Public Accountability and Constitutional Law

Anna Młynarska-Sobaczewska is a lawyer and a professor in the Department of Constitutional Law and European Research at the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She has been a visiting scholar in law schools in the United States, Italy, Germany, Vietnam (Hanoi) and Spain.Jacek Zaleśny is a lawyer, political scientist and associate professor in the Department of Political Systems of the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland. His research interests include the political systems of contemporary states, the law-making process and institutions of legal protection.

• 1. Accountability in constitutional law – assumptions and meaning; 2. On the illusory nature of political representation and the illusion of its accountability; 3. Regulatory impact assessment ex post as an accountability instrument: Why does it fail to work?; 4. Parliamentary scrutiny: Toolbox of institutional accountability of government; 5. Judicial accountability - where to look for it and why is it not there?; 6. Non-state actors in the constitutional framework: Political impact without public accountability; Conclusions