This article concerns the legal status of the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces (Naczelny Dowódca Sił Zbrojnych). This is one of the most significant state organs for security that is nominated for a time of war. The main elements of his legal status were defined in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and elaborated in the statutory regulation. Pursuant to these documents this organ is subordinate to the Head of State and his functioning is defined during a war. His basic competences embrace commanding of the Polish Armed Forces together with ensuring the co-operation of the subordinated forces with their allied counterparts in planning and conducting the military operations. He bears the constitutional responsibility for the violation of the Constitution and the statute. Nevertheless, this regulation is neither comprehensive nor holistic. The reason of this is the fact that some of its components require various rules of interpretation (e.g. neutrality concerning the political issues), whereas the other have not been regulated at all (e.g. the demands in respect to the candidates). For these reasons it was demanded to specify the legal status of the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces. 

Act of March 11, 2022. on defense of the Homeland is a classic example of an “executive act” for the constitutional regulation of issues related to state security, including military security. The Homeland Defence Act contains the so far missing specification of the normative solutions contained in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of April 2, 1997. They concern in particular the development of regulations concerning the following constitutional issues: the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland, the duty of a Polish citizen to defend the Homeland, the President of the Republic as the supreme commander of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland and the Council of Ministers as the body that ensures the external security of the state and exercises general management in the field of national defense. The main goal of the legislator is to replace the archaic and incompatible with the current needs and tasks of the Polish state and the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland regulations contained in the Act of November 21, 1967. on the general duty to defend the Republic of Poland.

The aim of this article is the characterization of the demographic trends taking place in Poland and the attempt to answer the question: how do they influence the security of the country? The conducted analyses of Statistics Poland and Eurostat data show that over the last few decades in Poland, the intensification and the accumulation of the following negative demographic trends can be observed: 1) a population decline, 2) an increasing number of older people (including so-called double ageing), and 3) changes in the structure of the population age. The above demographic processes determine the new demographic order which will influence almost all areas of the country operation and will permanently change the social context of individuals’ functioning and, in the future, will have an increasing impact on the defence capabilities of the country and the functioning of the armed forces.