The crucial problems of conforming interpretation of national law in the area of criminal law

This paper aims at presenting general remarks about the principle of conforming interpretation of national law in the area of criminal law. Through the syntactic and semantic analysis of the legal provisions originating from various branches of law, the paper is an attempt to answer the question of the interrelation between legal provisions established by different legislators and the rules of law reconstructed during the process of legal interpretation. The unique nature of criminal law, in particular the large number of guarantees intended to protect rights and freedoms connected with liability in criminal law and the conduct of the process leading to realization of such responsibility, is the source of problems with application of interpretation of national law conforming to European law. Among several possible interpretation of a criminal law, a court must prefer the one which best enforces European law. But, the principle of legality sets a limit. Thus, it appears that interpretation conforming to European laws cannot lead to an expansion of the scope of application of norms of national law pertaining to penal law or have other effects that are disadvantageous to the persons who face liability in criminal law.Uniwersytet w Białymstok