Supremacy and Primacy: Hierarchical Relationships Between the Polish and EU Legal Systems and Their Guardians

Abstract

European Union (EU) law and Polish national law are two separate legal systems. However, they function together within the framework of the Law of the Republic of Poland, in line with the meaning of Article 8(1) of the Constitution and have legal effects within the territory of the Polish State. Also, their norms are directed at the same addresses and operate within the same Polish territory. This results in the possibility of collision, both at the levels of the binding force (dispute over the hierarchy of provisions) and the application of law (dispute over the primacy of application). Each system has instruments aimed at solving collisions. Each also has an organ (organs) guarding the system. The activity of the said organ is to guarantee internal coherence and the proper position in the event of a collision with the other system. This analysis presents relations between those systems at the normative level and among the guardians of those systems. The first case concerns the definition and explanation of the substance of legal instruments solving collisions at the level of the Constitution and EU Treaties, and the indication of existing similarities and disparities, and as a result, the indication of the spheres of potential collision. In the second context, the text discusses the legal position of the guardians of the systems, that is, in the case of national law – the position of the Constitutional Tribunal, the Supreme Court, and administrative courts, and in the case of EU law – the position of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU). It also indicates the field of mutual convergence and disparity, and defines the applied legal tools. The analysis embraces constitutional identity as a boundary for national concessions to the primacy of EU law.