Courts In Poland Research Articles

Kontekst małżeństwa Bony Sforzy z Zygmuntem I Starym: dyplomacja Maksymiliana I we Włoszech i Środkowej Europie

This article will focus on the circumstances which contributed to the 1517 dynastic marriage of Bona Sforza of Milan to Sigismund I the Elder of Poland. It will examine the decline of Sforza and Neapolitan Aragon influence on the Apennine Peninsula in the face of Valois and Habsburg claims to supremacy. This article aims to place Habsburg diplomatic manoeuvring to secure the installation of Maximillian I’s niece as Queen of Poland in the context of Habsburg-Valois rivalry in Italy and Habsburg ambitions for dominance in Central Europe where they challenged the Jagiellon dynasts of Bohemia and Hungary, and of Poland and Lithuania. This article will demonstrate that the contracting of the Sforza-Jagiellon marriage was initiated by Maximillian I as an extension of a deliberate and assertive Habsburg policy. Habsburg policy objectives included removal of the prime claimant to the throne of Milan and the placing of a queen acquiescent to Habsburg strategy at the Jagiellon court in Poland. This article will conclude that the marriage was used by the Habsburgs as a dynastic and political tool to limit the Jagiellon dynasty’s power and authority in Central Europe.

Impact of the Passage of Time on the Correct Identification of the Speaker Using the Auditory Method

Courts in Poland, as well as in most countries in the world, allow for the identification of a person on the basis of his/her voice using the so-called voice presentation method, i.e., the auditory method. This method is used in situations where there is no sound recording and the perpetrator of the criminal act was masked and the victim heard only his or her voice. However, psychologists, forensic acousticians, as well as researchers in the field of auditory perception and forensic science more broadly describe many cases in which such testimony resulted in misjudgement. This paper presents the results of an experiment designed to investigate, in a Polish language setting, the extent to which the passage of time impairs the correct identification of a person. The study showed that 31 days after the speaker’s voice was first heard, the correct identification for a female voice was 30% and for a male voice 40%.

Kazirodztwo w świetle przypadku badawczego

Aim: The aim of the article was to present the issue of violence taking place in the basic social group, which is the family, in the form of incestuous sexual relations. The development of criminal liability for a given crime was mentioned. Various penal codifications in Poland were taken into account, including the Penal Code of 1932 and 1969. The results obtained showed the practical legal classification of an event that meets the statutory criteria of the crime of incest. The presented text is intended to provide a deeper analysis of the discussed phenomenon. Methods: The individual case method and examination of documents, i.e. court files. Results: The issue of incest, which was analyzed in the above research case, allows for drawing conclusions in terms of criteria such as: explaining the essence of the crime specified in Art. 201 of the Penal Code, the legal characteristics of the prohibited act specified in Art. 201 of the Penal Code and a discussion of the consequences of incestuous sexual intercourse for the family, especially the child, and the forms of assistance. As a result of a thorough consideration of the case by one of the District Courts in Poland, it was necessary to change the legal classification of the act charged against the accused. It should be noted that the amendment to the Penal Code, introduced by the Act of November 5, 2009, extended the qualified type of rape to include rape of an ascendant, descendant, adoptee, brother or sister. When imposing a sentence on the accused, apart from the circumstances that were directly related to the crimes he committed, the court also took into account the fact that the accused did not understand his behavior and did not feel any remorse for it.Coclusion: The research presented in the article below constitutes a way of learning about the crime of incest, which not only allows for expanding knowledge on this subject, but also provides practical guidelines for the legal classification of an act that meets the statutory features of the prohibited act in question. From the point of view of a criminologist and a pedagogue, practice is an important point to perform one's profession correctly. The research constitutes a section of scientific research on: "criminal law and criminological characteristics of the crime of incest (Article 201 of the Penal Code). However, I think that this fragment can be a reason to reflect on the issue of incest and how effective help can be provided to children who are direct or indirect victims of incestuous sexual intercourse.Oryginality: both the research conducted and the content obtained from it, as well as the remaining content of the study based on current premises and legal acts. Keyword: violence, incest, family, safety, crime, sexual intercourse, research case

Forensic mental health assessments of juvenile misdemeanor cases involving demoralization (status offenses) and delinquency

