The right to ownership and its protection in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland

Ownership protection is one of the rights in the political system of the Republic of Poland. Article 21 of the Constitution safeguards ownership protection in general. Other property rights also seem to be protected on the basis of that general provision such as the ones resulting from Article 64 of the Constitution. Although the obligation of legal ownership protection is vested mainly in the state authorities, other entities, including private ones, are also obliged to comply. The right to property is not absolute and in accordance with Article 64 “may only be limited by means of a statute” but only to the extent not violating its substance. What seems worth considering in this context is the issue of limitations of the procurement of the agricultural real estate as well as liberalization of the provisions concerning tree removal.

Limitations of the Property Right in Polish Constitutional Law

The right to property as an implicit subjective right is not an absolute and unlimited. The constitutionally guaranteed right to property may, in certain cases and under appropriate conditions, be restricted. According to the Article 31(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, the necessity to introduce limitations in the exercise of constitutional freedoms and rights, including the right to property, is only possible if the criterion of a democratic state is taken into account. The possibility of statutory and non-violent interference in the right to property was also expressed in Article 64 of the Constitution, according to which everyone is entitled to the right to property. The assessment of the admissibility of interference in the right to property takes place in the light of undefined in a complete manner the principle of proportionality and the principle of the essence of the property right, which affects the manner of resolving the issue of the constitutionality of a given limitation of this right.

The article presents the issue of compliance of the Polish Constitution with the Act of 11 September 2015 on the entitlement to the property of the Holiday Employee Fund (Dz.U. No. 1824). The author presents the origins of the organization, and what changes have taken place in its legal status. The Act regulating the status of assets after Holiday Employee Fund was declared unconstitutional in 1997. The legislator had to regulate this issue again, which did not happen until 2015. The author estimates the new regulation based on the constitutional principles of protection of property rights, democratic rule of law, non-retroactivity and certainty of real estate transactions.