Abstract:

Freedom of establishment in defined in the Polish Constitution of 2 April 1997 as freedom of economic activity. lt is a basic pillar of social market economy. It is followed in the Constitution by private ownership, and solidarity, dialogue and cooperation between social partners as the second and third pillar. Pursuant to the Constitution “limitations upon the freedom of economic activity may be imposed only by means of statute and only for important public reasons” (Article 22). The problem in the practice of judicial decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal and courts involves ongoing specification of what incidents, facts and circumstances may fall under important public interest. The aim of this paper is to compare in constitutional terms the said goods and values, that is the basis of limiting all constitutional freedoms and rights (Article 31(2) of the Constitution), with the category of “important public reasons" and to accentuate the changeable Ways of understanding this term by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and by the Court of Justice of the European Union. In this context it is important to establish the relationship of the term “important public interest" with “public interest”, “social interest“ and also with “state interest". The analysis cannot avoid the growing impact of the EU law and CJEU case-law due to the fact that the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and legal scholars and commentators accept - so far - the pro-EU interpretation of the Constitution. The Author’s intention is to convince readers how destructive domination of political factors is on the functioning of the legal and institutional system.