The Principle of Sustainable Development and its Practical Use in the Judgments of the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland

The current study aims to analyze the decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland, especially concerning the scope of art. 5 of the the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, on the basis of which, among others, the principle of sustainable development was put forward. The main goals are:

(1) – to determine whether the principle of sustainable development determines the direction of the decisions and the content of the judgments as a constitutional standard for legal control of legislature,

(2) – to study whether, in the Tribunal’s case law, the principle of sustainable development is used as a justification, in the scope other than the constitutional standard for legal control of legislature,

(3) – to decide whether the art. 5 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, and the principle of sustainable development expressed therein, according to the Tribunal’s opinion, may constitute a basis for the constitutional complaint – as a constitutional standard for legal control indicated in the complaint.

The research material presented in the current study, collected on the basis of the Tribunal’s previous decisions, as of 1 May 2020, leads to the following final conclusion: the role of the principle of sustainable development in the case law of the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland has so far been more modest than one might think, especially considering the role of ”sustainable development” in the contemporary world.