Are fundamental rights violated if an official act is carried out by a person who is not lawfully in office? Or must a decision - lawful in itself - by an unconstitutional civil servant be accepted? Tobias Crone's study discusses this timely topic following the landmark judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the; case of Ástráðsson v. Iceland and identifies it as a question of enormous importance in the process of restoring the rule of law in Poland.