The fundamental human right to dignity is the cornerstone of European legal culture. The right has been provided for in international, European, and national legal instruments. Its role as a benchmark reference for all other human rights has developed into a self-standing and self-executing right, especially under the new EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. This evolution from the traditional role of the right to dignity is analysed in case study based on a real case before the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic in 2015. The analysis brings forward a reflection about the need to respect the concept of dignity and how it actually is observed in the European context.

Balancing Constitutional Rights and Freedoms in Judicial Application of Law

The article analyzes the issue of the cognition of courts to weigh constitutional rights and freedoms, both in relation to vertical and horizontal relations. The view is defended that the courts are obliged to apply the weighing mechanism to constitutional rights – pursuant to Art. 31 sec. 3 and Art. 31 sec. 2 sentences 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The constitutional adequacy of the final determination of the conditional priority relationship between the competing principles of law by the legislator is being examined. It is shown that the conclusiveness and correctness of establishing this relationship require weighing the principles in concreto sensu stricto, which can only take place at the stage of judicial application of the law. However, this does not mean that there is a gap in the Polish system of protection of individual rights and freedoms.