Godność człowieka w orzecznictwie polskiego Trybunału Konstytucyjnego

Abstract

The paper analyses and interprets the Polish Constitutional Tribunal judicature in order to examine how the concept of human dignity is understood by this court, and what normative contents are included in the concept of human dignity, as it is formed by the Tribunal judicature. According to the Tribunal, the concept of human dignity must be understood in two aspects: on the one hand, dignity is an ontic value, innate and indispensable; on the other hand, it is a value which people acquire in the course of their lives, and may lose it through their own or others' acts. This distinction has an enormous impact on the practice of the Constitutional Tribunal judicature.