We present summaries and translations of selected judicial decisions of
the Constitutional Tribunal
|
The summaries and translations are unofficial. They do not contain literal quotations.
Only the full versions of the
Tribunal’s judicial decisions in Polish are of an official character.
They are published, including the reasoning and any dissenting opinions,
in the official collection “Orzecznictwo Trybuna³u Konstytucyjnego. Zbiór Urzêdowy”
and on the Tribunal’s web site.
It is possible to access the
official text from each summary.
In order to do this, click on the highlighted area in the heading of the
summary.
Within the summaries, certain terms or expressions may be highlighted.
Click on the highlighted words for an explanation.
At the end of each summary, the provisions
of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of the 2nd April 1997
(and, where relevant, provisions of the Constitutional Tribunal Act of the 1st August 1997)
referred to in the text are quoted.
The selection of available summaries
will be gradually broadened.
Last updated: 5 August 2010
Please send any opinions or questions to:
summaries@trybunal.gov.pl
Click on the reference number in the
following list to select the appropriate summary or translation.
The order is determined by the date: the most recent decisions are placed first.
| 24 II 2010 judgement K 6/09 new |
old age pensions of the former functionaries of state security authorities of the People's Republic of Poland
|
28 X 2009 judgement |
electoral law for European Parliament elections |
| 18 II 2009 judgement Kp 3/08 |
the right of every Polish court to refer a prejudicial question to the Court of Justice of the European Communities |
| 30 IX 2008 judgement K 44/07 |
permissibility of shooting down a passenger aircraft in the event of a danger that it has been used for unlawful acts, and where state security is threatened |
| 27 VI 2008 judgement K 51/07 |
reorganisation of intelligence and counter-intelligence services |
| 17 VI 2008 judgement K 8 /04 |
fiscal control |
| 3 VI 2008 judgement K 42/07 |
principles for making case records accessible in the course of preliminary proceedings |
| 23 IV 2008 judgement SK 16/07 |
freedom of expression and medical ethics |
| 28 XI 2007 judgement K 39/07 |
procedure for derogation of judicial immunity |
| 24 X 2007 judgement SK 7/06 |
exercise of judicial power by assistant judges |
| 23 X 2007 judgement P 10/07 |
entitlement to early retirement for men |
| 11 V 2007 judgement K 2/07 |
lustration |
| 17 IV 2007 judgement SK 20/05 |
rescission of acknowledgement of paternity |
| 13 III 2007 judgement K 8/07 |
property statements of members of local government |
7 III 2007 judgement |
lack of locus standi of the legally incapacitated person to request the initiation of proceedings to revoke the declaration of, or change the scope of legal incapacitation |
19 XII 2006 procedural decision P 37/05 (full text) |
court's question of law concerning the conformity of a Polish statute with the EU law |
22 IX 2006 judgement U 4/06 (full text) |
Sejm's "banking" investigative committee |
25 VII 2006 judgement |
governing energy enterprises' obligations by way of a regulation |
25 VII 2006 procedural decision |
the new model of cassation in civil cases and the deadline for lodging a constitutional complaint |
21 VII 2006 judgement |
reference to "orders and instructions" in criminal law provision |
21 VII 2006 procedural decision |
inadmissibility of a constitutional complaint lodged by a state school against legal provisions concerning teachers' disciplinary proceedings |
20 VII 2006 judgement |
Senate amendments to an amendment act; adjudication on the unconstitutionality of a tax relief in the course of a tax year |
28 VI 2006 procedural decision |
the ne bis in idem principle within proceedings before the Constitutional Tribunal |
26 VI 2006 judgement |
pronouncing judgment by the same judge following the defendant's objection to a default judgment |
15 V 2006 judgement |
forfeiture of wood in the event of illegal felling in one's own forest |
14 VI 2006 judgement |
conunteracting tax law evasion (II) |
19 IV 2006 judgement |
new rules of access to the advocate's profession |
11 IV 2006 judgement |
the maintenance obligation towards an ex-spouse following a divorce |
4 IV 2006 judgement |
sequence of enforcement of due payments for work |
23 III 2006 judgement |
modifications to the composition and functioning of the National Broadcasting Council |
20 III 2006 judgement |
limiting protection of the privacy of persons discharging public functions |
13 III 2006 judgement |
