Restrictions on Sports Economic Activities Related to Counteracting COVID-19 – a Few Comments Regarding the Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 21 December 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the public authorities to undertake numerous actions to counteract the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Protection of life and health has required the introduction of legally effective mechanisms that interfered with constitutional freedoms, including the freedom of economic activity. Restrictions and bans aimed at combating the epidemic were introduced in 2020 in the form of regulations issued on the basis of the Act of 5 December 2008 on preventing and combating infections and infectious diseases in humans, amended for the purposes of combating COVID-19. Its provisions gave the Council of Ministers the power to introduce temporary restrictions in carrying out specific scopes of economic activity. The frequently changed wording of the regulations resulted in interpretation difficulties in determining the scope of the restrictions. Justified doubts have been raised concerning the provisions of the Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 21 December 2020 on the establishment of certain restrictions, orders and bans in connection with the occurrence of an epidemic, relating to sports economic activities. The scope of the legal provisions differs significantly from the communications of the representatives of the Council of Ministers. The purpose of this article is to establish the actual scope of the restrictions on the conduct of sports facilities, established at the end of 2020.

Commentary on the Decision of the Supreme Administrative Court of 13 November 2013, II OZ 974/13 (LEX no. 1398284)

The thesis of the commented judgement concerns issues which are significant in the practice of examining an application in the course of administrative court proceedings regarding a request for reinstatement of the deadline. The first is a need to settle the beginning of the term for submitting such a request, the second – the method of examining the application for reinstatement of the deadline in the event of the impossibility to determine whether the deadline for its submission has been met. In the jurisprudence, it is consonantly assumed that the formal condition of an application for the reinstatement of the deadline is that the circumstances justifying the admissibility of the application are plausible due to the observance of the one-week deadline for its submission from the date of expiration of the cause of the deadline failure. According to Art. 49 § 1 of the Act of 30 August 2002 – Law on proceedings before administrative courts, if the letter of a party cannot receive the correct course due to failure to observe formal conditions, the chairman shall request the party to supplement or correct it within seven days under pain of leaving the letter unprocessed. The Supreme Administrative Court reasonably decided that if the content of the application cannot infer an exact moment in which the cause of the deadline failure ceased to exist, it should be examined on the merits. Equally, there are no grounds for rejecting the application as belated, based on Art. 88 of the Law on proceedings before administrative courts, because the fact of submitting the application after the deadline cannot be presumed.

Legal Aspects of the Executive Bodies System Formation in the Area of the Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Lands in Ukraine

This article aims to determine the system of the state bodies of executive power in terms of their competence in cultural and historical land usage and protection, taking into account the latest changes in Ukrainian legislation. The author emphasizes that the administration of lands designated for historical and cultural use and protection should take place within a framework of executive bodies specifically authorized as regards cultural heritage protection. Special attention is drawn to the powers of such state bodies like the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, the State Service for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Ukraine, and the State Inspection for Cultural Heritage of Ukraine. The article includes a historical and contemporary overview of central executive bodies that ensure the formation and implementation of state policy in the sphere of cultural heritage protection. This scientific study focuses on the constant changes that occur in the system of executive power. The results of the investigation show that these changes in Ukraine take place irregularly today and are not conducive to the efficient use and protection of lands of historical and cultural significance.

Review: Iwona Sierpowska, “Śmierć w ujęciu prawa administracyjnego”, Wolters Kluwer, Warszawa 2020, pp. 385

The reviewed monograph is the first study of this kind in the Polish doctrine of administrative law. It consists of a short introduction, five chapters, each of which is closed with a few-page selection of the jurisprudence of common and administrative courts, and an ending with a summary of the presented considerations and eight de lege ferenda remarks, as well as an extensive bibliography. The author analyzed a number of acts of different legal force concerning the administrative and legal consequences of death for the relatives and society. Attention was paid in particular to the issues of death of the guardian of a public administration body, the obligations of the medical facility towards the patient and his family, the preparation of a death certificate, handling of the corpse and the location of cemeteries.

Legal and Administrative Time Limits in the Context of the Latest Amendments of the Act of 14 June 1960 – Administrative Procedure Code

On 3 July 2019 a rule that a deadline is deemed to have been met if, before its expiry, a letter was posted at a Polish post office facility of the designated operator in the meaning of the Postal Law Act or at a postal facility of the operator providing the universal postal services in another Member State of the European Union, the Swiss Confederation or a Member State of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) – a party to the European Economic Area Agreement, was introduced into the Polish administrative procedure. Prior to the date of the aforementioned amendment coming into force, it was necessary to post a letter at a Polish post office facility of the designated operator in the meaning of the Postal Law Act in order to be able to state that the deadline was met. The interim provisions introducing the above-mentioned changes stipulated that the regulation in the wording before the amendment applies to the factual circumstances that took place before the date of its coming into force. However, by virtue of the judgement of the Constitutional Tribunal of 30 October 2019 also the above-mentioned regulation expired to the extent in which it functioned under the interim provisions. The amendment of the administrative proceedings provisions and the aforementioned ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal made it possible to adjust the administrative procedure in this respect to the constitutional requirements as well as the provisions of the law of the European Union, and ensured the consistency of this regulation with analogous regulations in other proceedings in the Polish legal system.

