Legal regulations on freedom of assembly during a pandemic and threat of war

Abstract

In the time of the coronavirus pandemic and the war threat, freedom of assembly is in crisis. It is hard to guarantee this freedom since it is affected by the current political and economic situation of the state. Controversial changes are introduced in the law, and statutory rights are exceeded.The paper cites international regulations concerning assemblies, the regulations being very general. The international law leaves it to the national legislation to clarify and specify the matters of freedom of assemblies in the national regulations. This was done by the legislator in the Constitution of Poland and through issuing in 2015 the Law on Assemblies, which is being contemplated. However, during the pandemic this law was restricted in numerous regulations, which meant exceeding powers and caused situations that violated legal foundations. International regulations and the Polish law on freedom of assembly are the basis of the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights and the national judiciary. Some examples are presented in this paper.