FORMAL FRAMEWORK OF THE RULE OF LAW IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER

The rule of law is a complex phenomenon combining different legal, political, moral, ethical and democratic principles. In other words, it cannot be sensibly detached from the wider normative context of a community's history, politics, morality, ethics and culture. There needs to be a shared commitment from the side of the government and appropriate governance is necessary to uphold the dictate of the law. It is difficult to ascribe a precise meaning to the term of the rule of law as it is an interpretative concept without a clear plain meaning. Despite this, the rule of law is the guiding principle of legitimate governance and, as a ground of liberal constitutionalism, integrates the theory of constitutional government.

Hence also the rule of law constitutes one of the basic and central constructs of the constitutional order. The provision of the rule of law along with the concept of the democratic and socially fair state creates one of the pillars of the constitutional polity of the Republic of Poland expressed directly in Chapter I of the Constitution (1997), consistently with its Article 2: ‘The Republic of Poland shall be a democratic state ruled by law and implementing the principles of social justice’. The rank and significance of the principle expressed in that regulation can be demonstrated not only by the fact of occurrences of attributing the chief role to the meaning of this principle within the doctrine and jurisprudence of the courts, but also the particular mode for introducing amendments to it, enshrined in the Constitution.