No. 3 (46)

Looking for ways to improve itself comprehensively, the United Nations is opening up to the regions and experiencing particular responsiveness in this regard. An excellent example of this is the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (sDGs) of the 2030 Agenda. The authors believe that it is
worth taking advantage of this in the process of progressive internationalization of Polish regions and diversification of  foreign support for their development, and to this end, to publicize it adequately. An important step in this regard is, in the authors’ opinion, another publication in a periodic of con-
siderations and research results on the approach of Polish regions to Agend 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with an outline of the system for their implementation. Against this background, in this paper, we
formulate scientific postulates and recommendations for the use of national and international practice.

The author presents the concept of society in terms of civil law theory, explaining the reasons for understanding the adopted concept of “civil law”, as well as the widely used method of interpretation. The author illustrates that the notion of “citizen society” can play a similar role in the Polish law as the concept of civil society law in the German law of civil law, serving to clarify the commonly accepted concept (law theory) and the method of its interpretation. The article reveals that related sciences have a direct impact on the theory of civil law and its basic concepts, while pointing out practical differences in the theory of Polish and German civil law.

The author presents the system of law in light of contemporary theories of natural law shaped by Aquinas, Finnis, and Hervada’s thought on natural law. The natural law perspective adopted in the text assumes that the source of
both the normativity of law and the subsequent legitimacy of the processes of lawmaking and law application is man understood as a person (personalism), whereby his/her personal character is recognized and not arbitrarily conferred,
moreover, it is linked to the time of actual, biological life. The person is thus the source of the normativity of law both because of the individual aspect of the person and because of the general nature of human nature (above all the freedom and rationality of that nature). Recognition of the human as
a person implies the need to refer to his or her inherent dignity. The perspective of natural law as a framework for conducting legal research implies that the articulation of axiological assumptions should precede any reflection on
criminal, constitutional, civil, and labor law.

This paper aims to follow the history of the principle of subsidiarity to define it as a directive concerning the form of government. The roots of the principle may be found in antiquity; however, it was the medieval period when, despite not having been articulated, its essence was visible both in political and legal practice and in philosophical thought, especially in Thomas Aquinas. However, in the subsequent period, rising doctrines of sovereignty and social contract, introduced by William Ockham and Marsilius of Padua, developed later by Jean Bodin, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau caused much centralization of political power during the modernity and therefore reduced the application of the principle of subsidiarity. Nevertheless, the theoretical development of the principle was continued by Johannes Althusius at the turn of the 16^th and 17^th centuries and, in the 19^th century, by Alexis de Tocqueville and finally by Catholic social teaching, with which it got its mature form and name. A review of this history allows the author to reconstruct the essence of the principle, which may be described as the necessity of the existence of political beings smaller than central government whose autonomy may not be infringed.

Cooperation for health protection has played an important role in relations between countries and inspires great interest in these states and many international institutions. Bilateral cooperation, particularly the cooperation of neighbouring countries, is important in this context. The author analyses treaties on friendship and cooperation signed by Poland with neighbouring countries, that is, agreements that play a unique role in relations under treaties. It answers the research questions of whether these treaties accommodate provisions that refer to working together for health protection and, thus, whether this kind of cooperation is an expression of a shared interest of states, and whether this kind of cooperation has an adequate rank and guarantee of implementation.

The author focuses on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in two sensitive areas related to the end of human life, notably euthanasia and the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment (passive euthanasia). These highly controversial issues required the Court to answer crucial questions regarding the scope and essence of the obligations of state parties under Article 2 (the right to life) and Article 8 (the right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights. Over twenty years ago, in Pretty v. United Kingdom (2002), the concise formulation of Article 2 of the ECHR inevitably led the Court to conclude that the Convention does not guarantee the „right to euthanasia”. However, this has not prevented the Court from inferring a general right to decide on one's end of life as an element of privacy protected under Article 8 of the ECHR. Since the judgment in Pretty, the case law of the Court on assisted suicide and withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment has been balancing between conflicting interests. Having adjudicated several landmark cases, mainly from the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, and France, the Court has calibrated the essence and scope of the states' margin of appreciation to allow (or not allowing) assisted suicide and the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. However, one should not expect that the Court's standards will satisfy everybody's expectations, given the different philosophical, ethical, and religious approaches to human death and the state's role in protecting the right to life.

