Zasada humanitaryzmu w prawie karnym

Abstract

Respect for human dignity belongs to the fundamental principles of the constitutional order. Natural and inalienable dignity of an individual establishes a source of human and civic rights and freedoms. It is inviolable and its protection and respect lie within the obligations of the public authorities. The Constitutional Tribunal has stated that the prohibition of the dignity’s violation is of a absolute nature and concerns everybody. Criminal law, with its natural feature of repression of the unlawful act’s perpetrator, leaves a space for the principle of humanitarism. Such principle has been included in the criminal code and in the code of criminal justice (executive penal code). Criminal code’s authors seem to particularly emphasize the principle of humanitarism in the field of judicial sentencing. Special attention in literature is brought to its significantly broader scope. Experts in the field underline that it regards not only the penalties and penal measures but also measures connected with perpetrator’s testing and protective measures and it regards all the stages of criminal responsibility that is: treatment of the accused in the preparatory proceedings, sentencing of punishments, penal and protective measures as well as the execution of those punishments and measures. Principle of humanitarism in not only a declaration. In criminal code, as well as in the ode of criminal justice, some regulations can be pointed which serve to realize this principle. The principle of humanitarism has not been created in modern times, as the most prominent representatives of the Enlightenment era such as Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire and most of all, Beccaria spoke against cruelty of punishments.