PurposeThe role of evidence-based psychological knowledge in cases of juvenile offending is essential to make appropriate decisions relating to youth who violate legal or social norms, as it carries implications for treatment, intervention and practice. Psychological expert opinions therefore need to meet high formal and methodological requirements while maintaining ethical standards. The purpose of this study is to investigate psychological expert opinions in cases of juvenile misbehavior reported to regional courts in Poland. Juvenile court proceedings concern cases of demoralization and/or delinquent offenses. Demoralization is a legal concept described in the Act of June 9, 2022 on juvenile support and resocialization. This concept was not defined; it was only described through examples of behaviors indicating demoralization. These include the following: violations of the principles of community life; evading compulsory education or schooling; use of alcohol, narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their precursors, substitutes or new psychoactive substances; and prostitution.Design/methodology/approachTo reach these goals, court records of juvenile cases in six district courts (N = 253) were gathered and analyzed. A semistructured questionnaire was used to examine the cases in which psychologists were appointed and to analyze the procedures used by these experts for assessing adolescents and their families.FindingsFindings revealed that family judges appoint psychologists both in cases of “demoralization” (i.e. status offenses) and in cases of juvenile delinquency. The opinions were delivered by psychologists who were mostly members of diagnostic teams. Results indicate that such opinions generally comply with the minimal standards recommended by the Ministry of Justice, yet a few problems were observed with the determination of levels of demoralization.Originality/valueThe limitations of diagnostic tools used by psychologists are discussed, and recommendations for future practice are provided.

Szwedzki i polski model postępowania sądowoadministracyjnego - analiza prawnoporównawcza

The article juxtaposes two models of proceedings before administrative courts: the Swedish one and the Polish one. The aim of the article is to answer the question whether Swedish legal regulation may inspire the Polish legislator in a possible amendment of the law on proceedings before administrative courts. The first part of the article analyses Swedish proceedings before administrative courts. This model is characterized by an extensive organisational structure, a wide scope of cases, the evidence proceedings, as well as the possibility to amend the appealed decision. The second part of the article is devoted to Polish regulation. It points out the two-tier nature of administrative judiciary, the limited possibilities of conducting evidence proceedings and the cassation model of jurisprudence. In his conclusions, the author finds interesting the possibility of broadening the scope of evidence proceedings and the possibility of structural expansion of administrative courts in Poland.

GLOSA DO PUNKTU 2 LIT. B WYROKU TRYBUNAŁU KONSTYTUCYJNEGO Z DNIA 7 PAŹDZIERNIKA 2021 R., K 3/21

The author offers a critical commentary on the point 2b of the Constitutional Tribunal judgment of 7 October 2021, K 3/21. The Tribunal claims that issuing court verdicts on the basis of the provisions which are not binding, having been revoked by the Sejm and/or ruled by the Constitutional Tribunal, is inconsistent with Art. 2, 7, 8(1), 90(1), and 178(1) of the Constitution. The Constitutional Court reconstructs the mentioned above jurisdiction of the courts based on the Art. 19(1), second subparagraph, of the Treaty on European Union. The author doesn’t agree with this statement and argues that the Tribunal incorrectly and unlawfully interprets the provisions of the Treaty. Furthermore, the verdict is in contrary to Art. 2 and 42 of the Polish Constitution and the principle of non retroactivity of law. Moreover, the Tribunal’s decision violates the concept of the Constitutional Tribunal judicature with the deferred clause. The author claims that the Tribunal’s decision does not cause any legal effects and the courts in Poland will not apply it during resolving cases.

The “Other” in Court: Islam and Muslims in Polish Judicial Opinions Published Online

Muslims are a marginal minority in Poland, but research shows that they are often subject to negative perceptions and hostility from the majority. Orientalist stereotypes about Islam and the people associated with it are widespread and often reproduced in the media. Research from North America and the European Court of Human Rights suggests that such prejudices can affect the adjudication of cases involving Muslims. It may be presumed that Poland is no exception to that, and this assumption was the starting point for our empirical study. To date, there have been no studies on the perception of Muslims and Islam in the Polish legal system. This article presents the results of a qualitative thematic analysis of 57 judicial opinions issued by the common courts in Poland and published online, in which Islam or being Muslim was mentioned. The cases were categorised and texts of the judicial opinions closely analysed (with computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software) to identify recurring themes. The findings of this first exploratory study show that stereotypical representations and the “‘Othering” of Muslims do indeed occur in Polish courts, with some judges repeating Orientalist tropes that have become normalised in Polish society.

