No. 34

Among the cooperative member’s rights special attention should be paid to the right to receive information about operations of a cooperative. A general provision concerning this right can be found in Cooperatives Law Act of September 16, 1982 (CL). According to Article 18 § 2(3) of the latter, a member of a cooperative has the right to receive copies of the constitutional document and the rules and regulations of the cooperative, as well as the right to read resolutions passed by the cooperative bodies, minutes of cooperative body meetings, vetting reports, annual financial statements and agreements executed between the cooperative and third parties, without prejudice to Article 81.1 of Housing Cooperatives Act of December 15, 2000 (HCA). CL’s Article 18 § 2 (3) provides a right to receive copies of the constitutional document of the cooperative and its rules and regulations, as well as the right to read resolutions passed by the cooperative bodies, minutes of cooperative body meetings, vetting reports, annual financial statements and agreements executed between the cooperative and third parties. On the other hand, HCA’s Article 81. 1- 3 provides only the right to receive copies of the constitutional document of the cooperative and its rules and regulations, resolutions passed by the cooperative bodies, minutes of cooperative body meetings, vetting reports, annual financial statements, invoices and agreements executed between the cooperative and third parties. It also states which documents, save for invoices and agreements, should be posted on the website of the cooperative concerned. Amendments to the legislation within the above mentioned scope were introduced chiefly by an Act of June 14, 2007. Justified concerns of both legal and technical nature of those amendments have been raised both in literature and the case-law. It has not been indicated correctly, precisely and clearly whether cooperative members have only the right to receive copies of documents, or whether they also have the right to see originals of those documents personally, or whether CL’s Article 18 § 3 applies to cooperative members, finally what is the meaning of ‘third party’ with whom the cooperative executes an agreement. 

The author discusses the problem of the abuse of authority by a professional counsel in civil proceedings. Such abuse should be specifically understood. The premises for the abuse of authority by a professional counsel embrace acting within the limits of authority set by the scope of the power of attorney, taking procedural steps against the real or hypothetical will of the principal provided that acting in accordance with his will does not violate the rules of professional conduct of the counsel. The lack of due diligence of a professional counsel in litigation
is not a premise for the abuse of authority but due diligence affects his liability for damages. Abuse of authority is counsel’s failure to maintain due diligence.

The author discusses the current legal status through the prism of avoiding mandatory vaccinations for children in Poland. The main axis of the work the analysis of the legitimacy of a reprimand in the catalogue of penalties for this offence in relation to the child’s legal guardians, who, despite the application of administrative enforcement measures, still do not carry out mandatory preventive vaccination. The reprimand is also assessed in terms of the goal that the legislator intends to achieve in relation to the offender. The work is supplemented by an analysis of the literature and jurisprudence on the application of reprimand.

The author presents issues related to parental kidnapping or abduction. No legal act contains definitions of these terms. The author focuses on both national and international aspects of violation of the child’s welfare with unlawfulness in the parents’ actions. Parental kidnapping as a violation of the rules arising from the Family and Guardianship Code and parental abduction as a violation of the child’s and another parent’s welfare are also discussed. The author points to the lack of a legal definition of the notion of „child’s well-being”. According to the author, child should be at the center of every parental decision as well as the protection of their rights, including the right to an undisturbed existence.

All contemporary studies on the issues of administrative activity underline the division between the imperious and non-imperious activities of administration but no consensus has been reached on the definition of both sets of activities. Although one can find some of their characteristics, whether they exist or not, all of them lead to the classification of administration activity as an empire or gesture. The author presents these standpoints that are
attempts to define the notions of imperious and non-imperious actions of administration. The author also tries to analyse them in terms of actions of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority in relation to the sector of Cooperative Savings and Credit Unions. The Polish Financial Supervision Authority conducts licensing and authorization and analytical activities, inspection, regulatory and prudential activities. The author questions the significance of non-imperious activities of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority in their classic understanding, despite their formal existence,not only because of regulations determining the competence of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, but also because of the method of their actual execution.

