The Impact of Covid-19 on Society and Law: Selected Aspects of Polish and European Legislation

In our research approach, we have focused on the negative influence of SARS-Cov-2 on European society and legislation. This topic concerns each one of us. The pandemic has become an enormous challenge for the legislator. We look at how recent regulations has been affecting functioning of society or respecting human rights, concluding that they were at risk with no sign of improvement. We discuss some key issues related to human rights and Polish legislation onCOVID-19, i.e. the Ordinance of the Minister of Health of 20 March 2020 or Regulations of the Council of Ministers of 31 March 2020. Those acts, for instance, included prohibitions on personal movement, with the exception of for the purpose of performing work and business tasks as well as satisfying necessary daily need, which was a major limitation of freedom. Closing most work places, in turn, violated second-generation human rights. We also mention the financial penalties and their unsuitability given other punishments for unlawful acts. In addition, we describe two ways of receiving fines, classified and characterised based on competent decision-making authorities. The new procedures entail extended prerogatives granted to the police. As result, the problem appears of interpretation of human rights as well as possible infringements of fundamental human rights. Our article contains a short description of difficulties related to the presidential election in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. To ensure a comprehensive analysis of therese arch problem, we have compared Polish legislation with legal solutions adopted by other counties.