Premises for the Implementation of Trade Restrictions on Sundays and Public Holidays and the Issue of Regulatory’s Compliance with the Constitution

Abstract

Purpose - Poland, next to - among others - Great Britain or Hungary, is another EU country that decides to introduce trade restrictions on Sundays and public holidays, as it is established that this regulation doesn’t collide with EU normative acts and regulations. However, there is a guarantee of business freedom in the Polish legal system. It follows from the Constitution that such freedom may be restricted only on the principles arising from art. 22 of the Constitution, and therefore only by statute and for important public (state) interests. The main purpose of this article is to analyze the social and economic reasons - which are partly contained in the rationale to the draft of the bill - for introducing such regulation as a state action, within the confines of its constitutional right to restrict economic freedom. Economic freedom is not only an indispensable factor contributing to the development of social market economy in a correctly functioning democratic state under rule of law, but it is also intended to be universal human law of a socio-economic nature. However, it is not an unlimited right. Therefore a debate about implemented law began in Poland, on the social, economic and legal goals obscured by the legislator issuing the legislative act. Although the main addressee of the Act are entrepreneurs, it does apply to the whole society, and therefore it seems necessary to thoroughly examine the issue of the reasons for such regulation and its compliance with the Polish Constitution.