Is Silence (After All) Golden? Once Again on Criminal Liability for False Deposits

The paper discusses the consequences of introducing article 233 § 1a to the Criminal Code, and focuses on the procedural position of an interrogated perpetrator. It refers to the current position of the Supreme Court on that issue. Until recent amendments, the judiciary and most of the doctrine has unanimously considered that it is contrary to the constitutional right to defense to hold a witness who is an actual perpetrator but still being questioned under the regime of criminal liability for providing false testimony. Is it allowed to make an adverse inference from an interrogated witness/indicted person’s silence? Does invoking the right to remain silent guaranteed by the Code of Criminal Procedure warrants any sort of further privilege as it happens under the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution? What can be indicated as a Strasbourg’s standard in that field? A comparative analysis presented in the article indicates severe risks of incoherency and significant new threats to the right to defense.

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Tarapata_Zontek.pdf

420 kB

The Rules of Collecting and Safekeeping Time of Biometric and Genetic Data for the Purposes of the Prevention or Prosecution of Criminal Offences? European and National Standard

A biometric (fingerprints and police pictures) and genetic (DNA) data are a special type of personal data. As a rule, collecting, processing and safekeeping of the data shall be subject to the same condition as a sensu stricto personal data (e.g. name, surname). Domestic law should provide additional procedural guarantees to prevent unnecessary and unproportioned interference of the realm of the individual’s privacy. The European Court of Human Rights has created European standard of collecting, processing and safekeeping of a genetic and biometric data, which should be implemented in the national law. Does Polish law comply with the European standard? The next question is what kind of changes in the domestic law, should be taken to provide a standard of protection of the privacy of the individual in accordance with the requirements of the ECtHR.

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Czerniak.pdf

341 kB

Energy Communities in the Directives of the Clean Energy for All Europeans Package

The paper concerns citizens energy communities (CECs) and renewable energy communities (RECc) within EU. It presents the regulator’s goals and the ideas that stand behind energy communities. It also discusses an energy community model which merges form EU directives and gives assumptions regarding regulatory frameworks that Member States have to put in place. It pays attention to the principle of providing a level playing field for energy communities. The author shows the challenges facing by Polish regulations and wonders whether it will be necessary to change the Polish energy model completely, because it is focused on profit-making undertakings.

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Dlugosz.pdf

369 kB

The “Social Organisation” of the Workplace as a Fundamental Concept of Labour Law Theory

The workplace, that is an organisation which consists of people and, therefore, is social in nature, is crucial key for percieving labour law from the perspective of public administration. Put simply, if we want to view the fulfilment of tasks or public functions within the realm of labour law, we always need to bear in mind that although we might be referring to “the employer”, the discussion in fact refers to the workplace, with the employer being a certain “organ” or emanation of the workplace. The need for deliberations around this reflection turns out to be urgent in modern-day academic research if we consider the social dimension of the human community at the workplace.

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Musiala.pdf

297 kB

Liability for Damages Caused by Autonomous Vehicles

Depending on the situation, the liability can be assigned to the driver of the car, the owner, the operator, the producer, but also the public authorities that approve the requirements for the car’s software. The actual legal situation permits the liability assignment. Due to the traditional point of view, in case of owning a car, it is possible to apply the article 436 of the Polish Civil Code. When we assume that the autonomous vehicle is dangerous, the liability based on the article 4491 should be applied. It is also possible to adopt the public authority’s liability, especially when the legal requirements for the exploitation research is concerned. Irregardless the existing solution in the Polish law, it is to be expected that the issues related to responsibility for the autonomous vehicles will constitute to a wider extent the object of the European Union’s law regulations

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Robaczynski.pdf

354 kB

Conditions and Formal Deficiencies of Pleadings in Civil Non-litigious Proceedings

This article discusses pleadings in non-litigious proceedings as a tool ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of proceedings. It exploits the relationship between the scope of use of pleadings, their formal conditions as well as the procedure for removing formal deficiencies on the one hand and the diversity of the subject, purpose and function of individual types of proceedings conducted in a non-litigious manner on the other. To ensure the comprehensiveness of the considerations the author referred also to the applicable provisions provided for in the litigious proceedings, particularly the regulations subject to recent amendments, and indicated the scope and admissibility of their possible application in a non-litigious proceedings.

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Gapska.pdf

353 kB

Permissibility of Repeal or Amend Municipality Participatory (Civic) Budget Resolution

Permissibility of repeal or amend participatory (civil) budget resolution can become a real problem during the COVID-19 pandemic (or during other crisis-like periods). On the one hand, that kind of action can undermine members of the local community trust in local authorities. On the other hand, the issue discloses a conflict between the essential values of local government.

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Misiejko.pdf

298 kB