SUMMARYIn this article Professor Wagner claims the Polish Constitution of 1791 as the second formal written constitution in history, after the Constitution of the United States. The text of the Polish Constitution is analysed to reveal the basic principles on which the Constitution was based. This commentary in turn is set in the context of Poland's historic traditions, which arc described as embodying from an early date an overriding concern with the preservation of personal liberties from executive encroachment through the rule of law.