exclusion from agricultural social insurance of certain persons also engaging in non-agricultural economic activity |
27 II 2006 procedural decision |
inadmissibility of a constitutional complaint alleging infringement of a third party's rights |
22 II 2006 procedural decision |
interpretation of the judgment concerning a higher rate of personal income tax |
20 II 2006 judgement |
limitation of electoral rights in local elections |
15 II 2006 procedural decision |
the risk of "irreversible consequences" as a premise for the Tribunal's issue of an interim decision regarding the stay of execution of a judicial decision prior to the consideration of a constitutional complaint |
18 I 2006 judgement |
requirement to obtain permission for an assembly on a public road |
18 I 2006 interim procedural decision |
staying execution of a custodial sentence before consideration of the defendant's constitutional complaint |
16 I 2006 judgement |
possibility of dismissing an "evidently groundless" cassation in the absence of parties' participation and without a reasoning |
12 XII 2005 judgement |
Police surveillance |
28 XI 2005 judgement |
Regulations on medical documentation |
15 XI 2005 judgement |
determining income constituting the basis for the right to family allowance |
9 XI 2005 judgement |
financial control and internal audit in judicial organisational units |
26 X 2005 judgement |
restricting access to documents of Communist security agencies |
26 X 2005 procedural decision |
effect of expiry
of Parliament's term of office on proceedings before the Tribunal initiated by a group of Deputies |
25 X 2005 procedural decision |
inability to challenge a statute prior to publication; the effect of expiry of Parliament's term of office on proceedings before the Tribunal initiated by a group of Senators |
13 IX 2005 judgement |
contracts in foreign languages |
12 VIII 2005 procedural decision |
inadmissibility of an application lacking a relation with the applicant's scope of activity and evidently groundless |
22 VI 2005 procedural decision |
superfluity of a challenge concerning the capacity to be sued in proceedings to compensate harm caused by legislative unlawfulness |
21 VI 2005 judgement |
compulsory purchase of shares held by minority shareholders (squeeze-out) |
14 VI 2005 judgement |
administrative procedure for remission of student credits |
11 V 2005 judgement
|
Poland's membership in the European
Union (the Accession Treaty) |
27 IV 2005 judgement
|
application of the European Arrest
Warrant to Polish citizens |
25 IV 2005 judgement |
gratuitous teaching activities of doctoral students |
19 IV 2005 judgement |
limitation of rent increases for living quarters (II) |
21 III 2005 procedural decision |
requirement for a relationship to exist between proceedings before a court and a question of law referred thereby to the Constitutional Tribunal; communes' right to judicial protection |
15 III 2005 judgement |
relinquishing ownership of real estate and interest of communes |
23 II 2005 procedural decision |
inadmissibility of commune's constitutional
complaint |
22 II 2005 judgement |
public prosecution of offences arising from failure to publish, contrary to the Press Act, a rectification or response |
15 II 2005 judgement |
insufficient vacatio legis when introducing higher rate of personal income tax |
8 II 2005 judgement |
proportional elections to some commune councils |
31 I 2005 judgement |
liability for customs offences committed
prior to Poland's accession to the European Union |
25 I 2005 procedural decision |
compulsory legal representation in
Tribunal proceedings; constitutional complaint by reason of a Tribunal decision |
12 I 2005 judgement |
inequality in competences of Sejm
and Senate committees in respect of European Union legislative proposals |
10 I 2005 judgement |
lower minimum wage for young employees |
15 XII 2004 judgement |
right to offset the value of property
left in the former eastern territories of Poland (II) |
7 XII 2004 procedural decision |
inability to reinstate time limit for lodging a constitutional complaint |
24 XI 2004 procedural decision |
conditioning admissibility of a constitutional
complaint upon pronouncement of a decision in the complainant's case |
22 XI 2004 judgement |
ability to release a legal advisor
from an obligation to maintain professional secrecy in criminal proceedings |
16 XI 2004 judgement |
restrictions on the freedom to choose
a legal representative in civil proceedings |
10 XI 2004 judgement |
prohibition on demonstration participants
disguising themselves; liability of demonstration organisers for damage |
3 XI 2004 judgement |
legal person's liability for a natural