This author considers current European Union and Ukraine’s wholesale natural gas market in light of regulatory measures that had been enacted and/or implemented with respect to its organization and functioning. The analysis points to three major goals EU’s energy sector regulation is geared to achieve: 1) economic (i.e. procompetitive support); 2) energy security; and 3) social goals. As such, the EU wholesale energy market can be regarded as a regulatory instrument. Ukraine assumed the obligation to implement EU legislation in the field of energy sector regulation (Energy Community acquis communautaire): Act of Ukraine No. 329-VIII of 9 April 2015 on natural gas market implements fundamental principles of the third energy package in the area of organization and functioning of the wholesale natural gas market. However, for Ukraine’s
wholesale energy market to assume characteristics of a regulatory instrument akin to the EU market, further implementation of EU regulation 1227/2011 (REMIT) and, to some extent, implementation of the fourth energy package is needed.
In the Part 1 author focuses on providing a background on gas market conditions in the EU and Ukraine, which will provide an important backdrop for the second part of this study where he will discuss in specific regulatory issues associated with adoption of EU gas market principles in the Ukrainian gas market.

Public benefit organizations are civic organizations conducting socially useful activities. Their legal position within the Polish legal system is special. First
of all, obtaining the status of a public benefit organization therefore their conductions are subject to relatively strict legal rigors, which is to ensure the transparency of their operations and to guarantee effective and lawful performance of public tasks. Secondly, these organizations have been given many rights and privileges that are to facilitate their socially useful activities.

By the order of Alexander I, Emperor of Russia, constitutional draft for the Russian Empire was developed at the Warsaw chancellery of senator Nikolai Novosiltsov between 1818 and 1820. The draft largely based on the constitutional act of the Kingdom of Poland of 1815, significantly changing ISS systemic structure. However, this draft did not enter into force. In 1831, after founding the original document, the authorities of the November Uprising made the fact of its creation public by publishing the text in the form of a printed brochure. After the seizure of Warsaw in September 1831, by the personal order of Nicholas I, attempts were made to erase all traces of his predecessor’s initiative by burning the acquired copies in the Moscow Kremlin.

The author analyzes materials related to the scientific activities of professor Jerzy Panejko. The author touched upon the problems of local government encountered by this researcher of Polish administrative law. He discusses issues related to the formation and development of local government (in particular in the context of Swiss local government), Panejko’s activities in the bar, and the problem of his works edited in the areas of the former Austrian partition, but also a number of problems that arose in connection with the implementation of these new institutions.

In September 1944 the Polish Committee of National Liberation concluded the so-called republican agreements with the governments of the Ukrainian, Belorussian and Lithuanian Republic of Soviets. Based on these agreements massive displacement of the population was conducted. Moreover, the evacuated were forced to leave their property for
the promise of obtaining one of similar value in the new settlement. Even though since 1946 the Polish legislator has normalized the issue of settling for the left real estate through the so-called right to credit, none of the adopted regulations led to the satisfaction of all beneficiaries. Hopes of getting compensation for the left property revived along with the political transformation.
The author presents proposed solutions that appeared in the parliamentary works between 1989 and 2003. The author presents all draft re-rivatization laws that were submitted to the Sejm of the 10th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th term until December 12, 2003, i.e. the day of passing of the Act on crediting, as part of the sale price or perpetual usufruct right to the State Treasury property, the value of real property left  outside the present state borders. The author also tries to answer the question what caused the passing of the so-called Bug River Act occur so late, 15 years after the political transformation?

The author presents the district court in Malbork during first years after the II World War. He shows the struggle of the first chief of the court – Jerzy Jędrzejewski to make the court work. The author also depicts Jerzy Jędrzejewski as a person, his life, and career as a judge. Jędrzejewski had become a judge in Nowogródek and years later became a founder of the court in one of the towns of post-Jalta northern
Poland. The author also shows choices Jędrzejewski made in his professional life in the face of the new political system in Poland.

A very important, but also a particularly sensitive area in the relation between the supreme audit institution (SAI) and the executive is the issue of
financing this audit institution. Indeed, effective promotion of the principle of public accountability requires that the supreme audit institution receives sufficient financial resources to perform its duties properly. Therefore, the independence of supreme audit institutions requires the provision of all the personal, material and financial resources necessary for the performance of its tasks. They should also have sole responsibility for the management of the budget and the distribution of the funds allocated to them. The article is an attempt to answer the question of how legal regulations adopted in the Member States guarantee financial independence
to the supreme audit institutions.

