Available in Russian
Author: Valentina Chekharina
DOI: 10.21128/1812-7126-2021-4-41-67
Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; epidemic mode; Republic of Poland; special law on coronavirus; state of emergency; The Constitution of Poland; the state of natural disaster; “hybrid” emergency
The COVID-19 pandemic became widespread across the world throughout 2020 and 2021 in an emergency that gravely impacted the health and lives of people around the world. States have taken exceptional measures to combat the pandemic, including controversial decisions to introduce emergency regimes, which have been questioned in regards to their compliance with constitutional regulations. The fight against the COVID-19 pandemic requires special measures, however they must remain within the constitutional framework. Consequently, the pandemic and its effect upon the legality of regimes in a state of emergency has captured the attention of legal scholars. The aim of this study is to analyse the constitutional regulation of the state of emergency in the Republic of Poland which was introduced in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Poland, an emergency regime was introduced following an order by the Minister of Health. However the state of emergency (here, natural disaster) as stated by the Constitution was not introduced, although, according to analysts, some state bodies and officials had confirmed that all the necessary conditions for this were met. On 2 March 2020, the so-called Special Law on Coronavirus was adopted, followed by other regulations to fight the pandemic. These analysts stated that the measures introduced by the new acts corresponded to a legal regime containing the constitutional characteristics of a state of emergency, but lacked the appropriate constitutional procedure for their introduction. Presidential elections were held at this time, however legally they cannot be held during a state of emergency, as it indicates the presence of political interests in the choice of the regime. The unconstitutional procedure of the introduction of emergency measures alongside their characteristics of the state of emergency make it possible to consider the epidemic regime introduced in Poland a “hybrid” state of emergency, which is not detailed by the Constitution or legislation. On this basis, the study concludes that reasons behind the unconstitutional response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland can be found in both the Constitution, and in the manifestations of the crisis of the constitutional and legal system, which began with the reform of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal by the ruling Law and Justice party in 2015.
About the author: Valentina Chekharina – Candidate of Sciences in Law, Associate Professor, Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Citation: Chekharina V. (2021) Chrezvychaynoe polozhenie v Pol'she: konstitutsionnoe regulirovanie i “gibridnyy” kharakter vo vremya pandemii COVID-19 [State of emergency in Poland: constitutional regulation and “hybrid” nature during the COVID-19 pandemic]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 41–67. (In Russian).
References
Bała R. (2020) Constitutional Failure. Regulacja stanów nadzwyczajnych i zbliżonych w Konstytucji RP z 2 kwietnia 1997 r. a praktyka ustrojowa zwalczania epidemii COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2. Przegląd Konstytucyjny, no. 2, pp. 68–121.
Brzeziński M. (2007) Stany nadzwyczajne w polskich konstytucjach, Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Sejmowe.
Dudek D. (2021) Opinia prawna w sprawie rekomendacji Komisji Weneckiej dotyczących wyborów w stanach nadzwyczajnych i ich znaczenia dla wyborów prezydenckich w Polsce w 2020 r. Przegląd Sejmowy, vol. 163, no. 2, pp. 243–265.
Eckhardt K. (2012) Stan nadzwyczajny jako instytucja polskiego prawa konstytucyjnego, Przemyśl: Wyższa Szkoła Prawa i Administracji.
Eckhardt K. (2014) Hierarchizacja praw i wolności jednostki w świetle konstytucyjnej regulacji stanu nadzwyczajnego. Przegląd Prawa Konstytucyjnego, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 87–100.
Garlicki L. (2020) Europejskie standardy rzetelności wyborów (Komisja Wenecka i Europejski Trybunał Praw Człowieka). Przegląd Konstytucyjny, no. 4, pp. 142–185.
Jaraczewski J. (2020) An Emergency by Any Other Name? Measures against the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland. Verfassungsblog, 24 April. Available at: https://verfassungsblog.de/an-emergency-by-any-other-name-measures-against-the-covid-19-pandemic-in-poland/ (accessed: 17.08.2021).
Krzemiński M. (2020) Hybrydowy stan nadzwyczajny. Konstytucyjny.pl, 28 March. Available at: http://konstytucyjny.pl/marcin-krzeminski-hybrydowy-stan-nadzwyczajny/ (accessed: 17.08.2021).
Kurzępa E. (2017) Stany nadzwyczajne w polskim porządku prawnym, Warsaw: Poltex.
Mażewski L. (2006) Stany nadzwyczajne w Polsce w latach 1918–1989: szkic ustrojowopolityczny, Toruń: Adam Marszałek.
Prokop K. (2005) Stany nadzwyczajne w Konstytucji Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 2 kwietnia 1997 r., Białystok: Temida 2.
Rossiter C.L. (1948) Constitutional Dictatorship: Crisis Government in the Modern Democracies, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Schmitt K. (2000) Politicheskaya teologiya [Political theology], Yu.Korinets (transl.), Moscow: Kanon-Press-Ts. (In Russian).
Schmitt K. (2005) Diktatura. Ot istokov sovremennoy idei suvereniteta do proletarskoy klassovoy bor'by [Dictatorship. From the origins of the modern idea of sovereignty to the proletarian class struggle], Yu.Korinets (transl.), Saint-Petersburg: Nauka. (In Russian).
Shmidt T.A. (2014) Chrezvychaynoe pravovoe regulirovanie: obshcheteoreticheskoe issledovanie: Dis. … kand. yurid. nauk [Emergency legal regulation: a general theoretical study: Cand. in law sci. diss.], Barnaul. (In Russian).
Szmyt A. (2018) Destrukcja Trybunału Konstytucyjnego w Polsce w świetle opinii Komisji Weneckiej. Gdanskie Studia Prawnicze, vol. 40, pp. 649–668.
Tuleja P. (2020) Pandemia COVID-19 a konstytucyjne stany nadzwyczajne. Palestra, no. 9. Available at: https://palestra.pl/pl/czasopismo/wydanie/9-2020/artykul/pandemia-covid-19-a-konstytucyjne-stany-nadzwyczajne (accessed: 17.08.2021).
Uziębło P. (2021) Odpowiedzialność organów władzy państwowej i ich członków za niekonstytucyjne ograniczenia praw i wolności jednostki w czasie stanu zagrożenia epidemicznego i stanu epidemii. Przegląd Konstytucyjny, no. 1, pp. 5–28.
Vinogradov V.V. (1999) Istoriya slov [History of words], Moscow: Izdatel'stvo instituta russkogo yazyka imeni V.V.Vinogradova. (In Russian).
Watkins F.M. (1939) The Failure of Constitutional Emergency Powers under the German Republic, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Winczorek P. (2008) Komentarz do Konstytucji Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 2 kwietnia 1997 roku, Warsaw: Liber.
Wojtyczek K. (1999) Granice ingerencji ustawodawczej w sferę praw człowieka i Konstytucji RP, Kraków: Zakamycze.
Zięba-Załucka H. (2021) Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich a organy władzy sądowniczej. Przegląd Prawa Konstytucyjnego, vol. 61, no. 3, pp. 127–146.