The Amsterdam Treaty has established the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ). Since then, it is an example of a policy-making area creating its way quickly and comprehensively. However, in this paper the main dilemma is to what extent the Schengen development has modified the framework of AFSJ and how it adapts in this policy while being an example of enhanced cooperation and differentiated integration model. Developments in this area are part of a realisation that European states need to act together to better face new challenges to peace and internal security, while ensuring respect for democracy and human rights. It is important to add, that cooperation in the Area of Freedom Security and Justice has been driven by forces different from that seen in other policy areas.

The first orders had been established and awarded by monarchs long before the republican concept of presidency was developed. The many powers which presidents took over from monarchs include, inter alia, the awarding (and revoking) of state honours. The issue, usually regarded as marginal, does not appeal to constitutional law scholars. Poland’s legal regulations concerning orders are hardly precise (this being particularly true as far as the constitutional law is discussed) and the fact gives rise to many practical problems concerning application of the country’s constitution and statutes from the field, quite frequently going beyond the matters of orders in the strict meaning of the phrase. One of the questions of the kind, not having become an object of interest to legal scholars so far, is the acceptance by the President of the Republic of Poland of foreign orders and distinctions received either within his capacity as the supreme representative of the State in international relations or as a private individual. The picture resulting from an analysis of practice and theory of order-related issues is hardly a coherent one. The following paper – besides due presentation – aims at sharpening the somewhat blurry image.