The concepts of a paradigm and a paradigm shift bring significant added value in the science of international law in. They do not have to be understood only as the basic theoretical assumptions forming a coherent research doctrine, but also (as they are most often used in practice) as basic assumptions, typical solutions or standard mechanisms typical for a given part of international law or for international law as whole. Adopting the perspective of paradigm shift shows the dynamics of normative transformations and identify their nature (apparent i.a. in the context of Briand-Kellog Pact).
The author argues that international investment law undergoes fundamental paradigmatic transformations both in terms of theory (departure from the neoliberal pattern for sustainable development) and in the material (standards of treatment, dispute resolution procedures) as well as institutional (new treaty bodies with competence for interpreting the treaty, the Investment Court System or the Multilateral Investment Tribunal project). At the same time, this comprehensive reorientation, and especially the time of its occurrence, is not easy to grasp due to the specificity of the international investment law which consists of over 2500 treaties.

The European Court of Human Rights describes itself as the most effective international human rights tribunal in the world. However, on the threshold of the third decade of the 21st century, the ECtHR has been facing serious challenges. Regardless of the crisis caused by the failure of the mechanism of Convention implementation, in the face of the growing number of complaints and Eurosceptics, the populist tendencies have been emerging, especially in some European countries. The Court itself has become the subject of criticism, especially from some state parties to the European Convention of Human Rights. In this context arises a question about the
topicality of the debate on the constitutional nature of the ECtHR. In particular, is it still possible to speak about the constitutional nature of the ECtHR?
The author tries to answer this question through the perspective of the debate on the constitutional nature of the ECtHR as well as the constitutional nature of its judgements. Then he analyzes the issue of the constitutional nature of the Tribunal in the context of its legitimacy. The author concludes that the phenomenon of constitutionalization of the ECtHR is rather a longterm process than the existing state of affairs. The course of this process and its result depend on various factors. It depends on the Tribunal itself, its courage, the quality of issued judgments, as well as the readiness of states to recognize the constitutional role of the ECtHR. In the long term, the ECtHR should not stop carrying out its mission to implement the spirit of the Convention and defend human rights in Europe, but it should implement it in a constitutional manner, as the European constitutional tribunal in the field of human rights.

In all legal systems, particular importance is attached to legislation. Nowadays, it is the domain of two authorities: legislative and executive power. This understanding of legislation conditioned by this assumption covers, therefore, both statutes, acts of the rank of the statutes and generally applicable acts of executive nature. It also allows analyzing an institution particularly interesting in the American system – Regulatory Impact Analysis. Such analysis is prepared in relation to executive acts issued by federal regulatory agencies. President Donald Trump decided to introduce in 2017 the „two out-one in” principle, which may significantly change the process of preparing such analysis. These issues are important due to the possible plans to reform Polish solutions in that manner. In the United States, there is also a procedure for checking the effectiveness of regulations conducted by the services subordinated to Congress. As far as its basis is concerned, this solution does not differ from those of the Polish Bureau of Research of the Chancellery of the Sejm.

The author introduces the concept of law formulated by Maurice Hauriou, an eminent French author who specialized in administrative and constitutional law
and also in the philosophy of law (1856-1929). He considered law as a reflection of the symbolic sphere constituting political society – its „directing idea”. Hauriou’s thought is topical in the context of contemporary discussions about the role of law
in social integration and the possibility of „autonomy” of law. The philosophy of law formulated by Hauriou is a part of his concept of institution. According to Hauriou, law, like any institution, consists of social practice and an idea that legitimizes and directs it. This idea cannot be reduced to any real institutional practice or a specific ideology. It is a part of a broader axiological context creating the identity of a political community. It is based on fundamental values of this community, however it. transgresses their contextual interpretations presented by authorities. Therefore Hauriou’s theory allows to interpret the relation of law and the political sphere properly. It can also be a tool of criticism of contemporary concepts reducing law to ideology or to views of legal circles.