University of Warsaw

English abstract: The instrumentalization of law is one of the most important research issues that belong to the achievements of Professor Piotr Winczorek. Combining the problem of the limits of permissible instrumentalization of law with the issue of the axiology of law, he adopted a non-reductionist position and indicated the autotelic values of law, as well as non-legal values implemented by the legal system as the criteria for assessing acts of instrumentalization of law. Based on careful observation of the legal practice, primarily the actions of the legislature, he proposed a typology of various cases of pathological instrumentalization of law.

A list of individual acts of enacting and applying the law that can be distinguished in the ongoing constitutional crisis in Poland, broken down by the types indicated by Prof. Winczorek, leads to the conclusion that not only is his typology still valid, but it also can be used as an adequate tool for an in-depth description of the ongoing crisis. Moreover, it enables the indication of yet another threat to the legal order, i.e. attempts to instrumentalize constitutional values. In the face of this danger, it is justified to formulate the postulate of giving the constitution an axiological interpretation, the aim of which would be to read a given legal principle in the hermeneutic context of the axiological system from which said legal principle derives genealogically.

Keywords: instrumentalization of law, typology of instrumentalization acts, legal axiology, legal values, constitutional values, legal principles, axiological interpretation of law

Language: Polish

Published: Number 1(30)/2022, pp. 74-90

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2022.1.74

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