person's offence |
27 X 2004 judgement |
restricting the possibility to re-open
civil proceedings following a Constitutional Tribunal judgment |
26 X 2004 procedural decision |
"legal provision" as the subject of Constitutional Tribunal review; ne bis in idem principle within proceedings before the Tribunal |
25 X 2004 judgement |
effect of exceeding deadlines for
offsetting Value Added Tax |
19 X 2004 judgement |
dismissal of a customs officer by
reason of suspicion of an offence |
13 X 2004 procedural decision |
inadmissibility of a constitutional
complaint tending to supplement the system of law |
6 X 2004 judgement |
Constitutional Tribunal's lack of
competence to review local land management plans |
6 X 2004 judgement |
conditioning the admissibility of cassation upon the value of the disputed right |
5 X 2004 judgement |
compulsory insurance of alpinists |
| 21
IX 2004 judgement K 34/03 |
cash-registers in taxi cabs |
| 9
IX 2004 judgement K 2/03 |
radio and television license fees |
6 IX 2004 judgement |
security on property in criminal cases |
16 VIII 2004 procedural decision |
inadmissibility of an evidently
groundless application or constitutional complaint; principle of trust in the State as the basis of a district council application |
| 20 VII 2004 judgement SK 11/02 |
postponement of compensation for expropriation
of real estate for use as public roads |
6 VII 2004 procedural decision |
considering the admissibility of a constitutional complaint within substantive examination proceedings |
|
31 V 2004 judgement
|
participation of foreigners in European Parliamentary elections |
25 V 2004 judgement |
extension of the limitation periods
following the commission of an offence |
25 V 2004 procedural decision |
subsidiary character of a constitutional complaint |
| 18 V 2004 judgement SK 38/03 |
exclusion of injured person from proceedings to quash a fixed fine |
18 V 2004 procedural decision
|
inadmissibility
of challenge to Decision calling European Parliamentary elections |
| 17 V 2004 judgement SK 32/03 |
cassation in criminal cases |
| 11 V 2004 judgement K 4/03 |
counteracting tax law evasion (I); official
interpretation of tax regulations |
| 11 V 2004 procedural decision K 15/04 |
inadmissibility of granting an "interim
injunction" in the review of norms proceedings |
| 5 V 2004 judgement P 2/03 |
prohibition of editorial comments
on press rectifications |
| 4 V 2004 judgement K 8/03 |
exclusion of the right to joint taxation
of spouses following the death of a spouse |
27 IV 2004 judgement |
formal conditions for allowing a taxpayer
to offset input tax revealed in an invoice for the purchase of a good or service |
|
21 IV 2004 judgement
|
bio-components in gasoline and diesel |
| 20 IV 2004 judgement K 45/02 |
extraordinary termination of the employment
of officers of the former State Security Office; status of Chiefs of the Internal Security Agency and Foreign Intelligence Agency; certain competences of these Agencies |
| 6 IV 2004 judgement SK 56/03 |
abolition of telephone allowances
for retired postal workers |
| 30 III 2004 judgement K 32/03 |
link between rights in housing cooperatives'
property units and membership of the cooperative |
| 24 III 2004 judgement K 37/03 |
Deputies' amendments to a bill during
parliamentary discussion thereof; promulgation of a bill following the date of its entry into force |
8 III 2004 judgement |
restricting the possibility for minority shareholders to challenge company's resolutions |
3 III 2004 judgement |
compensation for accidents and illnesses connected with the Police service |
| 18
II 2004 judgement |
admission to the advocates’ and legal advisors’ traineeships |
18 II 2004 judgement |
postponing increases in judges' remuneration; appointment and dismissal of court Presidents |
| 3
II 2004 procedural decision SK 12/02 |
constitutional complaint against repealed
provision |
| 28
I 2004 procedural decision |
employers’ organisations and the abstract review of norms |
| 27 I 2004 judgement P 9/03 |
"Parking Zone" traffic sign |
20 I 2004 judgement |
limiting liability for harm caused by a court judgment enforcement officer |
3
XII 2003 judgement |
employment and salaries of court judgment enforcement officers |
25 XI 2003 judgement |
restrictions on inheriting real estate
in the Hel commune
|
| 29 X 2003 judgement K 53/02 |
ambiguous
amendment of provisions on sea ports |
| 22
X 2003 procedural decision |
inadmissibility of accessory intervention
in proceedings |
23 IX 2003 judgement |
limiting compensation for the effects of defective administrative decisions to "actual harm" |
| 16 IX 2003 judgement K 55/02 |
brief
