Polish Constitutional Tribunal towards European standards of the right to a fair trial

The Constitutional Tribunal (TK) does not exercise justice, however, it is a judicial authority. The right to request an examination of compatibility of the normative act with the Constitution is today an integral part of the democratic rule of law and the right to court. As the analysis of the case law of the Constitutional Tribunal shows, the Polish constitutional court applies the standards of the right to a fair trial established under the Convention and the Charter as well as refers to the case law of the European Courts including the interpretation of the relevant provisions of international law. This practice should be assessed unambiguously positive, because it leads to the creation of a common standard of protection of fundamental rights in the European Union. However respecting the ECHR case-law makes necessary to recognize that in proceedings related to the specific constitutional control before Constitutional Tribunal should be applied the guarantees arising from Art. 6 of the Convention. It is obvious that the TK as a court of law not facts cannot be treated as another instance of appeal and a constitutional complaint should not be used as an instrument for correcting mistakes made in the earlier stages of the proceedings. However, the constitutional position of TK among the judiciary, the legislative shape of the proceedings before the Tribunal, and finally the status of TK judges allow – in my opinion – to put forward the thesis of the need for abandonment of the European standards of the right to a fair trial before TK. Standards that according to the TK case law, are also guaranteed by the provisions of the Constitution.