The article discusses the issue of the right to a court in a democratic state ruled by law, which constitutes a guarantee of judicial protection of a person’s rights against their infringement by public authorities. It plays two functions: firstly, it protects a person’s subjective right and binds all public authorities to act in compliance with the Constitution; secondly, it creates a characteristic system of relations between a person’s individual status and an objective legal order, and thus it is at present treated as a component of a democratic state ruled by law. The constitutional approach to the right to a court may be analysed within two meanings: (1) as a principle of constitutional law; (2) as a person’s subjective right. Within the former, the principle constitutes a directive on enacting law and an interpretational directive, and within the latter, it means that the right to a court is shaped as an individual subjective right constituting an elementary component of the constitutional status of a person. It functions as one of personal rights, as a human right guaranteeing a person’s dignity and free status, the sense of security and the typical feeling of being protected by law, which is safeguarded by courts. The right to a court, within the substantive meaning, is regulated in Article 45 para. 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, in accordance with which “Everyone shall have the right to a fair and public hearing of his case, without undue delay, before a competent, impartial and independent court”. The quoted provision is supplemented by the content of Article 77 para. 2 of the Constitution, which is a guarantee stipulating that: “Statutes shall not bar the recourse by any person to the courts in pursuit of claims alleging infringement of freedoms or rights”. The right to a court constituting one of the most important means of safeguarding human rights and freedoms, laid down de lege lata in Article 77 para. 2 and Article 78 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, meets the requirements for a democratic state ruled by law and international standards laid down in Article 6 para. 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and in Article 14 paras. 1 and 3(c) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.