The constitutional principle of common welfare at a time of a pandemic in Poland

Abstract

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The objective of the article is to analyse legislative acts introduced in Poland in response to COVID-19 pandemic (the so-called anti-crisis shields), which led to a clash between fundamental rights and constitutional principles and triggered a debate on systemic transgression and the principles that limit the government’s activities directed at citizens. 
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: COVID-19 led to attempts undertaken by the Polish government to redefine the constitutional strategies established by the Solidarity generation by choosing a strategy to deal with the crisis based on limiting citizens’ rights. This led to doubts triggered by the collision of this strategy with constitutional norms. The method used in the study was a legal-doctrinal comparative analysis and a synthesis of the literature. 
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The article presents the determinants underlying the creation of constitutional principles in Poland embedded in the context of the common good as the principium which guides the relationships between the state and its citizens. The doctrinal transgression resulting from the government’s attempts to fight against COVID-19 was analysed and conclusions concerning the threats to the political system in the context of the governmental attempts to reinterpret the concepts fundamental to the democratic state of law were drawn. 
 RESEARCH RESULTS: COVID-19 proved that the existing regulations are not sufficient to secure the principle of the common good as an underlying principle of the government’s activities. Crises become a pretext for decision-makers to introduce such laws which prioritise the interests of the authorities over the interests of citizens. 
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: It is recommended to consider the introduction of extra legislative mechanisms that would prevent the primacy of the interests of the state to take precedence over the interests of citizens in the future.