ABOUT THE DISPUTABLE CHARACTERISTIC OF THE STATE TRIBUNAL ALLOWING IT TO HOLD MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS CRIMINALLY RESPONSIBLE

The starting point of the deliberations of the paper is a critical analysis of the main theses o f the decision of the State Tribunal of 21 February 2001 in which the Tribunal held that members of the Council of Ministers may be held by the State Tribunal criminally responsible only in the event where such criminal responsibility relates to (is connected with) constitutional liability. In particular article 156 clause 1 and article 145 of Poland’s Constitution have been analysed and interpreted. It has been found that article 156 clause 1 plays the key role here, as it contains three independent and unrelated to each other grounds for holding members of the Council of Ministers criminally responsible by the State Tribunal. Further, the following has been established: 1) Members o f the Council o f Ministers may be held criminally responsible by the State Tribunal only in relation to offences committed when in office. This results from the fact that the immunity protecting them is of functional character, being at the same time only partial immunity (in respect of crimes committed in connection with the function performed). 2) Criminal responsibility o f members of the Council of Ministers after their term of office may only be determined i f criminal proceedings were commenced when a member was still in office. 3) The State Tribunal limits jurisdiction of common criminal courts of law. 4) In respect of the provisions laid down in articles 17 para 1 point 8 of the code o f criminal procedure it is recognised that the State Tribunal enjoys a specific characteristic (right) and consequently its competences to adjudicate about criminal responsibility of certain subjects shall correlate with the institution of jurisdictional immunity from criminal jurisdiction of common courts of law. 5) In consequence of the above, the immunity of the Prime Minister and other members of the Council of Ministers is a jurisdictional immunity, functional, partial and temporary