Terrorist Offences under Polish Law
Terrorist Offences under Polish Law

Summary/Abstract: The material scope of the research problem encompasses issues concerned with the essence and sense of the legal definition of a terrorist offence in the Polish criminal law. The Polish legislator implemented the definition of a terrorist offence under Art. 115 § 20 of the Criminal Code in 2014, which was caused by the necessity to align the Polish law with the EU regulations. Metaphorically, it needs to be recognised that the definition in a way modifies the prohibited act and the scope of criminal liability. The structure of the legal definition of a terrorist offence comprises two elements, which serve as conditions to be fulfilled by the perpetrator. The first condition is formal and concerned with the severity of the sanction apportion to the perpetrator’s main act, while the second condition is motivational and concerned with a special goal actuating the perpetrator. Undoubtedly, the institution of the terrorist offence in the Polish criminal law serves a dissuasive and repressive purpose in relation to perpetrators of such offences. In order to elaborate the objective scope of the analysis, the following research questions are presented in the paper: (1) To what degree is the legal definition of a terrorist offence effective in the criminal policy regarding prevention and combating terrorism? (2) To what degree may the content of the legal definition of a terrorist offence infringe the principle of nullum crimen sine lege certa? The analysis is an overview, and has been performed considering an institutional and legal approach. In this approach, textual, doctrinal, and functional interpretations have been applied to the content of the legal definition of a terrorist offence. Given the discrepancies arising from the ambiguity of the terms used in the definition, relatively great emphasis has been laid on linguistic interpretation.

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