In case law there are a few models of the horizontal effect of constitutional rights of an individual, which models are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary, because to a certain extent they can be applied at the same time. These models can be condensed down to four major ones, i.e. the model of the direct effect of constitutional rights, the model of their indirect effect, the model of the state's protection obligations in horizontal relations and the model of constitutional rights’ effect in horizontal relations under the banner of state action. All these models emerged and evolved through judicature, while the role of jurisprudence was mainly to describe them, systematize, justify and provide theoretical support for them. In effect, as a product of courts’ activity, these models have not been fossilized and cemented, but can be said to be constantly evolving and developing, taking into account all new changes which occur in the contemporary world.

In my further reflections I attempt to determine the extent to which these models can be implemented in the Polish constitutional reality. However, in these reflections I omit the last of the aforementioned models, i.e. the state action model applied in the US. This model assumes that the Constitution applies in vertical relations only and if it formulates any prohibitions, they are targeted at the state and not an individual. In this model, the notion of ‘state action’ is understood broadly and covers, subject to certain conditions, also the cases when constitutional rights are actually infringed by a private entity. The US Supreme Court assumes that state actions which violate constitutional rights may include both actions of a private entity discharging, for instance, a public function transferred to it by the state and actions of a private entity supported by the state to such an extent that it is reasonable to attribute the infringements of constitutional rights perpetrated by that entity directly to the state. But the basic assumption of the model, namely that the Constitution applies in vertical relations only, is not approved in the Polish jurisprudence and judicature, and even though some of its solutions can apply to the Polish constitutional reality, I decided to leave it out of the further reflections due to its particularities.