On Selected Issues Concerning Foundation Law in Poland

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to assess selected aspects of the state of foundation law in Poland in relation to the legal position that the Constitution of the Republic of Poland has granted them. The text analyses selected statutory solutions in the light of separable patterns for reviewing their compliance with constitutional principles and values. In the author’s opinion, the provisions of the Polish Foundations Act and the regulations concerning the financing of foundations violate the constitutional standards of the Republic of Poland. In particular, it has been found that foundation law contains many loopholes, the filling of which requires the use of complicated interpretation techniques, which makes it impossible to ensure that the institution of the foundation is being and will be used properly as an element of civil society in a modern democratic state. Moreover, the opinion was presented that the functioning of foundations is excessively influenced by executive bodies, run by active politicians. This concerns, first of all, the unclear principles of supervision over foundations’ activities, and excessive powers to issue the executive regulations included in the Foundations Act, as well as the principles of the allocation of funds towards grants by the National Freedom Institute, based on a disproportionate freedom of decision making. For these reasons, the author postulates the adjustment of the Polish statutory regulation, dating back to the period of the Polish People’s Republic, to the constitutional standards introduced by the Constitution of 1997 and enshrined in the case law of the Constitutional Tribunal.