referendum, that is a referendum on a subject that has already been decided in the meantime. Synthesizing conclusions regarding the two stated objectives, the paper also attempts to outline desirable development tendencies of the position of the President of the Slovak Republic as the subject with the power to call a referendum, primarily in view of the fact that Slovak head of state is supposed to ensure proper functioning of constitutional bodies.