The empowerment of the principles of agricultural law in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland

Within the set of principles of agricultural law there can be distinguished those that are directly or indirectly empowered in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The outcome of analyzing them according to this criterion may serve as contribution to better systematize these principles and to determine the extent of their consistency with the socio–economic model of the system. It also appears that the results of in–depth research of this issue could become useful in the determination of the constitutional norm for controlling legal solutions applicable to the existing provisions of agricultural law. As a result of the analysis conducted, it can be assessed that the principles of agricultural law proposed by P. Czechowski and A. Lichorowicz have multifaceted empowerment in the provisions of the Constitution, which allows to better understand and more fully define them. The only principle of a constitutional status, regarding the family farm as the basis of the agricultural system, for its greater usefulness, requires a wider application on the basis of ordinary laws. It seems that it is the requirement of the times to take a new, slightly more comprehensive, look at the principles of agricultural law and to cogitate on establishing new ones, particularly in the light of the experience of almost a decade of the Polish membership in the European Union and more than fifteen years of the Constitution of 1997