Reference period: 1 January 1995 - 30 April 1995

Statistical data
Types of review:
• Ex post facto review: 7
• Preliminary review: 2
• Abstract review (Article 22 of the Constitutional Tribunal Act): 9
• Tribunals' referrals ("legal questions", Article 25 of the Constitutional Tribunal Act): 0
Challenged normative acts:
• Cases concerning the constitutionality of statutes: 7
• Cases on the legality of other normative acts under the Constitution and statutes: 2
Decisions:
• Cases decided on their merits: 9
• Cases discontinued: 2
Holdings:
• The statutes in question to be wholly or partly unconstitutional (or the acts of lower rank to violate the provisions of superior laws and the Constitu-tion): 4
• Upholding the constitutionality of the provisions in question: 5
Resolutions containing universally binding interpreta-tions of laws (Article 13 of the Constitutional Tribunal Act):
• Binding interpretations of laws issued: 6 Subject matter of important decisions:
Legal status of public officers (Case no. W 17/94 - Resolution of 11 January 1995)
Local self-government (Case no. К 5/94 - Decision of 24 January 1995)
State and public employees' remunerations:
(Case no. W 17/94 - Resolution of 11 January 1995)
(Case no. W 14/94 - Resolution of 25 January 1995)
(Case no. К 13/94 - Decision of 14 March 1995)'
State Budget
(Case no. К 16/93 - Decision of 10 January 1995)
(Case no. W 2/95 - Decision of 11 April 1995)
Taxation - governing principles
(Case no. К 12/94 - Decision of 12 January 1995)
(Case no. К 1/95 - Decision of 15 March 1995)'
Right of access to courts (Case no. W 14/94 - Resolution of 25 January 1995)
Rules of issuing the universally binding interpretation of law (Case no. W 9/94 - Resolution of 7 March 1995)
' decisions not reported to the Centre

Other information
Within the reference period, the Sejm upheld the following decisions on the unconstitutionality of statutes:
- decision of 12 December 1994 (Case no. К 3/94) concerning the law on public transportation fares discounts;
- decision of 20 December 1994 (Case no. К 8/94) concerning the 1994 amendment to the law on duties and rights of deputies and senators. In its ruling the Tribunal had declared unconstitutional the provision granting deputies and senators seeking reelection the right to keep their monthly compensations during the interval between par-liamentary terms. In the Tribunal's opinion the provision in doubt had violated the equality of citizens' rights to be elected for public office (both decisions have not been reported to the Centre).
On 27 April 1995 the Sejm rejected the Tribunal's decision of 15 March 1995 (Case no. К 1/95) on the unconstitutionality of certain provisions of the 1994 law amending the Personal Income Tax Act (decision not reported). The provision in doubt sustained for 1995 last year's tax rates (21%, 33%, 45%), originally introduced for 1994 only. The law was published in Dziennik Ustaw (Journal of Laws) on 20 January 1995, but became effective as of 1 January 1995. In its ruling, the Tribunal declared the provision in question contrary to the rule that tax regulations should be modified and announced before the beginning of a tax year. In the Tribunal's opinion, it also infringed upon the prohibition against ex post facto laws (tex retro поп agit principle), as well as the principles of legal stability (certainty) and citizens' confidence in State actions.
On 4 January 1995 the Sejm amended its 1985 resolution on the mode of proceedings before the
 Constitutional Tribunal (Article 31). According to the amendment, in cases where a petitioner or its empowered representative fails to attend the hearing, the new date of the hearing may be fixed by the Tribunal within a period not longer than 14 days (the resolution was published in Dzienn/k Ustaw (Journal of Laws) no. 2, item 7).

Important decisions

Identification: POL-95-1-001
a) Poland / b) Constitutional Tribunal / с) / d) 10.01.1995 / е) К 16/93 / f) / g) to be published in the collection of the Tribunal's decisions of 1995 / h).

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:
General principles - Rule of law - Maintaining confidence.
Institutions - Public finances - Budget.
Fundamental rights - Economic, social and cultural rights - Right to social security.

Keywords of the alphabetical index: Acquired rights, protection / Budget, State / Citizens' confidence in the State.

Headnotes:
The constitutionally established procedure of enacting the State Budget (Article 21 of the Constitutional Act) may not be used in order to enact or modify other statutes.

Summary:
The decision concerned certain provisions of the 1993 State Budget modifying the rules for the calculation of pensions.
The Tribunal concluded that the Council of Ministers, in proposing the provisions in question in the 1993 draft Budget Act, violated the constitutional rules determining the scope of the Budget. Subsequently, the statute was accepted by Parliament infringement of Article 21 of the Constitutional Act, which provides for detailed rules of budget composition. It was stressed by the Tribunal that the Budget Act - a financial plan of the State - cannot comprise provisions not relating to State revenues and expenditure. Nor may certain rules for the enactment of the State Budget be used in order to modify other statutes. In the Tribunal's opinion, the provisions in question also violated the constitutional principle of the protection of justly acquired rights. Moreover, they entered into force as of the day of their proclamation, and they therefore violated the principle of citizens' confidence in the State's actions, being a fundamental principle of the social security system.