vacatio legis in introducing the requirement to obtain a
license for cable network retransmission |
| 3 IX 2003 procedural decision Ts 71/03 |
constitutional programme norms and
the constitutional complaint; deadline for lodging the complaint |
| 17
VII 2003 procedural decision |
inadmissibility of re-opening proceedings before the Constitutional |
| 16
VII 2003 procedural decision |
amendments to the articles of a political party |
| 7
VII 2003 judgement |
comma in the Criminal Code |
| 1
VII 2003 judgement |
exclusion of lessee's grandchildren
from succession
|
| 28
V 2003 judgement |
amendment to the definition of “co-operation” within the Lustration Act |
|
27
V 2003 judgement
|
referendum on Poland’s accession to the European Union |
| 29
IV 2003 judgement |
notice of termination of contract concluded for a specified period |
28 IV 2003 judgement |
limiting a father's ability to establish paternity of an illegitimate child |
| 14
IV 2003 judgement |
territorial differentiation of teachers’ remuneration |
| 11 II 2003 procedural decision Ts 90/02 |
basis of a decision as the subject
of a constitutional complaint; conditioning the admissibility of a complaint upon the finality of the decision |
| 19
XII 2002 judgement |
right to offset the value of property
left in the former |
18 XII 2002 judgement |
statutory pay increase in public
healthcare institutions ("lex 203") |
11 XII 2002 judgement |
penalty fine for bad faith submission of a challenge against a judge |
| 10
XII 2002 judgement |
fees for parking on public roads and for passage of oversized vehicles |
| 20
XI 2002 judgement |
“tax amnesty” and “proprietary declarations” |
12 XI 2002 judgement |
content of a birth certificate following contesting paternity |
| 2
X 2002 judgement |
limitation of rent increases for living quarters (I) |
| 30
IX 2002 judgement |
status of medal winners of Paralympic Games |
9 VII 2002 procedural decision |
inadmissible application concerning the procedure for dismissing the Sejm's Marshal and Vice-Marshals |
4 VII 2002 judgement |
liability for failure to file for bankruptcy |
| 16 IV 2002 judgement |
payment of tax liabilities as a condition |
| 10 IV 2002 judgement |
statutory prohibitions of political party membership |
| 26 III 2002 judgement |
demolition orders in cases of unlawful construction work |
| 29 I 2002 judgement |
suspicion of commission of an offence
as an obstacle to appointment |
16 I 2002 judgement |
constitutional complaint of an unsuccessful
post-doctoral lectureship candidate |
| 4 XII 2001 judgement |
State liability for harm caused by unlawful actions of its functionaries |
| 28 XI 2001 procedural decision |
inadmissibility to review the constitutionality of rural land reform |
28
XI 2001 judgement |
temporal scope of parliamentary immunity |
30 X 2001 judgement |
enfranchisement of tenants of former
establishment-owned apartments |
| 24
X 2001 procedural decision |
constitutional complaint and the principle of equality |
23 X 2001 judgement |
unrepresentativeness of a trade union
as an obstacle to concluding workplace collective labour agreements |
21 V 2001 judgement |
expiry of an inherited cooperative ownership
right in an apartment
|
7 V 2001 judgement |
counteracting excessive remuneration
in the public sector |
3 IV 2001 judgement |
classifications of goods and services
and sources of tax law |
21 III 2001 judgement |
ambiguous concept of the "transfer of trade marks" |
21 II 2001 judgement |
liability of Minister or Prime Minister
for a criminal offence |
| 13
II 2001 procedural decision Ts 189/00 |
"final decision" as a condition
for lodging a constitutional complaint |
| 6
II 2001 procedural decision Ts 139/00 |
subject of review initiated by constitutional
complaint; "final decision" as a condition for lodging the complaint |
| 31 I 2001 judgement |
inheritance of farms |
5 XII 2000 judgement
|
differentiation of the situation of employees at retirement age on the grounds of their gender |
4 XII 2000 procedural decision |
legal nature of a decision to publish a lustration declaration and the right to the constitutional complaint |
8 XI 2000 judgement |
tuition fees for students |
4 X 2000 judgement |
judges' remuneration; the problem of direct application of the Constitution by the courts |
10 VII 2000 judgement |
the notion of a "civil case" |
16 V 2000 judgement |
conditional discontinuance of criminal proceedings and the presumption of innocence |
8 III 2000 judgement |
Chairman's powers within the "Christian Democratic Party of the Third Polish Republic" |
12 I 2000 judgement |
"regulated rents" in private buildings |
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