Smolak, Marek2013-07-162013-07-162005Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny 67, 2005, z. 2, s. 51-60.0035-9629http://hdl.handle.net/10593/6800One of the most interesting issues discussed within the so called transitional constitutionalism is court activism. Court activism is a phenomenon of extending judicial decisions, and in particular constitutional tribunal decisions, onto the distribution of a variety of resources. There are four main reasons for the increasing activism of courts: the need to legitimise the functioning of other organs of public authority, the transfer of the political and social legislative role to the levels at which it is executed, legislative inflation, and a greater functional and cultural differentiation of social systems. The main issue of the activism of constitutional tribunals is related to the question whether their increased role in the distribution of resources would have or has any significant impact on the functioning of parliamentary democracy. Analysing the above issue on the example of granting various privileges to certain social groups by way of judicial decisions, the author has formulated three conclusions: the relation between the legislative and a constitutional tribunal largely depends on the unarticulated assumptions about the very nature of democracy. Therefore it should be postulated that the activity of court (or the constitutional tribunal) should be limited only to those cases, where, for some reason, the parliament is unable to amend the existing laws, and its inactivity or inertia would result in gross grievance and harm to the otherwise due recipients of a given norm, or would lead to other extraordinarily adverse effects. Secondly, the activism of constitutional tribunals is to a great extent determined by the way in which the political community perceives the place and role of Parliament in the state system of the execution of public authority. Thirdly, the involvement of courts or the constitutional tribunal in the execution of public authority reflects the stabilization in the state. It may be assumed that where the social, economic or political stability increases, the role of constitutional tribunals in the creation of political or economic relations in the state will gradually diminish.plArtykuł