EU Court of Justice rules that NGOs have the right to challenge forest management plans through the courts in Poland

EU Court of Justice rules that NGOs have the right to challenge forest management plans through the courts in Poland

The Model of Adjudication by Administrative Courts in Poland

This research concerns the model of judicial proceedings by Polish administrative courts. Article purpose is to analyze the administrative court in Poland, to compare it with the Ukrainian one, to investigate the effectiveness and possibilities of intervention of the administrative court in the sphere of powers of other authorities. Administrative justice in Poland consists of voivodship administrative courts, which hear cases in the first instance, and the Supreme Administrative Court as a court of second instance. The author assumed that the introduction of a mixed model of judicial practice of administrative courts effectively fulfills the main goal of administrative proceedings, which is to protect individual rights from the arbitrariness of public administration bodies. The intrusion of the administrative court into the sphere of powers of the authorities is justified by the effectiveness and efficiency of the judiciary. This allows the complainant to get a decision on the merits much faster. The mixed model of judicial practice of Polish administrative courts allows more effective implementation of the protection of individual rights. The analysis of the issue was carried out using theoretical-legal and historical-legal methods.

Charakterystyka działalności poselskiej Hermana Liebermana w latach 1922–1926 dotyczącej Najwyższego Trybunału Administracyjnego

The article aims to present Herman Lieberman’s parliamentary activity in the years 1922–1926, concerning the enactment and amendment of the act on the Supreme Administrative Tribunal of 3 August 1922. The main reason for exploring this problem is the fact that his parliamentary activity, focusing on the first Polish administrative court, was omitted from his memoires and his official biography, written by Artur Leinwald. Apart from that, the topic of this article coincides with the centenary of the Supreme Administrative Tribunal. Furthermore, this publication shows how the Sejm and the Supreme Administrative Tribunal operated before the may coup of 1926, because afterwards the new executive was progressively forcing the Supreme Administrative Tribunal to cooperate with government and to support state policy. The greatest number of sources concerning Lieberman’s parliamentary activity in the interwar period can be found at the Sejm Library’s website. Therefore, the methodology for writing this article consisted in the analysis of the bills and protocols of the Sejm, the Constitutional Committee, and the Legal Committee. These sources show that Herman Lieberman was very involved in the legislative work concerning the Supreme Administrative Tribunal. Analysis of these documents makes it possible to conclude that the parliamentarian was a great supporter of setting up this court in Poland. Herman Lieberman was sure that the Supreme Administrative Tribunal would be the guarantor of the protection of individual rights and freedoms.

“Frozen” Valorization of Judges’ Salaries in Poland in the Light of Europe Union Legal Standards

The material independence of judges is one of the essential guarantees of their independence and, at the same time, the proper functioning of the judiciary. Of course, one should not conclude from this that there is a simple relationship between independence and the material status of judges, nor should one presume a general prohibition on reducing judicial salaries. Undoubtedly, however, commensurate remuneration is permanently linked to the question of judicial independence. The aim of this article is to analyze premises of the permissibility of “freezing” adjustment of judges’ salaries in the light of international legal standards. The article is based on a specific factual situation, as in 2023, that basic salary adjustment for judges of common courts in Poland was “frozen” for the third year in a row.

