Table of contents

Andrzej Adamczyk
Index of publications for 2024 ………………………………………………………………………………….. 5

PUBLIC LAW INSTITUTIONS
Jan Kluza
Solutions provided for in the act of October 6, 2022 amending acts to counteract
usury against the background of existing civil and criminal law regulations …………………….. 13

ADMINISTRATIVE SUBSTANTIVE LAW
Agnieszka Narożniak
Human cases – human decisions? On the use of artificial intelligence in proceedings
to legalise the residence of foreigners …………………………………………………………………………. 32

FINANCIAL LAW
Piotr Kobylski
Directions of changes in the financing model of local government units …………………………. 44

PROCEDURAL LAW
Filip Piotr Pawlus
The specific legal nature of the decision on development conditions issued to legalize
unauthorized construction……………………………………………………………………………………….. 53

ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM
Bogdan Dolnicki
Openness of the activities of local government bodies and access to public information ……. 63
Dawid Daniluk
The (in)equality of entities authorized to run free legal aid and free civic counselling
points ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 84
Mirosław Karpiuk
The Status of Local Governments in the Sphere of Defence ………………………………………….. 98

Jan Kluza

Solutions provided for in the act of October 6, 2022 amending acts to counteract usury against the background of existing civil and criminal law regulations

Abstract

The article concerns the issues related to counteracting usury both on the basis of civil law and criminal regulations. Recently, the legislator has taken a number of measures to strengthen counteracting usury both in the area of civil law and criminal regulations. The previous regulations in this regard, especially under the Consumer Credit Act, allowed for charging very high credit costs, which were within the statutory range and could be enforced as such. In the area of criminal law, the regulation of the crime of exploitation was very limited.

Agnieszka Narożniak

Human cases – human decisions? On the use of artificial intelligence in proceedings to legalise the residence of foreigners

Abstract

The subject matter of this paper is the legal aspects of the use of new technologies, in particular artificial intelligence, in migration management. The considerations, due to publishing requirements, have been narrowed down to issues related to the legalisation of foreigners’ stay. The first part presents examples of the use of the discussed technologies in such procedures by various countries, with particular emphasis on Canada, to move on to the Polish law on foreigners in the second part, identifying potential opportunities and conditions in the analysed scope. The author assumes that the use of new technologies, including artificial intelligence tools in global migration management, inevitably leads to the need to reflect in this respect also in Poland and finds it reasonable to consider the legal and technical possibilities of implementing AI tools in proceedings on the legalisation of stay of foreigners. Due to the complexity of these cases and the decisions that directly affect human fates, the Author is reserved with regard to the potential use of highly autonomous systems, recommending rather the use of system-tools as one of the means of ensuring the efficiency and speed of proceedings, while stressing that the efficiency of the administration must remain in function of the dignity and rights of the individual. 

Piotr Kobylski

Directions of changes in the financing model of local government units

Abstract

This study is devoted to the directions of changes in the financing model of local government units. The significant decline in local government revenues that has been going on for many years makes it difficult to talk about their relative financial independence and the process of decentralization, especially when the scale of general subsidies and subsidies granted depends on the central government. The main thesis of the work is related to the assessment of the model which, de lege lata, is to guarantee a sufficient amount of public funds for the activities of local governments. As a result, the work presents de lege ferenda postulates that would allow for effective actions of local governments while maintaining their political features.

Filip Piotr Pawlus

The specific legal nature of the decision on development conditions issued to legalize unauthorized construction

Abstract

The provisions of the Act of 27/03/2003 on spatial planning and development do not contain any clear legal regulations relating to the procedure and content of decisions on development conditions issued to legalize unauthorized construction. The article shows that such a decision cannot be identified with a typical decision on development conditions. For this purpose, the article presents a summary of the features of a decision on development conditions issued to legalize unauthorized construction, compared with the features of a typical decision on development conditions. The article presents the results of the analysis of the jurisprudence of administrative courts in this area, as well as formal and dogmatic considerations. As a result, a synthesis of issues related to the decision on development conditions issued to legalize unauthorized construction was presented. The analysis also led to the identification of doubts arising from the application of applicable regulations. Conclusions from the research in question may be used by law enforcement authorities and constitute the basis for the legislator’s actions.

Bogdan Dolnicki

Openness of the activities of local government bodies and access to public information

Abstract

Access to public information is one of the cardinal principles of modern democracy and civil society. The provision of Article 61 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland specifies entities obliged to provide information to citizens. Entities obliged to provide information include, among others, local government units (municipalities, counties and self-government voivodeships), acting through their legislative and executive bodies. The obligation to provide information (as a correlate of the right to access information) means the need to convey it in such a way that it is understandable to the average recipient. The article discusses the principle of transparency of the activities of local government bodies, limitations of the transparency of the activities of public authorities and the issue of access to public information.

Dawid Daniluk

The (in)equality of entities authorized to run free legal aid and free civic counselling points

Abstract

Providing free legal aid or delivering free civic counselling services takes place at specific points. The district delegates half of these points to be managed by advocates and attorneys-at-law for providing free legal aid, and the other half to non-governmental organizations conducting public benefit activity for providing free legal aid or delivering free civic counselling services. The involvement of non-governmental organizations in the free aid system was not planned in the original version of the law. The author attempts to characterize the positions of entities entitled to operate the points by formulating the research question of whether the division of points between advocates and attorneys-at-law and non-governmental organizations is rationally justified by the provisions of the law or rather constitutes the result of conflicting interests of both groups seeking to gain the largest possible share of the service market in the free aid system.

Mirosław Karpiuk

The Status of Local Governments in the Sphere of Defence

Abstract

The decentralisation of public administration requires that some of the public tasks be delegated to non-central authorities, including local governments, which have the best understanding of local-community needs. As public-private entities, local governments also deal with defence tasks. They provide significant non-military support for the state’s defence system. The bulk of local governments’ tasks related to neutralising military threats is preventive in nature. In essence, their goal is to prepare the local and regional community for wartime while also appropriately securing, in a bottom-up fashion, the state’s defence system. Local-government security policies must recognise the state’s defence needs, including those of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland. Accordingly, measures and actions must be coordinated at the individual administration levels. Within provinces, local governments’ defence activities are coordinated by province governors.