The authors outline a portrait of Fyodor Fyodorovich Martens, a prominent 19th-century Russian lawyer and diplomat. The authors describe both his academic achievements and practical dimensions in the field of public international law and his influence on the development of international  humanitarian law. The authors also presented various stages of Martens’ life path and career, including his studies outside the Russian Empire, his work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and his scientific activities. They highlighted his active role
in drafting international agreements, including the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, and revealed new facts about Martens’ biography, bringing this outstanding scientist and practitioner, who is not widely known in Poland, closer to a wide range of public international law researchers and legal history researchers.

The author attempts to describe the legal issues that the Cracow judges faced in applying the procedural provisions of French law. The Code civil and the French Code de procédure civile, in force in Cracow since 1810, were finally replaced by the abGb and the Austrian civil procedure in 1855. Although the new civil law codified in the Free City of Cracow failed, the source material remains subject to a detailed analysis. The paper presents the application of the procedural provisions of French law mainly through the prism of the opinion of the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University about the violation of French procedural law by the courts, which was issued based on Article XV of the constitution of the Free City of Cracow from 1815.

The author presents selected issues related to the regulations of the first modern code of criminal procedure in Poland, issued in 1928 and essentially based on the French procedure model. The author lists the creators of the code as prominent Polish scholars, judges, and barristers. She devotes the main analysis to the procedural principles applicable to the new Polish trial. She considers in detail, among other things, the principle of arraignment, legality, oral and open trial directness, free consideration of evidence, and lay participation in court proceedings. The author explains which procedural principles referred directly to the French model and which were based on regulations from other European countries.

The author characterizes one of the most crucial legal sources of the Polish-Lihuanian Commonwealth. It was the only official procedural code of the „land law” accepted by the part of the general sejm in 1523, which was in force until the fall of the state. It consisted of 111 articles separated into two parts. The
first (articles 1–75) included legal provisions of normative character; the second was a collection of forms connected to various legal acts. The Formula was not a complete codification of procedural law; significantly, it did not regulate the evidence. Most of the provisions were devoted to the execution of judgments. During works on Formula, its creators used previous sources and compendiums, especially on the Lesser Poland law. It was a helpful achievement representing high legal quality. The most significant innovation of Formula was the introduction of the appellation.

The author presents the issues of the reception of the French Code of Civil Procedure on the territory of the Duchy of Warsaw. This process was different from the Napoleonic Code. The minister of justice, Feliks Łubieński, ruthlessly broke the resistance of politicians and the legal environment against
the implementation of the French civil code. Concerning the civil procedure, the minister kept far-reaching pragmatism because judges had just started to acquaint themselves with the regulations of this procedure, which was often doubtful and not clear, and the interpretation was possible only by analyzing the French tradition of judiciary.

The paper describes the development of the scientific and didactic career of Professor Stefan Glaser and the formation of his views. Stefan Glaser was a representative of the science of criminal law and criminal procedure in the interwar period, initially employed at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lublin (since 1928, the Catholic University of Lublin), and then, since 1924, at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius. During his academic career, he covered numerous issues in the field of criminal procedural law. The author of the paper emphasizes that he used in his work the findings of German, Austrian, and French legal doctrine, and legal acts for comparative purposes.

The author presents research to analyze the particular protection of underaged victims of torture and illtreatment under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This particularly vulnerable group is entitled to special protection due to its status and susceptibility to various types of abuse. ECHR had the opportunity to analyze the applications concerning violations of the prohibition of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment concerning minors, among other things, domestic violence, migration, corporal punishment, or sexual abuse. The states parties have particular obligations in this respect due to the nature of the violation and the specific vulnerability of the victim. The purpose of the Article is to focus on minor victims of torture in the context of their particular vulnerability and protection of their respective rights under the ECHR system.