Cross-references:
In the decision, the Tribunal implemented the rules on enacting the State Budget as specified in its decision of 8 November 1994 (Case no. P 1/94).

Languages: Polish.

Identification: POL-95-1-002
a) Poland / b) Constitutional Tribunal / c) / d) 11.01.1995 / e)W 17/94 / f) / g) Dziennik Ustaw (Journal of Laws), no. 4, item 23; to be published in the collection of the Tribunal's decisions of 1995 / h).

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:
Constitutional justice - Types of litigation -Universally binding interpretation of laws.
Institutions - Executive bodies - The civil service.

Keywords of the alphabetical index: Public officers, legal status.

Headnotes:
A person holding a key public office, who in parallel represents the State Treasury, other State legal person, a commune or an association of communes in a commercial company with the participation of those entities as a member of the company's board, may be remunerated only from one source.

Summary:
According to Article 2 of the Constitutional Act of 17 October 1992, and in compliance with the "anti-corrup
 tion law" of 1992, a person who holds an office or performs a public function specified in the Constitution is forbidden to be a member of the board of a com-mercial company (management board, supervisory board, etc.) unless he/she has been appointed to represent the State Treasury, other state legal persons, a commune or an association of communes in a commercial company with the participation of those entities. The Tribunal decided that such persons are subject to all restrictions concerning compensation of public officers and ruled that it is not permissible for them to obtain compensation from more than one source. Consequently, public officers serving on the boards of commercial companies have to choose between the sources of compensation.
Having considered, however, that as recently as the beginning of 1994 different State authorities had been allowing their officers to be compensated in parallel by commercial companies, the Tribunal did not question that those officers had acted in good faith.

Languages: Polish.

Identification: POL-95-1-003
a) Poland / b) Constitutional Tribunal / с) / d) 12.01.1995 / e) К 12/94 / f) / g) to be published in the collection of the Tribunal's decisions of 1995 / h).

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:
Constitutional justice - Types of claim - Claim by a public body - Executive bodies.
Constitutional justice - Types of claim - Type of review - Preliminary review.
Constitutional justice - Procedure – Documents lodged by the parties - Time-limits.
General principles - Rule of law.
Institutions - Public finances - Taxation - Principles.

Keywords of the alphabetical index: Acquired rights, Protection / Law-making rules / President / Taxation, rules

Headnotes:
The legislature - provided it acts within the limits of law - may expand tax privileges (e.g. in order to promote new activities of taxpayers), or limit or even liquidate them.
In the preliminary review procedure, the Constitutional Tribunal is unconditionally bound by the limits of the application submitted by the President.

Summary:
A provision of the 1994 law on amending tax collection rules was questioned by the President on the basis that it suspended for 1995 the calculation of amounts which may be deducted by taxpayers for housing expenditure. In the Tribunal's opinion, the provision in question did not violate principles of a democratic State ruled by law, including the principle of protection of rights acquired justly. The Tribunal found that it neither created a new tax obligation nor extended the pre-existing scope of tax obligations. On the contrary, the provision in question established certain privileges, and could be seen as an element of State investment policy.
The petitioner (the President) had tried to modify his application before the case was decided by the Tribunal. He argued that other provisions of the statute were also contrary to the Constitution. The Tribunal, however, concluded that since the application referred to a statute not yet in force (preliminary review), the applicant could not amend it after the expiry of the seven days' period provided for in Article 18.4 of the Constitutional Act. Therefore, the Tribunal found itself bound by the limits of the original application.

Supplementary information:
The decision was handed down by the Tribunal in plenary. Two dissenting opinions were delivered.

Languages: Polish.

Identification: POL-95-1-004
a) Poland / b) Constitutional Tribunal / с) / d) 24.01.1995 / е) К 5/94 / f) / g) to be published in the collection of the Tribunal's decisions of 1995 / h).

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:
Institutions - Executive bodies - Territorial ad-ministrative decentralisation - Provinces.
Institutions - Federalism and regionalism - Budgetary and financial aspects - Budget.
Institutions - Federalism and regionalism - Distribu-tion of powers - System.

Keywords of the alphabetical index: Local self-government / Supervising body.

Headnotes:
The constitutional principle of independence of local self-government does not conflict with the establishment of a body grouping several self-government units in order to represent them vis-a-vis the government and to oversee their activities. The financing of such a body must be borne by the self-governing unit.

