Amendments to the State Border Protection Act in 2021–2023 as the Legislator’s Response to External Threats to the Republic of Poland

Abstract

The amendments to the State Border Protection Act analyzed in the study concern primarily the possibility of introducing a prohibition on staying in a designated area of the border zone, and also clarify the conditions for impact (including shooting down) on an aircraft crossing the Polish state border. In the years 2021–2023, the first criminal provisions related to the protection of the state border were also adopted. These changes resulted from tragic events in the international arena during that period, which also affected Poland. These solutions were not wholly new in their idea and instead constituted another step (sometimes more radical) in developing regulations protecting the state border. However, some of the adopted legal solutions, the manner of their implementation into the legal order and their execution raised serious concerns, especially from the perspective of compliance with the principles of the rule of law, including the protection of human rights and their effectiveness.