The Importance of Trust at the Level of Public International Law: A Contribution to Theoretical Considerations

The purpose of this article is to point to trust as a value serving the coexistence of international community cooperation, as well as the elimination of global threats in public international law. The article presents selected approaches and typology of trust adopted in social sciences (with particular emphasis on the sociology of law as an auxiliary science of jurisprudence), their reference to the understanding and meaning of trust in public international law, as well as consequences in the form of shaping the quality and content of legislative solutions and practice of acting in the international arena. As a result of the conducted analyses, trust in international law can be considered in three ways: first, as trust in the binding rule established by the subjects of international law; second, as a value expressed by the axiology of international law and principles of institutional significance; third, as a requirement of effective practice that exemplifies the theoretical and axiological assumptions of law.

Impact of PSD2 on The Payment Services Market – General Objectives and Evidence from Polish and UK Legal Systems

Payment Service Directive 2 came into force on 13th January 2018. It has replaced the prior directive and introduces new tools allowing to provide more advanced payment services. New legislation aims to increase competition and allow new entrants into the market. The thesis leads through the different aspects of the Directive, emphasizing an influence the legislation has on the companies providing modern solutions in the payment services market. The legal changes are analysed and assessed following the differences resulting from Payment Service Directive 2. For better understanding the impact of Directive, recent technological accomplishments are briefly described and explained. The overall results of the analysis are concluded on the basis of British and Polish payment services markets. The outcome reveals a contrast between these two countries in a number of new payment services providers as well as they origins. Research shows that the Polish payment services market is less accessible for non-bank financial companies.

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on financing the purchase of residential real estate through a mortgage in Poland

The study analyses the changes in financing the purchase of residential real estate based on a mortgage in Poland, caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in its initial stage, that is, the period from March to September 2020. The research problem is the impact of the pandemic on the process of granting and repaying loans for housing purposes. Banking institutions tightened the terms of granting financing. People who received financing earlier may, however, benefit from assistance in paying off the debt. The research hypothesis assumes the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for the consumers of the housing loan market in the analysed period. The research methods used are the analysis of statistical data and facts. The author looks at the situation on the real estate market and the situation on the housing loan market in 2020. The study then highlights the actions of lending banks and the actions of buyers in the first pandemic months.

Internal Rate of Return on Investment in Higher Education in Europe

The study aims to update the well-settled issue in literature of rate of return on investment in higher education in Europe. The proposed approach slightly modifies the existing methodology based on the Mincer equation, using an updated set of data for the period 2014–2016 from the European Central Bank's ‘Household Finance and Consumption Survey’. The results obtained, ranging between 13% and 21%, are higher compared to historical records for the years 1996–2013. As for the microeconometric estimates of the Mincer-type equation, they are sound and comparable, although showing higher margins in relation to the recent figures. Thus, they may suggest an increasing trend in valuation and importance of human capital based on high school degree, especially for the Central–Eastern European Union countries, resulting probably from rapid economic and cultural convergence.

The concept of institutionalised disintegration: towards a recognition of the EU institutions anew

The main purpose of this article is to recognise an ongoing phenomenon of disintegration in legal terms. A specific role of the EU institutions is inevitable because of supranational relations’ nature and to-date momentum of public international law. Briefly, disintegration supported by the EU institutions may be the expected solution. Therefore, the concept of institutionalised disintegration is the author’s proposal for using the EU acquis to create a new (autonomous) treaty regime of public international law and to define the EU institutions anew. The basis for reconciliation of institutions and disintegration is to constitute the scientific method on so-called legal phenomena that combine dogmas and functions of law in general. Legal phenomena are correlated with de lege ferenda proposals that – mainly critically – react to current challenges. Challenges – in turn – are derived from a de lege lata analysis of the politico-legal system (especially understanding of the institution, mapping of disintegration and examination of legislative methods).

Smart Administration– Really? Why Not? Introduction

In an increasingly smarter world, where increasingly more areas of social life are encompassed by “smart solutions”, public administration cannot remain on the outside or in opposition to this process. The scholars of the Section of the Public Administration System at the Institute of Administrative Sciences of Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics at the University of Wrocław, have decided to devote a collective publication to the matter of smart administration. The articles comprising this volume present a rich array of topics related to the issue of smart administration, as each of the authors has chosen a different area of administrative activity.

Smart Practices in Public Administration to End Homelessness: the Example of Scandinavian Countries

Homelessness is a phenomenon for which the scale is growing at an alarming rate in Europe. It leads to the exclusion of people affected by it, to the denying of human dignity, and it constitutes a threat to human health and life. It is a multidimensional phenomenon in its substance and causes that lead to it. Therefore, it is necessary for the European states to take steps to prevent and reduce its scale. This requires thoughtful, sometimes innovative activities that bring with them a serious financial outlay for their implementation. It also concerns Poland, where the basic form of assistance to the homeless people is still a shelter, which is far from the level of assistance provided to the homeless people in the countries of Western Europe, especially in countries such as Finland, Denmark or Norway. The aim of the article is a theoretical overview of the notion of smart practices in public administration to end homelessness in selected Scandinavian countries and its state affair in Poland, using relevant scientific literature. The article provides the reader with information about the homelessness strategies implemented in Finland, Denmark and Norway, and refers them to the Polish conditions.

School and Education as a Part of Public Administration in the Perspective of a Smart Organisation – Selected Attributes

The study is aimed at emphasising the selected aspects of smart education with regard to the school perceived as an intelligent knowledge-based organisation challenged by state-of-the-art civilisational and technological educational solutions. The study focuses on school and education with respect to the structure and function of public administration perceived as an intelligent organisation. School and educational services will determine and influence future generations of public administration staff. Their brainpower as well intellectual resources (knowledge, skills and experience) will serve the welfare of the society. Highly intelligent administration may win the respect for the organisation itself and for its services rendered to the society.

Frame Agreement For Cross-Border Cooperation Between Local Authorities

The cross-border cooperation of local authorities, taken up based on the administrative law of each of the states, is marked by both integrating factors that refer to the similarities of the applicable system of law and separating factors arising from the principle of territoriality of administrative law. The frame agreement is a smart solution (a smart tool) of cross-border cooperation, because it enables cooperating territorial self-government units to conduct a unique operation of ‘recompensing’ separating factors with integrating factors.

Smart Integration

The article is devoted to smart integration taking place on the Polish–German borderland and, more precisely, the border between the Lower Silesian Voivodeship and the Saxony Länder, which, according to the author, is the result of an evolution of forms of transfrontier cooperation of territorial self-government units. It will analyse the conditions for the emergence of forms of cooperation in the transfrontier area and their evolution in European experiences to date and, after 1990, also with the involvement of Polish territorial self-governments.