Glosa do postanowienia Sądu Najwyższego z 20 kwietnia 2017 r., II KK 116/171

The commentary concerns determining the statute of limitation of the criminal offense of a private prosecution committed under the conditions specified in art. 12 of the Criminal Code. The author shares the view expressed by the Supreme Court, that the limitation period runs from the date of ending the last behavior included in the act. Otherwise than the Supreme Court, he thinks, that what the victim finds out only after the end of the act is not the perpetrator, but the final form of the act. Only using functional interpretation one can justify the accuracy of the final result of the interpretation adopted by the Supreme Court, according to which the limitation period starts with the end of the act. Therefore, for correct interpretation, it is not enough to use only language and methods of logic, but it is necessary to take into account the axiological directive of the purpose of the provision. The author fully shares the computatio civilis method of calculating the limitations adopted by the Supreme Court. However, the author supplements the Supreme Court’s argumentation with the linguistic argument resulting from the fact that the regulation refers to “time” and not “day”.