The Constitutional Freedom of Economic Enterprise and the Protection of the Primate of the Private Property in the Context of the so-called States’s Golden Share

The subject of the study is the special privilege of the state in companies in which – having a minority of shares – they have golden share, and therefore the ability to exert an authoritative influence on significant decisions of the company, going beyond the capital position. This means limiting the freedom of enterprise and the primacy of private property. Golden share can be understood as an attempt to reconcile the interests of private owners with an important public interest in certain sectors of the economy where the interest of the state becomes particularly important. Since it is an exception to the equal position of shareholders, its use in economic policy should be extremely rare.

Limits of Participation of State-owned Companies in the Social Market Economy in the Context of Art. 20 of the Constitution

The article is an attempt to determine the constitutionally permissible limit of the participation of SOEs in the economy in light of Art. 20 of the Constitution. It begins with an introduction, summarizing current research in economic and legal sciences on the issue of the growing participation of SOEs in the economy and discussing the legal problems that this phenomenon raises. This is followed by a discussion of the relationship of the state to state and private property in light of the social market economy model. The considerations are supported by references to the doctrine of ordoliberalism and the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court. Possible measures for determining the excessive participation of state-owned companies in the economy in light of Article 20 of the Constitution are then considered. The article is concluded with conclusions for public administration bodies and the doctrine of public law.

The article aims to investigate the system of the social market economy in Poland and Italy. It compares constitutional provisions, distinguishing national commonalities and discrepancies. They are the basis for the identification of the precepts common to all social market economies in Europe. The analysis concludes that combining economic rights with social interests is essential to establishing the social market economy.