Trust and solidarity at a time of transformation. The problem of so-called Bug River property claims in the case law of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of the Zabużanie people’s claims. The Zabużanie people were persons who lost their assets as a result of relocation from the Eastern Borderlands (also known as Kresy) of the Second Republic of Poland caused by a revision of territorial borders after the Second World War. The Author describes the genesis and legal nature of the so-called Republican Accords regulating the principles of assistance for displaced persons and forms of realisation of the Zabużanie people’s claims in the statutory law of the Third Republic of Poland. Then, the author discusses the case law of the Constitution Tribunal and the European Court of Human Rights related to that legislation. He indicates a shift in the case law with reference to the scope of discretion accorded to the legislator in respect of adopting compensatory mechanisms. The author underlines the special role that was played by the principle of trust of citizens towards the state and the law enacted thereby in the Tribunal’s assessment of the adopted legislative solutions. At the same time, the author indicates that the potential of the constitutional idea of solidarity was not fully used when solving the issue of the Zabużanie people’s claims. In the opinion of the author, the idea of solidarity could be an axiological foundation for a policy of transitional justice.