The rule of law “on the ground”. The Polish courts’ perspective
The rule of law “on the ground”. The Polish courts’ perspective

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to demonstrate how often and in what waysthe concept of the rule of law is utilised by the Polish courts. The authors exam-ined the case law of the Constitutional Tribunal, the Supreme Court, but aboveall, of the common courts, published after 1997 (the year in which the Constitu-tion of the Republic of Poland entered into force) with regard to how often judg-es invoke the concept of the rule of law and how they explain it. The main ideawas to capture certain tendencies, in an attempt to take a wider view rather thananalyse individual rulings. It is a look “from above” adapted to determine if andhow often courts refer to the concept of the rule of law and what changed in thisregard after 2015, when the systematic and consistent destruction of the judicialsystem began. Analysis of the judicial decisions of the common courts, whoseactions are especially important for the individual, are the focal point. It is inthese courts that majority of cases are settled, as they are the closest to the citi-zen. Of course, the common courts do not act in isolation and so the judicial ac-tivity of the Constitutional Tribunal and the Supreme Court was also examined.However, rulings of those entities are frequently subject to in-depth analysis, so the focus was placed only on examining regularities in their invoking the conceptof the rule of law. Since the Constitutional Tribunal and – to a certain degree –the Supreme Court have been captured by the ruling political group, entailingthat the authorities have destroyed judicial independence, it is worthwhile toconcentrate on the common courts, as they could possibly be representing thelast bastions of an independent justice system.

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