Summary:
The Act on Local Self-Government of 1990 provides for establishing a joint representation of communes within one province in the form of a Provincial Assembly (Polish: sejmik samorzadowy). The scope of Assembly competences covers e.g. representing member-communes towards governmental agencies and overseeing activities of member-communes. It was decided by the legislator that all communes should financially contribute to the Assembly's activities proportionally to the number of their inhabitants. The exact amount of the contribution is determined by the Assembly itself.
In the applicant's (The City Council of Olsztyn) opinion, the calculation of contributions by an entity which does not have legal personality and which is "external" in character to the communes infringes upon the constitu-tional principle of the independence of the communes.
It has been confirmed by the Tribunal that the principle of independence of self-government units is based on constitutional provisions in force. These are not, however, of an absolute character, and may be subjected to limitations provided for by law. Neither the institution of the Provincial Assembly itself nor its authority have been found by the Tribunal to constitute a violation of the principle of independence of self-government units. The purpose of Provincial Assembly cannot be perceived as a limitation of communes' functions; on the contrary, its competences and scope of activities provided for by the law guarantee the enforcement of the principle of communes' in-dependence. Since the Act on Local Self-Government assures direct and obligatory participation of com-munes' representatives in the process of determining the amount of contributions, this procedure cannot either be found contrary to the principle of communes' independence.

Cross-references:
The reasoning refers to the European Charter of Local Self-Government of 1985, ratified by Poland in 1993.

Languages: Polish.

Identification: POL-95-1-005
a) Poland / b) Constitutional Tribunal / c) / d) 25.01.1995 / е) W 14/94 / f) / g) Dziennik Ustaw (Journal of Laws), no. 14, item 67; to be published in the collection of the Tribunal's decisions of 1995 / h).

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:
Constitutional Justice - Types of claim - Claim by a public body - Ombudsman.
Constitutional justice - Types of litigation -Universally binding interpretation of laws.
 Fundamental rights - Civil and political rights -Procedural safeguards - Access to courts.
Fundamental rights - Economic, social and cultural rights - Freedom to work for remuneration.

Keywords of the alphabetical index: Remuneration, delayed, interest.

 Headnotes:
All claims of policemen and officers of the State Security Office or State Borders Guard for default interest due in connection with a delayed payment remuneration are to be decided by courts of general jurisdiction.

Summary:
The Tribunal was called upon to interpret certain statutory provisions which entitle policemen and officers of the State Security Office and the State Borders Guard to receive a regular salary payable in advance. So far, all claims of this group of officers for default interest on delayed remuneration have been decided by means of an administrative procedure, and actions against the decisions, to the Chief Administra-tive Court, have been dismissed. The Supreme Court had also been in favour of the finding that in ad-ministrative relations, interest may be paid only if expressly provided by the law.
The Constitutional Tribunal approved an idea presented in the motion submitted by the Ombudsman. It was confirmed in the decision that a delay in pay-ment of remuneration constituted grounds for a civil action. Therefore, a complaint filed with the administra-tive court does not provide an interested party with a desirable protection of its rights (the Chief Ad-ministrative Court is a court of cassation and is not empowered to decide civil cases). Taking into account the constitutional right of access to court, the Tribunal stated that all claims for interest due in connection with a delayed payment of remuneration should be decided by courts of general jurisdiction.

Languages: Polish.

Identification: POL-95-1-006
a) Poland / b) Constitutional Tribunal / с) / d) 21.02.1995 / e) U 2/94 / f) / g) to be published in the collection of the Tribunal's decisions of 1995 / h).

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:
Constitutional justice - Types of claim - Claim by a public body - Organs of decentralised authorities.
Constitutional justice - Types of litigation - Distribution of powers between central government and federal or regional entities.
Institutions - Federalism and regionalism -Budgetary and financial aspects - Finance.
Institutions - Federalism and regionalism - Distribu-tion of powers - Co-operation.

Keywords of the alphabetical index: Local self-government.

Headnotes:
The obligation of communes to provide information to the military about real estate and movables that could be used for defense purposes free of charge does not infringe the constitutional rules of financing the local self-government activities.

Summary:
The Law on State Defence (the "Law") imposes upon communes a duty to report on real estate and movables which could be used for defence purposes. A regulation of the Council of Ministers provides that relevant commune authorities should deliver such information to military authorities free of charge, in a manner agreed upon between the commune authorities and an appointed military officer.
In the Tribunal's opinion, the provisions in question did not conflict with the arrangement provided for in the Law. In addition, it complies with the constitutional principle that units of local self-government, for the purpose of exercising powers of governmental ad-ministration, shall be provided with appropriate financial resources. It was concluded by the Tribunal that a duty to provide information free of charge excludes only the possibility of demanding compensation from military authorities. Gathering and transferring information on objects of military importance should be financed in compliance with general rules governing the financing of tasks delegated to a commune, namely from governmental sources.

