Secondary unconstitutionality of legal regulations – chosen problems

In accordance with the regulations the Constitution of the Polish Republic Constitutional Court of Justice controls concordances with law of principle of constitutional sources of law: bills, international treaties and regulations given by central State-organs. Results of opinions of Court of Justice determine the extremely important problem from the point of view of the practice of the application of the law. In the face appearing cases of resolving by Parliament of legal provisions in the sound which previously was questioned by Court of Justice, the special meaning gathers the matter of unconstitutional of secondary in the sphere of the administrative law. The article is a test of defining of this occurrence and the performance of attentions effluent from the current jurisdiction and the practice.

Some comments on constitutional audit’s subject  and its functions in Poland

The article brings up the theme of the Polish model of constitutional audit’s subject and its functions, in context of the Supreme Court Judgment – case III PZP 2/09 – related to the Constitutional Tribunal “negative and interpretational” rulings. The first part contains some theoretical (and polemical) comments on these kind of rulings in view of the meaning of terms like “law regulation”, “general legal norm” and “specific legal norm” and also relations between them. The remaining part takes into consideration legal functions of the Constitutional Tribunal rulings and also its general and specific consequences for the Polish legal system.

Considerations on the introduction of the constitutional control of the law in the era of the March Constitution – reconstruction of the discourse

The subject of the article is the reconstruction and explanation of the considerations on the failure to introduce the constitutional control of the law in the era of the March Constitution. It is argued that this was an issue noticeable by participants in legal and political relations, which was repeated during the period when it was in force, in particular after 1926 – due to the progressive abuse of the law and the fascization of political relations. Representatives of the doctrine of constitutional law are assigned a special role in promoting the importance of the control of the law for the process of building the rule of law. In this context the thesis of the article is as follows: the attitude to the control of the constitutionality of the law was not politically indifferent. It is argued that it was primarily the right-wing formations that opted for it, while the left-wing formations were against it.

If not the Constitutional Tribunal, then What? On Dispersed Constitutional Review in Poland

The discussion on the model of constitutional review of law in Poland gained a new dimension after 2016 in connection with the ongoing constitutional crisis. First of all, there is a question of whether, irrespective of the competences of the Constitutional Tribunal, on the grounds of the binding constitutional provisions, also courts may review the constitutionality of statutory provisions in the process of their application. Although after 1997 the principle became established that the Constitutional Tribunal had exclusive competence to review the constitutionality of acts in Poland, a clear change in this respect is now visible both in doctrine and jurisprudence. The majority of doctrinal representatives justify the admissibility of dispersed judicial review by the inability of the Constitutional Tribunal to perform its basic function, treating it as something exceptional, incidental, determined by the doctrine of necessity. The aim of this paper is to present the debate on the admissibility of dispersed judicial review on the grounds of the Polish Constitution, as well as to indicate the possible directions of its development.