Summary

Public initiatives are not prescribed in the Constitution, although public referendums are. In the thirty-year history of the Constitution, a public referendum has only been held once, when a referendum was held on 14 September 2003, with the people adopting the Act supplementing the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia. In addition to amending the Constitution, § 105 of the Constitution grants the Riigikogu the right to submit a bill or other affairs of state to a referendum. The initiative of the Estonian Centre Party, the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia and the Isamaa faction to hold a referendum on the definition of marriage drew attention to this provision and also sparked a debate on it. The intention of the government coalition at that time to hold a referendum caused a storm in political circles, and a heated debate in society, but also drew the attention of lawyers to the legal side of the referendum, both during the run-up to the referendum and afterwards. However, the legal and democratic issues surrounding direct democracy and one of its forms – the referendum – have not tempted lawyers to immerse themselves in this area.

The article provides an overview of the public initiative and public referendum in the Estonian Constitution and the practice of using these institutions. The overview covers all Estonian constitutional acts from the temporary arrangement for the governing of the Republic of Estonia in 1919 to the 1992 Constitution.