This article engages with the most recent jurisprudential developments in
Poland and discusses them against the backdrop of the doctrinal concept of
‘principled resistance’. It is submitted that the Polish Constitutional Tribunal,
alongside with well-known arguments from the principled resistance background,
introduced a new doctrinal argument into the Convention context,
thereby borrowing the ultra vires doctrine known from the European Union
(EU) context. This jurisprudence is interpreted as the endeavour to shield the
sovereignty of the Polish State, and the competences of the Constitutional
Tribunal, against interference from Strasbourg. At the same time, the pan-
European dimension of the Polish rule of law crisis is addressed.
