The right to a fair trial in criminal cases in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland

The Constitutionally guaranteed “right to a fair trial” depends on the specific nature of a case which is taken before a court. The paper analyses the real scope of this one of the fundamental human rights in criminal cases. In the first part of the article the concept of “criminal case” is defined on the basis of jurisprudence of the Constitutional Tribunal. Then the objective and subjective scope of the above mentioned right in criminal cases is laid down and analysed its detailed elements: access to court, the right to a fair proceedings and the right to be heard within a reasonable time. The article also points out that the scope of “the right to a fair trial” is different for the victim and the accused according to the model of prosecution procedure. The specific emphasis is placed on to the right to a fair proceedings and the need to balance procedural rights of the parties and the interests of justice. In conclusion it is emphasised that the Constitutional Tribunal does not fully take into account the changes in the criminal law, which could lead to an actual limitation of the entity’s procedural guarantees under an Article 45 paragraph 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.

The right to a fair trial in the context of supervision over the administrative activities of courts

This article refers to one of aspects of the right to a fair trial – the right of access to the independent court authority. There are serious doubts about the constitutionality of new legislation concerning activities called administrative activities of a court. The supervision over that kind of courts’ activities became one of duties of Ministry of Justice. The author describes basic rules of above mentioned supervision and deliberates over the problem if they could be consistent with the constitutional rule of separation of powers.

The role of the international courts in the settlement  of the international law and domestic law rules collisions  on the example of state’s jurisdictional immunity

The Author analysis the role of international courts in the understanding and implementation legal institutions situated on the border between public international law and domestic law, on the example of the jurisdictional immunity of the state. The level of contact of those institutions under discussion relates to state’s using the immunity and human rights protection with special regard to the access to the court. The functions of international courts in discussed scope are particularly important in the opposite to public international law powerlessness according to the codification of its fundamental institutions. The lack of the treaty regulations and low specificity of custom norms relocate the liability of analyzing the substance, the scope of application, the admissibility of the limitation of immunity on international courts, whom statements can be a pattern for domestic courts. Unfortunately the judgments of international courts as well as domestic ones are not consistent – example of what are the differences in the approach to the immunity between European Tribunal of Human Rights and International Court of Justice. The lack of consistent vision of jurisdictional immunity is typical for international and domestic courts and in general is nothing special. However significant differences in the statements of main international courts deepen the uncertainty according to immunity’s scope, substance, possibilities of limitation (or lack of possibilities of limitation), that is especially deep regarding to simultaneous slowdown of codification activity.