Personal Data Breach. Legal Issues

The subject of this article is the issue of personal data breach, primarily in the context of the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679). The aim of the publication is, in particular, to answer the following questions: do the regulations properly protect the rights of an individual in the event of a breach? do the sanctions and liability rules provided for by these regulations are adequate to the threats? do the sanctions and liability rules respect the requirements of the rule of law? The authors analyze the concept of a personal data breach in detail, including the magnitude of consequences necessary to determine occurrence of a security breach. The article also extensively analyzes the consequences of such breach for entities responsible for personal data processing (organizational effects, documentation and reporting obligations, liability for damages, administrative fines). Particular attention is paid to the decisions of the Polish President of the Personal Data Protection Office regarding violations and the jurisprudence of administrative courts in these types of cases. In conclusion, an assessment is made of the principles of personal data protection against breaches introduced in the General Data Protection Regulation. While approving the generally introduced legal solutions, doubts related to the excessively broad scope of discretion on the part of the authority as to the amount of fines in individual cases are indicated. 

On the Need to Regulate the Legal Status of the Spouse of the President of the Republic of Poland

The article seeks to define the role of the spouse of the President of the Republic of Poland in the systemic practice, as well as to answer the question of whether there is a need to regulate her legal status. It should be noted that although the President's spouse does not hold any office by law, she is active in the public sphere. Her activity does not consist in exercising public authority but is limited to the performance of representative and social functions. These considerations are additionally justified by the fact that in the past, Sejm of the Republic of Poland attempted to grant the President's spouse remuneration for customarily performed duties.

Environmental Protection as a Component of the Concept of the „Constitutional Core” of the European Union

This paper attempts to demonstrate that, in the current state of the development of European Union law and against the background of the concept of global constitutionalism (including global environmental constitutionalism and challenges related to climate change), environmental protection, understood as protecting natural heritage, counteracting the irreversible effects of industrialization, and the condition of existence of present and future generations, may be understood as a component of the "constitutional core" of the European Union.

Accountability as a Form of Optimizing the Public Prosecutor’s Liability

The subject of this article is the analysis of the prosecutor's liability from the point of view of accountability, based on the criteria of effectiveness and efficiency. There is no doubt that the individual accountability of the public prosecutor is strongly determined by the organizational framework of the prosecutor's office and the level of the granted independence of the prosecutor. In order to implement the postulated changes leading to an increase in the efficiency of the functioning of the prosecutor's office, it is necessary to develop indicators for periodic evaluation of the prosecutor's work. Only the adoption of individual evaluation criteria for each prosecutor will ensure the transparency of the institution's work, strengthen the independence of prosecutors (by introducing clear and precise criteria for professional promotion) and contribute to increasing public confidence in the public prosecutor's office.

Family as a Constitutional Concept

Numerous constitutional references to "family" raise the question of how - at this level of sources of law - should we interpret this concept and what are the consequences of adopting a specific interpretation of the constitutional foundations of family law. It is explained that the constitutional model of the family is an expression of a specific axiological choice that prefers the model of social relations based on the marriage between woman and man,  and a stable and lasting community of parents and their children. The references to the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Tribunal show that the family is perceived as an important constitutional value. Its protection is meant to take measures to strengthen mutual relations between family members and to create conditions enabling them to exercise their mutual rights and obligations. It is therefore problematic for the legislator to use such definitions of the family which, in the process of their interpretation, identify it solely on the basis of the criterion of joint management or income community. The financial support of the family must take into account the principle of subsidiarity. Therefore, it cannot lead to the granting of public funds to communities in which the basic obligations of family members are not fulfilled.

The Issue of Irremovability of Judges in the Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights

The purpose of the article is to establish the standards developed in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights with regards to the principle of irremovability of judges. For this purpose, two categories of cases are analysed: those in which individual applications were lodged by participants of proceedings before courts composed of judges who were not sufficiently protected against arbitrary removal from office, and those where applications were lodged by the judges themselves. In the case of the former group, the problems related to the irremovability of judges are considered through the prism of Article 6(1) of the ECHR. The irremovability of judges is perceived by the ECtHR as a fundamental guarantee of the independence of a court - systemic deficiencies in this respect may therefore lead to a violation of Article 6. However, the ECtHR underlines the need to take into account not only regulations but also practice. Still, the protection against removal from office is not absolute and some exceptions in this regard are allowed. As far as cases initiated by judges' complaints are concerned, particularly important are Articles 6, 8, and 10. The first of them guarantees dismissed judges the right to a court - therefore, as a rule, it would be impermissible to remove judges without ensuring individual judicial review of the legality of removal. The ECtHR allows the exclusion of court proceedings in cases involving public officials, but only if such exclusion is provided expressly and is justified by the objective interest of the state. In the context of irremovability of judges, the latter criterion will be very difficult to meet. The two remaining provisions, Article 8 and 10, affect the substantive grounds for dismissing a judge from office. Therefore, it would be unacceptable to remove judges from their office as a repression for statements made by them falling within the limits of freedom of speech. The ECHR could also be violated if, in specific circumstances, due to the reasons or consequences of dismissal, it was considered a disproportionate interference with the privacy of a judge. 

Justification of Public Authorities Decisions as a Constitutional Value

The subject of this article is the question whether the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997 provides a norm that requires bodies of public authority to justify their decisions, and therefore whether the authority should prepare such justification only when required by an express provision of the statute. The first part of the article presents the arguments on the constitutional, not statutory, nature of the justification requirement. The second part of the article discusses the standard of justifications, based on the examples of resolutions of the National Council of the Judiciary, decisions of the President of the Republic of Poland, and decisions of state commissions in electoral matters.

Constitutional Freedom of Economic Activity and Its Limitations Due to Important Public Interest. Comments in the Context of Extraordinary Measures and Pandemic

Entrepreneurial freedom is a fundamental "pillar" of the social market economy. Its presentation in chapter I of the Polish Constitution of April 2, 1997, proves its importance in the context of macroeconomic and macrosocial policy. Constitution allows for the limitations of this freedom only for an important public interest and only by law (acts of parliament).

The author tries to show that "important public interest" should be specified by precise references to the specific goods, constitutional values or those that are derived from European Union Law. Of particular importance is the standard of justification and the distinction between the restriction of economic freedom and the legal conditions for interference with this freedom, in order to enable this interference to be carried out in accordance with the law.

Polish constitutional system provides specific restrictions of freedom of entrepreneurship in three extraordinary measures: a state of natural disaster, a state of emergency, and martial law. Constitution does not provide such restrictions during the imposition of the so-called "intermediate" states: a state of an epidemic threat, and an epidemic state. Meanwhile, legislation adopted in connection with the pandemic led to the "circumvention of the Constitution" by 1) issuing laws introducing limitations allowed for during the extraordinary measures, especially during a state of natural disaster, 2) providing statutory authorization to issue regulations that limit economic freedom and harming its essence. Such a state of affairs is justified by the primacy of politics, the erosion of the democratic state ruled by law, which leads to a greater threat: it becomes a state of unconstitutional lawlessness.