The article analyses the new grounds for declaring an heir unworthy to succeed, which were introduced by the amendment of July 2023 to the inheritance law. The nature of the modifications raises numerous enquiries and uncertainties outlined in the study. A critical assessment of the new solution is also accompanied by de lege ferenda remarks.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a significant factor in family life. Increasingly sophisticated autonomous systems and robots controlled by artificial intelligence will allow some of the parental duties related to custody, upbringing, and even representation of the child to be carried out. This phenomenon is forcing the search for legal qualifications for parents to entrust certain decisions to machines. The author argues that the solution is to grant AI residual partial subjectivity to the extent needed to link it to its social function. A condition for such subjectivity would be registration in a public register, preceded by specific certification. It means that in the long term, AI will become an integral part of family life.

The privilege of bank enforcement orders allowed banks to pursue claims in a simplified manner, since the bank could issue an enforcement order without court proceedings. Banks could also issue additional bank enforcement orders in cases of enforcement against several persons or from several components of the debtor's assets. Despite the derogation of the provisions on bank enforcement orders from the law system, this institution functions to a limited extent under intertemporal provisions. The authors want to answer whether issuing more bank enforcement orders under current legal status is possible.

The availability of transplant medicine in individual countries is influenced by several factors, among which one should mention, for example, the death rate in road accidents, the amount of the Gross Domestic Product per capita, the amount transferred to the health service, the general public attitude to this method of treatment, the adopted legislation, in particular the model of giving consent to post-mortem organ donation, the number of active transplant centers and active transplant coordinators, and statistics on the conduct of procedures with the participation of living donors. Unfortunately, attempts made to increase the availability of transplant material so far have not led to a visible shortening of waiting lists. The global, chronic shortage of organs, tissues, and cells that could be transplanted forces us to look for new solutions to reduce the list of patients waiting for transplantation. In this paper, the author considers whether an increase in the pool of available transplants could occur due to the introduction of priority rules in the organ allocation procedure.

The author discusses issues of sexual and emotional human relations with a humanoid robot. This phenomenon heralds impressive technological progress but raises several doubts. As the problem has been of interest to mainly foreign researchers, it was also regarded as important to present the Polish legal perspective. First, the author presents the traditional model of family (marriage). Second, the author presents the genesis and characteristics of human-robotic relationships. The paper also presents the formulation of potential legal problems and an attempt to consider the possible prospects of the legislator. Finally, the author emphasized the arguments for the rightness of treating human intercourse with humanoid critically, and thus not underestimating the risks that may occur as a result of the implementation of revolutionary demands on the subjectivity of robots, the legality of sexual services, or even marriages with their participation. 

The article is devoted to general clauses regulating abuse of law in the Polish Labor Code. The author defined the meaning of the concept of a general clause and its functions. He also discussed the legal mechanism of the functioning of the socioeconomic abuse of law category and principles of social coexistence in individual and collective labor law.

A mixed (sequential) penalty, introduced by the amendment to the Penal Code of February 20, 2015, is intended to fulfil an important function in the system of reaction measures to a crime. The problem of achieving the objectives of a mixed penalty arises when the convict is serving an imprisonment sentence imposed as part of a sequential penalty in the electronic monitoring system. Undoubtedly, this problem is noticed both by the courts in their judicial decisions and by representatives of the doctrine. The author aims to make an in-depth analysis of this controversial issue of great practical importance and to formulate conclusions on the law as it should be based on it.

The author deals with the possibility of cumulative performance of non-custodial and custodial protective measures adjudicated in separate cases concerning various prohibited acts committed by the same perpetrator. The regulation does not allow the cumulative imposing of measures from Article 93a § 1 points 1-3 of the Penal Code and measures from Article 93a § 1 point 4 of the Penal Code. It should also apply to their performance. Imposing psychiatric detention in one case necessitates performing non-custodial measures in other proceedings. It should entail revoking non-custodial measures (Article 93b § 2 of the Penal Code). In this regard, discontinuing or suspending the enforcement proceeding would be insufficient (art. 15 § 2 of the Executive Penal Code).

