The Administrative Court System in the Face of Non-Vaccination of Children. Challenges and Prospects for the (Still) Emerging Line of Jurisprudence

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a heated public debate about mandatory vaccination of children. The COVID-19 pandemic further underscored the importance of vaccination and the desirability of vaccination for the protection of public health and the health (as well as life) of the individual. Nevertheless, the rise in activity and popularity of anti-vaccination movements has clearly contributed to the upward trend in the number of non-vaccinated children that we have seen since 2010. Statutory representatives of children who oppose their mandatory vaccination cite a variety of reasons, taking advantage of the imperfect legal system. The fines imposed to compel mandatory vaccination, as well as the conduct of administrative enforcement proceedings in this regard, are often challenged in administrative courts. It is of great importance that administrative courts are increasingly referring to the constitutionally protected values, as well as to the axiological justifications for the functioning obligation to vaccinate children. Given the nature of the obligation, this seems understandable, but nevertheless somewhat intrusive into the constitutional sphere, which is reserved for the Constitutional Tribunal. The purpose of the paper is to reconstruct the formation of the line of jurisprudence of administrative courts in cases involving the mandatory vaccination of children. The course of discussion will lead to a full analysis of the grounds of the grounds for the cited judgments and their consistency with the emerging line of jurisprudence on the issue. Particular attention was paid to the references made by the adjudicating panels to the legally protected values of an individual and universal nature. For this purpose the Author used the historical-legal method and the method of analysis of court jurisprudence.