Ensuring the security of the state is one of the primary responsibilities of its authorities, which can take a number of legal measures for that purpose. In this context, however,a question can be asked whether the protection of a value such as the security of the state can justify the limitation of human rights and freedoms and, if so, how deep such state’s interference in constitutionally protected rights and freedoms can be. In particular, can the basic human right – the right to life be scarified for the protection of the state security? The conflict between these values has been illustrated by the amendment of the Polish Aviation law adopted in 2004. It allowed under certain conditions to shoot down a civil aircraft with passengers on board. The regulation was subject to the constitutional review conducted by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and was declared unconstitutional. However, the emergence of new forms of terrorism and the escalation of this phenomenon in Europe, which characterizes the beginning of the twenty-first century, cause that the problem still remains valid.

Security in the Constitution of 1997 – initial diagnosis

The paper considers the constitutional recognition of security. It includes the basic regulations of the 1997 Constitution. The aim was also to make an initial assessment of the security research results in the doctrine of constitutional law. In conclusion of the article, the need for a new category of security reference was pointed out. The reference does not consist in the state itself, or a citizen, but the Republic of Poland perceived as a common good.

National Security Council

National Security Council is an advisory body to the President of Poland on issues relating to internal and external security of the country. This body is not equipped with any powers of a governing nature, its role is focused on advising the President on matters of national security. The Constitution does not specify who may be a member of the Council, leaving decisions on the composition of RBN to sole discretion of the head of state. The actual role of the National Security Council is determined by the activity of the President, who convenes sessions of that body, and also sets themes for such meetings.

The present paper raises the issue of cultural security in the programme-related ideas conceived by Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (hereinafter referred to as the Law and Justice or – to use an abbreviated term – PiS) in 21st century. In the present paper, the issues related to national identity and national culture were scrutinized, the former and the latter being two constituents of cultural security of the state.
Political programmes of the Law and Justice specified mainly the dangers to national identity in the context of European integration and of striving for the unification of European culture. On the other hand, in the realm of national culture, what was noticed was the phenomenon of neglecting the said issue and not considering it important from the point of view of security of the state.

This article aims to present military innovations in secondary schools in Poland and the possibilities for their use in processes strengthening national security. The Constitution of the Republic of Poland in Art. 5 and 26 impose an obligation on the authorities to ensure the security of the state and its citizens and to defend the state’s borders and the integrity of its territory. Therefore, it is important in this context to properly train and educate students in military secondary schools. The basis for reaching the conclusions presented here were the results of empirical research conducted among secondary school students enrolled in military classes in Poland. The type of statistical analysis used, segmentation, allowed subgroups of respondents to be identified with their percentage share in the total population and the characteristics that define them. Analysis of the research results makes it possible to distinguish categories of the defense potential of students of military classes such as their mobilization, social and individual potential. The content of the article also indicates the possibilities and needs for the development of the potential of students of military classes.

The implementation of the constitutional right of citizens to obtain information about the activities of state authorities, in particular, in the sphere of state security, causes many problems resulting from the application of the Act on the Protection of Classified Information. The measures adopted in the Act, promoting the rights of the community at the expense of the rights of individuals, pose a risk of its instrumental use for political purposes. The reduction of the above-mentioned risk may be supported by a minor correction of the regulations in force, as postulated by the author of the article, which includes an increase in external supervision over the marking of materials containing information intended for protection, which does not undermine the grounds for restricting the transparency of public activities, permitted by the international law and by the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, and required from the perspective of public safety. The conclusion is that it is difficult to be optimistic about this area due to the observed reluctance of the ruling elites to voluntarily abandon the tools that give them an advantage in public communication.

Uprawnienia Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w zakresie zapewnienia bezpieczeństwa państwa

W świetle Konstytucji Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z 2 kwietnia 1997 r. Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej jest najwyższym przedstawicielem państwa oraz gwarantem ciągłości władzy państwowej. Jednym z należących do niego obowiązków jest obowiązek stania na straży suwerenności i bezpieczeństwa państwa, jak również nienaruszalności i niepodzielności jego terytorium. Prawodawca w ustawie zasadniczej, jak też w innych aktach rangi ustawowej przyznał głowie państwa uprawnienia, których wykonywanie ma służyć właściwej ochronie bezpieczeństwa państwa i jego obywateli. Artykuł w ogólnym zarysie ukazuje zakres uprawnień Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, które w sytuacjach wystąpienia różnych zagrożeń są wykorzystywane przez głowę państwa w celu ich zapobiegnięcia lub zminimalizowania ich skutków.

The objective of this article is to point to legal foundations of the crisis management system and to specify principles it is built on, its actors, their competences, mechanisms of cooperation and coordination and principles for financing crisis management tasks. The author places special emphasis on the need to observe human rights and freedoms in the context of actions taken by the state that aim to ensure security and to create an effective crisis management system. The starting point for this discussion is an assumption that security-related problems affect the entire society whereby this society has the right and obligation to participate in efforts to ensure security. At the same time, institutional mechanisms of ensuring security only use participation of institutions by various kinds of interrelations and support. This article shows certain mechanisms of building national security by state bodies and institutions that are responsible for it and competent to respond in crisis situations. How-ever, the exegesis covers participation of the armed forces and legal aspects of employing the Polish Armed Forces in the event of non-military threats.

The Syntactic-Chronological Structure of Article 5 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and the Independence of the State in Relation to other Values of This Provision

The subject of consideration is the logical analysis of Art. 5 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, which, with its scope of norms, covers the fundamental obligations of the State. The political-legal approach to this issue includes a reflection on whether the syntactic-chronological structure of Art. 5 states that the independence of the state is more important than the security of individuals/citizens, because by maintaining independence the state can ensure the security of the individual. The article uses the sentence analysis methods of formal logic, formal-dogmatic, systemic and institutional-legal analysis. The analysis shows that, from a logical point of view, the overriding values are independence and the associated inviolability of territory, from which the possibility of the state’s existence is derived. All other values are subordinate to the independence of the state, because without it they do not exist.

The legal platform for combating terrorism in Poland

This article addresses the issue of terrorism and its counteraction in Polish legislation. Its aim is to demonstrate how Polish law is prepared to prevent terrorist incidents and which agencies and authorities are responsible for these actions. The article applies the method of institutional-legal analysis. Based on it, conclusions can be drawn that Polish legislation is relatively well-prepared to combat terrorism.