Languages: Polish.

Identification: POL-95-1-007
a) Poland / b) Constitutional Tribunal / с) / d) 07.03.1995 / e) W 9/94 / f) / g) Dziennik Ustaw (Jou-rnal of Laws), no. 39, item 198; to be published in the collection of the Tribunal's decisions of 1995 / h).

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:
Constitutional justice - Types of claim - Claim by a public body - Ombudsman.
Constitutional justice - Types of litigation - Universally binding interpretation of laws.
Constitutional justice - The subject of review – Laws and other rules having the force of law.
Constitutional justice - Effects - Determination of effects by the court.
Constitutional justice - Effects - Temporal effect - Retrospective effect.
Constitutional justice - Effects - Influence on State organs.
Constitutional justice - Effects - Influence on everyday life.
Sources of constitutional law - Techniques of interpretation.

Headnotes:
A universally binding interpretation of laws by the Constitutional Tribunal aims only at determining the correct understanding of certain provisions of statutes and other norms having the force of law. In delivering its interpretation, the Tribunal does not interfere with the exercise of legislative power.

Summary:
The decision adopted, upon a motion by the Om-budsman, clarifies certain doubts regarding the universally binding interpretation of laws by the Tribunal pursuant to Articles 5 and 13 of the Constitutional Tribunal Act.
The Tribunal decided that:
- the interpretation by the Tribunal of certain provisions of a statute binds all organs and authorities applying these provisions as well as persons and entities obliged to comply with these provisions;
-  unless decided otherwise by the Tribunal, its interpretation determines the correct understanding of certain provisions effective as of the date such provisions entered into force, regardless of the time when the interpretation was issued or officially announced; it was stressed by the Tribunal that any decision based upon such provisions adopted prior to the definitive interpretation might subsequently be verified and modified provided that all circumstances of the case were examined;
- final court judgments and administrative decisions that had been adopted upon an interpretation of the law inconsistent with the interpretation subsequently issued by the Constitutional Tribunal are to be corrected in accordance with the relevant legal procedures;
- the Tribunal is authorised to interpret provisions of legal acts having the force of law, including regulations of the Council of Ministers issued under Article 23 of the Constitutional Act of 17 October 1992.
According to the Tribunal, it is possible to change the currently binding interpretation of a law upon a motion by an authorised State organ, provided that the legal context of the provision subject to the previous inter-pretation has been changed and that the new interpretation is justified.
It was stressed in the reasoning given by the Tribunal that the universally binding interpretation aims only at determining the correct meaning (understanding) of certain provisions of statutes and cannot be qualified as law-making (i.e., it is not attaching additional contents to the provisions subject to interpretation).

Languages: Polish.

Identification: POL-95-1-008
a) Poland / b) Constitutional Tribunal / c) / d) 11.04.1995 / e) W 2/95 / f) / g) Dziennik Ustaw (Jou-rnal of Laws), no. 48, item 255; to be published in the collection of the Tribunal's decisions of 1995 / h).

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:
Constitutional justice - Types of litigation -Universally binding interpretation of laws.
Constitutional justice - The subject of review -Failure to pass legislation.
Institutions - Public finances - Budget.

Keywords of the alphabetical index: Budget, State.

Headnotes:
In the event that the draft Budget Act (or interim Budget Act) has been introduced to the Sejm, but the legislative procedure was not completed by the beginning of the budget year by signing the Budget Act by the President and promulgating it in Dziennik Ustaw (Journal of Laws) the Council of Ministers should conduct the State's finances pursuant to the draft Budget Act.

Summary:
The application filed by the Prosecutor General requested a universally binding interpretation of a provision of the 1991 Budgetary Law specifying the constitutional rule that in the case of "a failure to pass" the Budget Act, the State's revenues and expenditures are to be administered pursuant to the draft Budget Act (Article 21.3 of the Constitutional Act dated 17 October 1992, hereinafter referred to as the "Small Constitution").
Having analysed the constitutional provisions on the legislative procedure, the Tribunal remarked that the phrase "to pass statute", repeated several times in the constitutional act, was of equivocal meaning and its interpretation considerably depended on the context. In particular - according to the Tribunal - "a failure to pass" the Budget Act, as specified in Article 21.3 of the "Small Constitution", is not equivalent to the situation provided for in Article 21.4 of the "Small Constitution" that the Budget Act "has not been passed". According to the latter, the President may dissolve Parliament if the State Budget "has not been passed" within a period of three months following the submission of a draft fulfilling the requirements of a budgetary law.

Cross-references: See decision of 21 November 1994 (Case no. К 6/94, Bulletin 3/1994, 277).

Languages: Polish.