Pojęcie tzw. przepisów o charakterze represyjnym — uwagi na tle dotychczasowego orzecznictwa Trybunału Konstytucyjnego
The Notion of the So-called Provisions of Repressive Nature: Remarks Based on the Judicial Practice of the Constitutional Tribunal

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the notion of the so-called provisions of repressive nature, addressed from theperspective of the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Tribunal. In one of its early judgments in thisarea, the Tribunal defi nes them as provisions whose aim is to subject a citizen to a form of punishmentor sanction. Indeed, in the system of law one can fi nd a group of legal regulations whose applicationis connected with imposition of something that is intended to be undesirable or painful, reachingsometimes such intensity that could be compared with application of sanctions prescribed bycriminal law. Nevertheless, those regulations have not been formally defined by the legislator as aspectsof criminal responsibility. This includes, above all, disciplinary responsibility, responsibility ofcollective entities, responsibility exercised under the Lustration Act or responsibility for administrativepenalties. This situation raises questions on how the constitution specifies the minimum standardof guarantees for the individual subjected to these regulations and whether they are covered bythe constitutional notion of criminal responsibility. The article provides an analysis of almost twenty-yearlong judicial practice of the Constitutional Tribunal in relation to establishing the meaningof the said notion and determining its scope and content. The conclusions arising from these remarksindicate that no satisfactory or uniform concept has been so far developed in this respect. As a result,doubts have arisen as to the application of appropriate constitutional patterns, including those connectedwith criminal responsibility.

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