Presidential supremacy over the armed forces in Poland after 1989

The primary purpose of considerations undertaken in this article is to identify and analyse the changes of the form and practice of presidential supremacy over the armed forces in Poland after 1989. Thanks to the findings of these consideration the author answered the following research questions: (1) how did presidential powers in the field of the supremacy over armed force change after 1989 (2) how did their practice change? (3) what influence did political practice have on presidential supremacy over armed forces? Thanks to the answers to these question the following hypothesis was verified: although about transformations and form of presidential supremacy over armed forces were determined by changes in the Constitution, very important in this area was also political practice, which decided about real participation of holder of the presidential office in the army management. Considerations have been divided into three parts, which describe the form and the practice of presidential supremacy over the armed forces during the functioning of: the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1952 (amended Constitution of the Polish People’s Republic), Constitutional Law of 17 October 1992 on the Mutual Relations between the Legislative and Executive of the Republic of Poland and local government, as well as the Polish Constitution of 1997. The conclusions of were presented at the end.

The right of defence is one of the fundamental human rights. In criminal proceedings, its implementation may translate into defendant’s right of undertaking his defence on his own, as well as of having recourse to a professional defender. In this regard, the defender (an attorney or a legal counsel) has been given a certain set of entitlements which, on one hand, can aid in performing his own duties and, on the other hand, provides a legal framework for the execution of these duties. The way in which the defender’s activities are conducted depends on the will and the contribution of the defendant himself. At the meeting point of the defender-defendant relationship there may appear certain occurrences, and some of them prohibited by penal legislation, which imply a number of issues and thus need to be clarified. Those issues include, inter alia, the scope of the right of defence as well as defender’s competences, the lawfulness of the activities being undertaken, the question of the scope and framework of defender’s legal privilege with regard to his knowledge on the crime.