The Right to Participate in the Consultations on the Participatory Budget in the Light of Legislation and the Case Law of Administrative Courts in Poland

In the practice of the Polish local and regional government, participatory budgeting has been used since 2011, and was the first one introduced in Sopot. It is a form of consultation with residents on the allocation of a portion of the budgetary expenses of a unit of the local or regional government, most often a city. This is a special type of procedure in which residents participate in the creation of the budget of a city (municipality), thereby jointly determining the distribution of a certain pool of public funds. In the first years of the application of participatory budgeting in Poland, a very general legal authorization was used to allow consultations with residents. It was only after several years of grassroots use of participatory budgeting that it was regulated in the Polish legal system in the Act of January 11, 2018 amending certain acts. Since then, it has become a mandatory form of public consultation in cities with district rights. The procedure for participatory budgeting in municipalities is generally regulated in Article 5a of the Act on the commune-level local government. The application of participatory budgeting in Poland has resulted in an extensive case law of administrative courts, hence the purpose of this paper is to determine the group of those entitled to participate in public consultations on participatory budgeting in light of the law and the case law of administrative courts. Using the dogmatic-legal method enabled a positive evaluation of the adopted research. hypothesis that the provisions of local law that designate the group of entities entitled to participate in participatory budgeting procedure is restrictive compared to the provisions of the applicable statute.

Administrative Courts in Lithuania: History, Evolution, the Present, and Perspectives

Judicial review of the legality of administrative acts is one of the most important elements of the rule of law. The institute of administrative justice began to develop in the 19th century: in 1872 The French Council of State was given a function of judicial review, the Administrative Court in Vienna (Austria-Hungary) was established in 1867, in Baden (Germany) in 1863, etc. After the First World War, administrative courts were established in several European countries. The law on the Supreme Administrative Court and its Jurisdiction in Czechoslovakia was adopted in 1918. The Law for the Supreme Administrative Court in Poland was issued in 1922. Administrative courts were also functioning in other countries (Latvia, Estonia). In Lithuania administrative courts were established for the first time in 1999, although up to fifteen draft laws on the Administrative Court were prepared in the interwar Lithuania. This article was written on the occasion of the centenary of the Polish administrative courts. Thus, the purpose of the article is to familiarize the readers with Lithuanian administrative courts, starting with the development of the institute of administrative justice from 1918 and ending with the perspectives of judicial review formed in that time. Therefore, the authors of the article set the following objectives: to remind of the origins of administrative justice in Lithuania from 1918 to 1940; to reveal the course of the establishment of administrative courts after the Restoration of the Independence of the Republic of Lithuania in 1990, briefly discussing who and on the basis of which legal acts controlled the legality of administrative acts during the Soviet era; to provide the insights of institutional evelopment as well as competence development of the administrative courts; to present contemporary administrative process, giving some insights about the status quo; to present the features of and the most relevant reforms of administrative process. Abbreviations used in the article are as follows: CSARL – Central State Archive of the Republic ofLithuania, MDWLLAS – Manuscript Department of the Wróblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.

Wybrane aspekty ochrony środowiska w orzecznictwie sądów administracyjnych

The subject of the study is the analysis of selected rulings of administrative courts in environmental protection. The analysis of selected rulings of administrative courts justifies the inadequacies in the process of the application of environmental law by authorised public administration bodies due to the lack of the desired specialist knowledge of complex environmental processes. The issue of environmental protection is still important and topical both from the point of view of the state and individual entities. We can observe that the issues of environmental protection are the subject of research of various scientific disciplines, including natural, economic and social sciences. The aim of the conducted considerations is to show selected problems related to environmental protection in the perspective of the judicial activity of administrative courts in Poland.

War in Ukraine as a Factor Determining the Scope of Judicial Review of Public Administration in Poland: Remarks on the Municipal Resolutions Providing Aid for Ukrainian Local and Regional Communities

This paper aims to determine whether the war in Ukraine will affect the scope of judicial verification of public administration in Poland. According to new legislation (the socalled Aid Act), which Polish Parliament passed shortly after February 24, 2022, the Polish municipalities (cities) are entitled to provide aid for local foreign communities, especially those within the borders of Ukraine. The basis for such aid will take the form of a proper municipal or city council resolution. The main issue concerning this form of aid is the necessity of applying Ukrainian law, at least in the context of decoding who is entitled to be a beneficiary. Against this background, it is vital to determine whether such circumstances as war and humanitarian reasons should affect the scope of judicial review. In theory, two approaches are available, formalism and judicial relativism which both are inappropriate. The author argues that the doctrine of deference, as understood by justice A. Scalia must be applied to secure both rule of law principle and the legitimacy of administrative courts in Poland. The main subject of the analysis was the content of the law, which was the starting point for analysing the views of the doctrine and jurisprudence. Due to the international nature of the issue, it was necessary to refer to the achievements of Ukrainian law.

