Polish parliamentary immunity on the comparative background

The purpose of this publication is to present the scope of the parliamentary immunity in the Polish legal system. The paper examines both non-accountability and inviolability of the members of parliament from four different angles: ratione loci (where the protection is granted), ratione temporis (when the protection starts and ends), ratione personae (to whom it extends) and ratione materiae (what acts are covered by the protection). Polish regulations are presented with numerous references to the legal systems of other democratic countries, especially those which are members of the European Union. The paper advances a thesis that the scope of the parliamentary immunity in Poland is relatively broad and consequently, it may be argued that some elements of this privilege maybe taken away from the Polish Members of Parliament without affecting their freedom of action within the scope of parliamentary mandate.

The Attempts to Limit the Parliamentary Immunity in Draft Amendments to the Polish Constitution

Parliamentary immunity is intended to protect the unrestricted exercise of the representative mandate by permanently excluding the responsibility for the actions of deputies falling under the exercise of the mandate and by introducing a negative procedural prerequisite for acts falling outside this category. Cyclical discussions regarding the legitimacy of maintaining the aforementioned institution and its framework, provoke approximation of the subject scope of the draft constitutional amendments submitted so far, referring to transformations within the institution of parliamentary immunity, as opposed to relevant regulations contained in previously binding constitutions. The main research hypothesis of the article was that the substantive scope of the already considered draft changes of Article 105 of the Constitution does not match the practice of using immunity during the last 4 parliamentary terms. The adopted auxiliary hypotheses say that the analyzed drafts do not meet the current needs in guaranteeing the autonomy of parlimentary chambers with respect to the protection of their members, were faulty in terms of legislation, submitted in excessive haste and motivated mainly by reasons of political rivalry between the main parliamentary forces, and not by the need for optimal shaping discussed institution.The subject of the analysis are five draft legal acts amending the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, submitted during the third, fifth and sixth terms of office of the Sejm, extending these considerations by presenting informal suggestions of modification within parliamentary immunity.