Prawna ochrona jednostki przed naruszeniem konstytucyjnego zakazu dyskryminacji w relacjach horyzontalnych

The purpose of this article is to discuss legal measures that allow an individual to seek protection against unequal or discriminatory treatment in horizontal relations. Taking as a starting point that Article 32(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and Article 33 of the Constitution are also applicable in horizontal relations, the author attempts to identify legal norms that protect an individual in this respect. In addition, an attempt is made at finding sanctions against violations of norms prohibiting discrimination. As part of the conducted deliberations, the author focuses on three basic legal acts, the civil code, the labor code, and the equality act, because they are the main normative source of protection of the individual against discrimination in horizontal relations. Individual legal institutions are discussed from the perspective of their scope of application in terms of subject and object and through the prism of potential sanctions. The author also undertakes an attempt to assess the effectiveness of these means and draws attention to the existing legislative shortcomings mainly related to the way of regulating the so-called actions against discrimination in the equality law. In the last part, the author makes considerations regarding the procedural aspects related to the pursuit of claims for discrimination, and in particular focuses on the institution’s reversed burden of proof in this type of proceedings.