Research on accessibility has been intensified due to CRPD. Sometimes, even a new discipline of accessibility studies, separate from disability studies, is distinguished. It is a broad field at the intersection of all disciplines whose theory and practice concern various aspects and areas of accessibility. It needs to be defined as its discipline, with its unique set of methods, ideas, and models. There is undoubtedly a lack of in-depth consideration of accessibility in legal studies. Accessibility has not yet received such considerations as Disability Law or Disability Legal Studies. Accessibility Law awaits similar discussion on its place in the legal studies and legal system. Undeniably, the legal standards of accessibility included in the crPD are part of human rights law. What is missing, however, is an in-depth consideration of how far Disability Law should be seen as a subdiscipline of human rights law, in which the crPD has played a crucial role, and in how far it is already becoming a separate discipline. In
the development of the accessibility law, issues related to identifying other sources and the place of accessibility in the legal system, its role, its legal nature and the scope of accessibility standards can be distinguished. Attempts
are made to assess the content of the Convention concerning accessibility, to analyze General Comment No. 2 (2014) „Article 9 Accessibility”,and to review the subject literature on accessibility law. Detailed legal solutions within the different areas of accessibility are slowly emerging. Lawyers may
struggle with the relationship between the normative and technical content of accessibility. Thus, it becomes important to provide not only legal guarantees but also guarantees of complementary technical standards. Finally, although
accessibility is considered in the context of an international human rights standard, its assessment is not insignificant from a regional or national perspective, including the role of soft law and governance in promoting the rights of persons with disabilities at the EU level.

This paper describes the obligation to provide reasonable accommodation in the Polish legal system to remove barriers experienced by persons with disabilities in accessing work. The presentation of this issue will be made in the context of how the standards of the CRPD (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) and the Employment Equality Directive are implemented in the Polish labour legislation. The concept of reasonable accommodation and the scope of entities obliged to provide it to persons with disabilities who are just seeking employment and those already in employment will be analysed. It will be followed by characterising the limits of implementing this obligation, which allows for considering the resources at the disposal of the entities obliged to provide reasonable accommodation. Finally, the author discusses the legal consequences of failure to provide reasonable accommodation and the legal remedies available to persons with disabilities in such a situation. The analysis, taking into account the body of doctrine and jurisprudence, will make it possible to indicate practical difficulties in the application of the legal regulation of reasonable accommodation and, as a result, to formulate de lege ferenda postulates.

The purpose of the author is to consider accessibility from an administrative law perspective. The author explains that the law should imply the concept „administering entity” instead of „public entity” to encompass all bodies obliged to provide accessibility to persons with special needs, including non-public entities performing tasks financed with public funds. Moreover, the activities of entities from the public finance sector related to ensuring accessibility must be considered as a part of management control provided for in the regulations of the Public Finance Act. To enforce the right to access, the APSNA introduced the accessibility complaint procedure. It includes the possibility of informing a public entity about the lack of accessibility and the request for accessibility. If accessibility is not provided upon request because of a breach of the law, the entitled person can file a complaint about the lack of accessibility. In such a case, it can be ordered through an administrative decision of the President of the State Fund for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons (PFRON). In the event of failure to comply with the order within the deadline, the provisions on administrative enforcement proceedings regarding fines for coercion apply accordingly. It is a significant reinforcement compared to the obligations to provide reasonable accommodation under The Equality Framework Directive 2000/78/EC and relevant Polish law.

The author deals with the position of persons with disabilities in proceedings before administrative authorities in the Czech Republic. The legislation here is fragmented, and the author examines the basic principles that govern this area. At the same time, attention is focused on the question of the use of public and private institutes to support persons with disabilities in administrative proceedings. Finally, a significant transition trend from the „substitute decision-making system” to the „Supported or Assisted decision-making” concept is analyzed.

The author analyses information accessibility for persons with disabilities in three scopes: Lithuanian legislation on information accessibility, the main criteria for monitoring information accessibility in Lithuania, and the economic value of information accessibility for Lithuanian citizens with reduced mobility and business.

