Monika Haczkowska
Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History, Volume 14, Issue 4, Volume 14 (2021), pp. 473 - 493
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844131KS.21.042.14468The March Constitution was one of the first in Europe to introduce an innovative regulation of the institution of state liability for damages. The provision of Article 121 of the Constitution raised this legal institution to the rank of a constitutional principle. However, the constitutionalization of the citizens’ right to compensation for damages resulting from unauthorized or otherwise deleterious activity on the part of the authorities turned out to be insufficient. Despite sufficient grounds for the compensatory liability of state authorities in case of their unlawful actions or failed duties of service, the prevailing view in doctrine and jurisprudence was that Article 121 of the Constitution was only a programmatic norm. Even if in practice it became only a “dead letter of the law”, it played a key role in shaping the institution of the state’s liability for damages in Polish law in the 20th century.