The Key Issues of Polish Penal Law

Due to the specific nature of the issues involved it was decided not to include such legal acts as the Fiscal Penal Statute, the Code on Minor Offences and the penal provisions contained in those statutes with regards to specialised fields, such as mining, marine and water law in the Penal Code. Simultaneously, however, the treatment of issues in the Penal Code (as has already been mentioned) has decisively influenced other penal acts belonging to the penal law in a broad sense. The Penal Code of 1997 is a code is the code which serves as a “mirror” reflecting recent times. So, it has implemented the primary principle of humanism, reflected as a fundamental principle in our penal law that no one will be penalised for an act not prohibited by the law when committed (the so-called principle of nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege poenali anteriori – art. 1 of the Penal Code) and international human standards. Humanism is also reflected in the Penal Code provisions concerning sentencing. These provisions require sentencing courts to take into account the personal traits and circumstances of the offender, his mode of living prior to committing the act and his behaviour after the offence. At the same time, the court is obliged to take into account the purpose of punishment, both with regards to its social impact and its preventive and re-educational aims in respect of the convict (art. 53 of the Penal Code). Based upon the principle of humanism the Code gives ground to the system of justice to less severe treatment of the offender who is responsible for an accidental offence, the negligence offence or when it is reasonable expecting that the offender, treated less severely, will not commit a new offence in the nearest future. The legal instruments for less severe treatment of an accidental offender include for example conditional discontinuance of proceedings concerning the offence – first of all – it should not be socially damaging (arts. 66–68 of the Penal Code).