Measuring the prestige of administrative courts

This article examines the citation practices of the provincial administrative courts in Poland in a sample of judgments issued in the years 2009–2016. The analysis strives to assess the factors affecting the use of other court citations and the prestige of provincial courts manifested in the higher citations of their verdicts. The methods used involve logistic and zero-inflated negative binomial regressions on the set of factors relating to court circuit characteristics, the performance of courts, the features of cases and the efficiency of the administration in a given province. The results indicate that, out of sixteen courts, there is only one provincial administrative court with high prestige. The number of citations is higher for more populated circuits and decreases with the number of employed judges in a court. While small courts cite more they are also more frequently cited than larger ones.

Cultural Expertise versus Strategic Ignorance: Confronting Cultural Diversity In and Out of Court in Poland

Based on a systematic analysis of three databases of court decisions and a comprehensive overview of out-of-court use of cultural expertise in dispute resolution across various institutional contexts, this article investigates how Polish authorities tackle emerging issues of cultural diversity. Although Poland remains one of the European Union’s (EU) most ethnically and culturally homogeneous countries, increased immigration and internal pluralism bring new challenges for the courts and other public institutions involved in dispute resolution. Increasingly, generic references and commonsense understandings are replaced by more precise indications of sources, uses of academic sources or reports by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and appointment of relevant experts. On the other hand, judges still tend to attempt their own interpretations and usually reject motions to instruct social scientists as expert witnesses, choosing the approach once aptly described as “strategic ignorance.”2 Thus, in this article, I look at how Polish courts justify instruction (or rejection of motions to instruct) social scientists as expert witnesses and where they draw the line between common sense and expert interpretations of culture. I also survey the rising demand for cultural expertise in dispute settlement in immigration services, detention centers, the military, and education.

Sex, Age, Education, Marital Status, Number of Children, and Employment – the Impact of Extralegal Factors on Sentencing Disparities

Abstract Countries that have judicial discretion in their legal system usually struggle with sentencing disparities. This is no different in Poland. The current study examined whether extralegal factors such as age, sex, education, marital status, number of children, and having a job impact sentencing disparities. We examined court files from 13 district courts in Poland for two offenses: drug possession and drunk driving. Our findings show that sex, age, and number of children have no or little effect on outcomes, whilst marital status and employment status have small to medium effects on sentencing. The clearest result pattern to emerge from our analyses is that defendants with tertiary education are treated more leniently than those with primary or lower secondary education.

Legal Position of Administrative Courts in Poland

Abstract The article concerns the administrative judiciary in Poland. Firstly, the Author discusses the legal bases (in particular, the constitutional bases) and the scope of competence of Polish administrative courts, that is to say the ‘voivodeship’ administrative courts (courts of first instance) and the Supreme Administrative Court (court of second instance). Administrative courts in Poland are, in general, the “courts of cassation”, which means they may only control the legality of administrative decisions and may not determine the state of facts, nor replace administrative decisions by their judgments. Administrative courts are vested with the competence to apply the Constitution and they actively cooperate with the Constitutional Tribunal (in particular, by addressing ‘questions of law’ to the Tribunal). Secondly, the Author presents the scope of competence of the Commercial and Financial Chambers of the Supreme Administrative Court and considers selected legal problems in the administrative courts’ jurisprudence in commercial and financial cases.

Path dependence in administrative adjudication: the role played by legal tradition

Based on the theory of path dependence, we show that legal tradition affects the administrative court’s rulings. It also complements the two other reasons for diversified verdicts: the experience of the judges and courts (specialization) and preference (bias) for one of the parties. This effect is persistent even if the verdicts are controversial and result in serious consequences for a party and when the penalty paid by the complainant is perceived as excessive but fulfilling the strict rules of law. We prove that judicial decision making is a function of path dependency stemming from a legal tradition of the court. To confirm this, logistic regression is applied to a sample of 337 erroneous excise duty documentation cases of heating oil sales from all sixteen provincial administrative courts in Poland. Increasing the specialization of judges and having them exchange experiences may be a remedy for the unjustified adjudication differences.