Kierunki zmian Kodeksu karnego na tle 25 lat jego obowiązywania
The direction of the amendments to the Penal Code in connection with the during the 25 years of its validity

Summary/Abstract: The article is an attempt to present the directions of changes in the Criminal Code based on reforms of the main institutions of criminal law and exemplary types of prohibited acts. Taking into account the fact that the Criminal Code has been amended more than 100 times since its validation in 1998, it can be said that it is currently far from the originally established solutions. The aim of the article is to analyse and evaluate the validity of the adopted amendments, their causes and the consequences of their introduction. From the perspective of more than 25 years of the current Criminal Code in force, it can be noted that some reforms were an expression of typical penal populism. They were not prompted by the demands of academics and the judiciary, but rather an attempt to use them to achieve political goals, such as electoral ones. Another problem highlighted in this work is the casuistic approach of the legislator to criminal law. Reforms have often been prompted by individual tragic events. However, it seems that systemic changes in the law as impulsive responses to individual situations undermine the stability of the law and consequently undermine society’s confidence in the legal order as a whole. The conclusion that can be drawn from this work is that most of the changes were not expected by either criminal law scholars or the judiciary. De lege ferenda, it can be postulated that the importance of measurable crime rates as reasons for changes in criminal law is increasing

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