The Rule of Law

Abstract

This chapter presents the issue of the reduction of the importance of the Rule of Law in Poland after the general elections in 2015. It reveals the specific character of discussions about the Rule of Law in Poland after 1989, and offers ways of understanding the principle in the legal doctrine and the rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal. In the opinion of domestic and European legal circles, the actions taken by the current government of Poland violate the most crucial elements of the principle of the Rule of Law. Above all, this chapter focuses on the following issues: the contradistinction between democracy and the Rule of Law, the weakening of the authority of law, the marginalisation of the significance of the Constitution by non-constitutional changes in the constitutional order, the lowering of law-making standards, and a redefinition of the principle of division of powers. These activities are accompanied by assertions emphasising the idea of the good of the nation as a value standing above the law, and defining democracy as the rule of the majority not being bound by the law, which are typical of a populist agenda. This chapter puts forward the opinion that these actions not only lead to a violation of substantial elements of the Rule of Law, but they are also contrary to the fundamental requirement of this concept, according to which state authorities act on the basis and within the limits of the law.