Deprivation of civil rights as a criminal in the aspect of voting rights

The Polish legal system excludes certain categories of persons from the group have the right to vote (and thus they do not have the right to be elected). The Constitution of the art. Paragraph 62. 2 provides that the right to vote is not entitled to such persons deprived of their civil rights by a final court judgment, or as a result of the institution of criminal law – one from the penalty. Moreover, the 0right to vote shall not be entitled persons deprived of their voting rights by a final judgment of the Court of State. It is a spontaneous deprivation of voting rights (while leaving other public rights), a penalty adjudicated by the Court in resolving the legal liability of persons holding the highest positions in the state. The existence of the measure or criminal penalties in the literature is treated as so. „Clauses negative” because the cause deprivation of electoral rights. Moreover, these reasons for limiting the scope of these rights are regarded as „socially and morally justified”. In the catalog of punitive measures set out in art. 39 k.k. vain to seek the penalty in the form of deprivation of voting rights for public authorities. According to the wording of art. 40 § 2 k.k. it is only one of several elements that make up the substance of a measure of criminal deprivation of civil rights. Considerations made this show that the deprivation of civil rights as a criminal and the deprivation of voting rights as a punishment take on major importance for the practical implementation of symptoms and the electoral rights of these reflections are not purely theoretical.

On the need to reflect on the issue of electoral rights for incapacitated persons

The aim of the article is to analyze critically the institution of incapacitation under Polish law, in the light of its impact on the exclusion of electoral rights of people affected by intellectual disability and mental disorders, in relation to whom Art. 13 and 16 of the Civil Code have been applied. The automatic relationship between incapacitation of a person and the deprivation of his/her right to participate in the election, sanctioned in Art. 62 of the Constitution, shows the contradiction with the international standards to protect the rights of persons with disabilities, expressed in the agreements ratified by Poland and the case law of the ECHR, and it also stands in opposition to the demands expressed by international organizations that uphold individual rights.

On the need to reflect on the issue of electoral rights for incapacitated persons. Part II

The problem of limiting the political rights of people with intellectual disabilities under Polish law has been a matter of interest for the Ombudsman for a long time, consistently postulating legislative work aimed at eliminating the institution of legal incapacitation from the Polish legal order, and it is reflected in the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court and in the activity of the social organisations. The article indicates the need postulated in the doctrine of the constitutional law to replace the Polish model of substitute decision by instruments of supported decision-making by people affected by intellectual disability and the need to have the ability to use the political rights by an individual assessed thoroughly each time by an impartial body, including the fundamental right to elect his/her representatives, while applying some measures restricting the individual’s discretionary power under civil law.

The aim of the article is to present recent amendments to the Electoral Code respecting constitutional right to a court and to describe some selected proposals for changes within the Polish electoral law, which – despite the fact that they were formulated by the doctrine of constitutional law and were raised in the legislative process – in certain cases have not yet been reflected in subsequent amendments to the Electoral Code. The analysis included the admissibility of bringing an appeal to the court against the decisions of the National Electoral Commission and some cyclical demands to abolish the election silence. The assessment of the indicated issues was made in the light of the science of law, the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the proposed amendment bills to the electoral law.

Construction of terms in the Polish Electoral Code and the possibility of exercising electoral rights. Selected problems

 There is no doubt that it is important for the electoral process to shape the structure and chronology of electoral activities properly. This is important both from the point of view of the elections organizing services, but also the electoral committees, candidates and the voters. The statutory arrangement of terms and directional assumptions concerning them should therefore take into account the needs and capabilities of both these groups. However, due to the fact that election practice has repeatedly indicated that the assumptions about deadlines cause significant problems during the electoral process, it is worth paying more attention to this issue. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the Polish legislator, when making general assumptions about deadlines, took into account the nature of electoral rights, or whether he was mainly guided by organizational considerations

A Constitutional Complaint as an Instrument for Protecting Individual Electoral Rights – Comments in the Context of Constitutional Complaints Considered by the Constitutional Tribunal in 2012–2023

It seems that currently any attempt to undertake a substantive assessment of the activity of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, especially after 2015, is doomed to the need to address the problem of the ongoing constitutional crisis in Poland. Nevertheless, the analysis of statistical data allows us to put forward the thesis that the “popularity” of the constitutional complaint as a means of protecting individual freedoms and rights – at least seemingly – has not been completely wasted even in these difficult conditions. It can be concluded that a constitutional complaint is not a commonly used instrument for the protection of an individual’s electoral rights. Nevertheless, given the constitutional problems raised in the constitutional complaints, the structure of this instrument of protection of the constitutional freedoms and rights of the individual prevents effective protection (ie. the possibility of restoring) the infringed electoral rights of the individual.

Problems of the Legal Structure of the Participatory Budgeting

The article subjected the regulation of the participatory budget to a critical analysis as internally contradictory and controversial (including constitutional doubts). It pointed out some resulting paradoxes and discrepancies between practice and jurisprudence in fundamental issues: the eligible participants and the permissibility of using specific personal data. Because such a state of affairs is unacceptable in a democratic legal state and attempts to resolve it through interpretative means have not yielded satisfactory results, selected arguments for providing participatory budgeting with new legal framework are presented. It also highlighted some benefits that could arise from regulating the participatory budget within electoral law (as a distinct type of local referendum) and proposed in an outline some specific solutions.

Implications of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Rucho v. Common Cause

Democratic systems entail the need to respect the fundamental principle of equality, especially in the context of electoral laws. However, in the United States of America, a country perceived as the archetype of liberal democracy, this principle does not seem to be fully respected. Gerrymandering, which involves manipulation of the electoral district lines for political gain, has a negative impact on the quality of American democracy. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rucho v. Common Cause that claims challenging electoral maps as favoring one political party are nonjusticiable as they pose political question, thus being beyond the jurisdiction of the federal courts. This article seeks to demonstrate the threats that the decision reached in Rucho v. Common Cause poses to US electoral processes. The analysis is carried out through a characterization of the gerrymandering and the reasoning applied by the Supreme Court Justices.