RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND
RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND

Summary/Abstract: Guaranteeing the fundamental rights and freedoms to citizens, as well as enabling them their proper exercising and strict observance, are one of the most important tasks of contemporary democratic states and simultaneously a real challenge. The level of the individual rights’ observance undoubtedly depends upon whether a state is able to create an effective system of their protection. Not less important is indeed the catalogue of fundamental rights and freedoms contained in the Constitution which, in consequence, along with the constitutional guarantees, remains one of the most essential attributes of their protection. Given that the basic law is treated as their main and supreme source, violating such rights is considered to be the breach of the constitutional provisions. Contrary to the states with long and stable traditions of statehood and democracy, this problem seems to be especially essential and vivid in case of those states which still remain on the stage of solidifying their statehood foundations as well as seeking, striving for and testing their ways of democratic development, being rather new for them hitherto. The paper aims to provide a detailed legal analysis of the catalogue of rights, freedoms and duties envisaged in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997, presently in force, as well as to reflect on their sources and axiological basis deriving from the international standards. The paper first discusses the key concepts in the Polish constitutional law doctrine: a right, a freedom, a duty, and their constitutional guarantees. Further on, it focuses on the analysis of particular rights, freedoms and duties catalogued in the Polish basic law, as well as their scope and interpretation. In the end, the paper discusses the problems related to constitutional guarantees of the fundamental rights and freedoms.

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