Allegro – Trademark protection – Freedom of speech vs. intellectual property – Polish Constitution – European Convention on Human Rights – Balancing of competing values – Constitutionally permissible limits on freedom of expression – Comparison with case-law of United States Supreme Court – ‘Categorical’ approach vs. ‘balancing’ approach

Polish constitutional tradition concerning system of government mainly parliamentarian – Round Table before the Fall of the Wall in 1989 as explanation for the role attributed to the President – development towards a variety of ‘rationalised parliamentarianism’ with a relatively strong role for prime-minister in the 1997 Constitution – system of government not really semi-presidential in nature

Just as some were getting ready to uncork bottles of champagne in celebration of the first anniversary of the enlargement of the European Union with ten member states, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal delivered an important judgment assessing the conformity of provisions of the Penal Procedure Code, transposing the European Arrest Warrant with the Polish Constitution. In the decision, which potentially has effects beyond the Polish legal system, the Tribunal annulled the transposing legislation (with a delay of 18 months) because it infringed Article 55(1), which states that ‘The extradition of a Polish citizen shall be prohibited’.