Recent events in Ukraine and Poland related to the influx of Ukrainian agricultural products into the European Union, including Poland, prompt the question of agricultural ownership in Ukraine. Specifically, the authors emphasize that it is important to know who owns the farmland in Ukraine and thus benefits from the duty-free import of farm products into the Member States of the European Union. The answer to this question leads to the resolution of an even more important problem concerning the access of the Ukrainian nation to the ownership of agricultural land in Ukraine after independence and thus the answer to the question as to the degree of social justice in this respect, consisting in the possibility of purchasing and possessing agricultural land by ordinary people. All legal instruments relating to farmland turnover are subject to analysis, especially recent ones.

Anti-corruption policy indicates the maturity of the political system in conditions of uncertainty. In times of war, anti-corruption principles and mechanisms become decisive for achieving victory over the enemy and successfully reviving the state. According to the authors, Ukraine should urgently resolve corruption issues in such sectors (institutions) as health care, judiciary, prosecutor’s office and law enforcement agencies, customs and tax service, state regulation of the economy and interaction between the state and the private sector, and activities of political parties. Moreover, in conditions of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, solving corruption issues in the defence sector and preventing corruption in state-owned enterprises, considering the significant damage caused by corruption in this sector, is of primary importance.

The French tax system is one of the most developed in Europe, mainly in terms of local contributions. The regulations of the General Tax Code (Code général des impôts) contain a special Section VII entitled Other municipal taxes (Section VII: Autres taxes communales), divided at the municipal level into obligatory taxes and optional taxes. Thus, under the so-called other municipal optional taxes, the French legislator mentioned the tax on household waste disposal (Taxe d'enlèvement des ordures ménagères), which is the subject of the analysis in this study. The author of this paper believes that the analysis of the contribution mentioned above is significant due to changes in the method of calculating and collecting the fee for municipal waste management in Poland, which raised several discussions on the validity of the adopted model. In this context, one of the elements of the substantive debate may be the reference to comparative legal studies and, thus, the analysis of the relevant regulations of French law.

The COVID-19 pandemic posed a global challenge, significantly affecting the citizens’ way of life in Poland and worldwide. The Polish authorities, fearing the spread of the infectious disease, made rapid and chaotic changes to curb the threat. The fear caused by the coronavirus in the early stages of the epidemic and the vast amount of legislation changes made it much more difficult to analyse what was changing at any given time and whether it was related to the pandemic. As part of measures aimed at combating COVID-19, many amendments were added to the Criminal, Criminal Procedural, or Misdemeanor Laws. The author seeks to determine whether the exemption of government officials from criminal liability for their actions related to combating COVID-19 was justified because of the already existing institution of the state of necessity as provided for in Article 26 of the Criminal Code.

The paper’s main objective is to show that in the context of the aging population, the problem of recovery of claims and pension savings arises, which may undermine the principle of solidarity on which the pay-as-you-go system is based. The fully funded pension system is based on the individual foresight of the insured person, and vertical redistribution is limited in favor of horizontal redistribution, and thus the principle of solidarity has been limited to a minimum. The Polish pension system is predominantly financed by the pay-as-you-go method, which means that it is closely linked to the demographic factor, and the relationship between generations is a highly important aspect. Pension benefits are founded on the contributions of the working generation. Thus, the next generations will finance their benefits in the future. The state guarantees the contract between generations. However, the problem of recovering the claims arises in an aging population. Therefore, it is necessary to look for solutions that will guarantee the future payment of benefits while maintaining the principle of solidarity.

Sugar-dating (sponsorship) is a term used to describe a mutually beneficial relationship, most often with a sexual element, between a so-called „sugar daddy/mommy” („sponsor”) and the so-called „sugar baby” („sponsored”). Sugar-dating is not a new phenomenon, but, notably, the current literature has not analysed the phenomenon of sugar-dating from the perspective of income tax consequences. The author analyses Polish and Czech regulations regarding personal income taxes against illegal and immoral activities and attempts to classify the discussed issue correctly. In addition, the paper provides an answer to whether there are legal grounds for concluding a sugar-dating contract, which is the starting point for the analysis of taxation. The author also tries to answer whether cultural differences in the context of sugar dating in Poland and the Czech Republic are reflected in the contents of the laws.