Impact of Council of Europe on the shaping and popularizing of the standards of the rule of law

The subject of the article is the issue of the Council of Europe’s impact on shaping and popularizing of the standards of a principle of the rule of law. The rule of law is one of the three basic values on which the Council’s activities is based. The Council’s care of maintaining the rule of law standards by the member states is manifested in two main areas. First of all, the Council undertakes activities aimed at defining and creating a uniform, universal way of understanding the principle of the rule of law by individual states. Secondly, the Council’s legal system states a few specific mechanisms to enforce the implementation by the member states of the principle. However, as practice shows, not all of them are sufficiently effective.

Are there Polish Traditions of the Rule of Law? Prolegomena for Research

The paper is a summary of a scientific seminar devoted to the problem of the Polish acquis concerning the concept of the Rule of Law and an introduction to in-depth research on this subject. The initial answer to the research question whether there is Polish achievements in the described field is positive. It is a centuries-old and relatively rich achievement. The answer to the question about the existence of the Polish tradition of the Rule of law, understood as continuity, is negative. Despite making more and more (partially understandable) attempts to prove this continuity and the existence of at least a partial continuation of the political system between the so called First, Second and Third Polish Republics, this continuity is only illusory and in fact has been broken several times. One can speak of a short-term continuity only within successive epochs in Polish history.