Selected problems connected with the implementation of the constitutional principle of separation of church and state in the Republic of Poland

The final model of the separation of the church and state depends not so much on constitutional regulations but rather on provisions of the lower order and the practice of using. For this reason the article deals with the most controversial practical problems – subjectively chosen by the author – connected with the implementation of the so called friendly model of separation of church and state in the Republic in Poland. The following problems are successively presented: teaching of religion in public schools and the specific issues related to it, normative obligation to respect Christian values, criminal law protection of religious feelings and religious communities financing from the state budget. In the author’s opinion, including marks from religious instruction to the average school marks, the prosecution of offending religious feelings by public accusation, favouring treatment of donations to church charity and care and the existence of the Church Fund are inconsistent with the constitutional model of relations between church and state in Poland. However, legal regulations for more essential importance, such as the teaching of religion in public schools, are not contradictory to principles of the political system. Furthermore, they give the Polish legal system axiology, which is compatible with the majority of Polish society’s will.

The Italian Constitutional Court spoke on numerous occasions about the provisions of the Concordat concluded between the Italian Republic and the Roman Catholic Church. Up to the 1970s, the Constitutional Court had ruled for the most part on constitutionality of solutions regarding the Catholic religion. In this period of time the Constitutional Court issued rulings that were very important for the relation between the state and the Church. The article analyzes three significant sentences issued on March 1, 1971 regarding the institution of matrimony, as well as the sentence of July 8, 1971 in which the Constitutional Court resolved the constitutionality of the law allowing church marriages to be dissolved by the Italian civil courts. These rulings are very important due to the fact that the Italian Constitutional Court has referred to them on numerous occasions in the subsequent sentences, in which it considered the issue of the contradiction between the Concordat norms and the Constitution.

Reliable Justification of the Court Judgment in the Context of the Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights of March 9, 2023 in the Case of Cupial v. Poland

One of the elements of the right to a fair trial is the right of the individual to a reliable justification of the decision in the case, derived from the right to the appropriate shap- ing of the court procedure. The aim of the article is to show that this is a key element in cases where the court adjudicates the rights and freedoms of an individual, setting their limits. In the judgment of March 9, 2023, in the case of Cupial against Poland, the Euro- pean Court of Human Rights emphasized the special role of a reliable justification of the judgment. The author considers this requirement as one of the fundamental guarantees of respecting the rights and freedoms of the individual, which in the context of the dis- cussed case is the freedom of conscience and religion, and the right to ensure children a religious upbringing in accordance with parents convictions. The analysis of the indi- cated issue was made on the basis of the dogmatic-legal method.