Human rights and their protection 9.11-PCS

Lecture program

I. The origin and development of human rights and their protection system
• Antiquity: incl. Concepts of Greeks and Romans, Christianity
• Middle Ages: incl. Magna Charta Libertatum, Paweł Włodkowic,
• Modern times: incl. John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Charles Montesquieu; The Constitution of the United States, France, and Poland
• 19th century: incl. American and European path of development and protection of human rights, new generations of human rights
• League of Nations system: interwar development of human rights protection
• UN system: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Law Pacts, the so-called special (convention) protection of human rights, judicial and extrajudicial protection of individual rights

II. Methodology and subject of human rights
• Stages of thinking and human rights
• Contemporary concept of human rights
• Basic concepts: human and citizen freedoms, rights and obligations
• Generations of human rights;
• Categories of human rights;
• Protection of human rights: in a narrow and broad sense; previous and subsequent;
• Human rights protection system: national, transnational, international (regional and universal)

III. The system of protection of human and citizen freedoms and rights in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of April 2, 1997.
• The genesis and systematics of Chapter II of the Polish Constitution
• Guiding principles of unit status
• Horizontal and vertical validity of freedoms and rights
• Entities of freedom and rights
• The material scope of freedoms and rights
• Limits in exercising freedom and rights

IV. Constitutional measures to protect freedom and rights in Poland
• Right to court
• Right to compensation
• Right to petition, complaints and requests
• The right to apply to the Ombudsman
• The right to an individual constitutional complaint

V. Non-constitutional measures to protect freedom and rights in Poland
• General Inspector for Personal Data Protection
• Institute of National Remembrance
• Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes Against the Polish Nation
• Insurance Ombudsman
• Protection of consumer rights

VI. Complaint to the European Court of Human Rights
• Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
• Protocol No. 14 and other Additional Protocols to the Convention
• The Council of Europe
• Articles 34 and 35 of the Convention
• The right to complain as the most important element of the protection system
• Admissibility conditions: formal criteria, procedural grounds of inadmissibility, grounds of inadmissibility relating to the jurisdiction of the Court, inadmissibility based on the merits of the case
• Complaint form

VII. Enforcement of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights
• Article 46 of the Convention
• Committee of Ministers
• Department for Enforcing Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights
• Government Action Program on the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights against the Republic of Poland
• Sejm subcommittee on the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights
• Theory and practice

Exercise program

I. Introductory issues, the principle of dignity
• Subject, methodology and scope of exercises
• Sources and literature of the subject
• Human dignity:
• Guarantees (content of the principle) in selected acts of international law and the Polish Constitution
• General characteristics of the principle of dignity in the Polish Constitution - art. 30 (concept, attributes)
• The issue of the principle of dignity in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights - case study
• Issues related to the principle of dignity in the jurisprudence of Polish courts and the Constitutional Tribunal

II. Principle of freedom
• Guarantees (content of the principle) in selected acts of international law and the Polish Constitution
• General characteristics of the principle of freedom in the Polish Constitution - art. 31 (concept, restrictions on the exercise of freedom (formal and material premise), limitation clauses, the principle of proportionality, freedom and a democratic state ruled by law
• The issue of the principle of freedom in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights - case study
• The issue of the principle of freedom in the jurisprudence of Polish courts and the Constitutional Court

III. Principle of equality
• Guarantees (content of the principle) in selected acts of international law and the Polish Constitution
• General characteristics of the principle of equality in the Polish Constitution - art. 32 (concept, equality before the law and equality in law, relevant feature)
• Detailed guarantees regarding equality in the Polish Constitution: equality between women and men, equality of churches and other religious associations, equality in electoral law, equal protection of property rights and other property rights
• The issue of the principle of equality in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights - case study
• Problems of the principle of equality in the judgments of Polish courts and the Constitutional Tribunal

IV. Freedoms and personal rights - theoretical-legal and practical analysis
• The right to (protect) life
• The right to privacy
• Right to court

V. Freedom and political rights - theoretical-legal and practical analysis
• The right to participate in public life
• Freedom of assembly
• Freedom of association

VI. Freedoms and social rights - theoretical-legal and practical analysis
• Right to work - employee rights
• The right to social security
• Right to education

VII. Passing exercises