Polityczne, ideowe i prawne uwarunkowania działalności Trybunału Stanu

The article presents the essential legal premises on which the structure and entitlements of the State Tribunal were based in the Polish constitutions - from the Parliamentary Court introduced by the 3 May Constitution to the analogous institution introduced by the Constitution of 1997. It examines the process of moulding legal responsibility and the establishment of the institutions which control it in some European countries as well as in the Polish constitutions of the partition period. The State Tribunals' legal positions as provided for in the Constitutions of 1921, 1935, 1952 and 1997, as well as in accompanying bills, are examined in detail. The theoretical examination is completed with an analysis of the cases in which the State Tribunal has played a crucial political role.