Specificity of Constitutional Norms Relating to the Protection of Future Generations on the Example of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland

The purpose of the article is to answer the question of how and, in particular, through what legal constructions modern constitutions express the responsibility of the present generation for the future. This question will be answered using the example of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, adopted on 2 April 1997. The methodology used in the research was to first isolate those provisions of the Constitution that relate to the long-term future and aim to protect future generations, and then to analyze which legal constructions were used in doing so. An analysis of the provisions of this Constitution shows that it refers to future generations in several places and using various legal formulas that aim to have a long-term impact, with an eye to the distant horizon. These solutions include the elevated provisions of the preamble to the Constitution, the constituent elements of constitutional principles, the programmatic norms that set the directions of state activity, human rights, the duties of the individual, as well as provisions relating to discipline in public finance. In conclusion, it should be stated that the problem of protection of future generations in the Polish Constitution has been defined very broadly, using various legal constructions addressed to different addressees. As a result, the intensity of their impact, but also the possibility of their enforcement, varies.