Public Burdens in Situations of Constitutional Emergency

The aim of this article is to analyse issues related to extraordinary measures (martial law, a state of emergency or a state of natural disaster) provided for by the Polish Constitution. The subject of the research concerns the duty to provide personal and in-kind contributions (public burdens) in the event of the introduction of one of extraordinary measures. The author focused his attention on the nature of these contributions in relation to each of extraordinary measures, analysing their subjective and objective scope, the procedure, as well as the principles and mode of remuneration for and compensation of losses resulting from the duty to bear these burdens in situations of extraordinary measures.

Disciplinary Liability of Members of Collective Bodies of the Self-Government of Legal Advisers

The subject of this study is to examine the possibility of holding members of the collective bodies of the self-government of the National Bar of Attorneys-at-Law to disciplinary action for decisions made by the body on which they sit. The key question that can be asked in this respect is: Can an attorney-at-law who is a member of the Bar Association of Attorneys-at-Law or the National Bar Council of Attorneys-at-Law be held liable in disciplinary action with a decision made in a collegial manner by an authority in whose structures is a member?

The Contestability of Resolutions of an Inter-Municipal Association Meeting

The objective of local government administration, and therefore the objective of each local government unit is to perform public tasks of local importance, the implementation of which is each time connected with meeting the current, continuous needs of local communities. Most of the tasks connected with satisfying public needs are to be performed by the commune as the basic local government unit. The legislator expressed it in the content of Art. 6 of the Act of 8 March 1990 on Local Government, stating that the scope of a municipality’s activity includes all public matters of local importance, not reserved by the Acts for the benefit of other entities, additionally, unless the Acts provide otherwise, it is up to the municipality to resolve these matters. As a rule, the tasks are performed by the municipality’s own “means and forces”. However, the legislator has provided for the possibility of cooperation and collaboration between the municipalities, which is facilitated by the establishment of inter-municipal associations, as stipulated in Art. 64 of the Act on Local Government. A form of externalisation of the activity of an inter-municipal association is the adoption of resolutions by the assembly of an inter-municipal association. The study also analyzes the modes of appealing against the association’s assembly’s resolutions.

Undertaking Material and Technical Activities by Public Administration Bodies and the Right of an Individual to Be Heard

The right of the individual to be heard is a principle that relates to both the right to a fair trial and the right to a trial. The adjudicating entity is required, regardless of whether it is a court or a public administration body, to enable the active participation of the entity in the proceedings. The right of an individual to be heard in the context of administrative law relates mainly to the procedural situation of a party to administrative proceedings. In jurisdictional administrative proceedings, a party is guaranteed a number of procedural tools to protect its rights. First of all, the party has the opportunity to actively participate in the ongoing administrative process. Provisions of administrative procedural law allow for the submission of evidence applications, explanations, participation in the taking of evidence, as well as access to the files of a pending administrative case. The right of the individual to be heard to a limited extent should also apply to material and technical activities. An individual should be guaranteed at least minimal procedural protection in a situation where administrative bodies perform material and technical activities directly affecting their legal situation.

Are We Really Dealing with New Control Powers of Local Councilors?

On 11 January 2018, the Act on amending certain acts in order to increase the participation of citizens in the process of selecting, functioning and control of certain public authorities was passed. The legislator decided that the new legal regulations in the local government system laws were to lead to an increase in the participation of citizens in the process of control and functioning of public authorities, thus, also of local government authorities. In addition, it was to contribute to an increase in the role of local communities in the process of electing bodies coming from general elections, as well as in the control of this process and the bodies responsible for the preparation and holding of elections. Among the “new” legal solutions that have come into force in the current term of the local government authorities (2018–2023), one should distinguish those thanks to which the scope of control powers of local councillors has been extended. These include, first of all, the right to obtain information and materials, access to the premises where these information and materials are located, and access to the activities of the local government office, as well as companies with the participation of local government units, commercial companies with the participation of local government legal entities, legal persons, as well as establishments, enterprises and other local government organizational units, in compliance with the provisions on legally protected secrecy, secondly, the right to address interpellations and inquiries to the village mayor (mayor, city president), starost or voivodeship marshal, thirdly, the obligation to establish a complaint committee, motions and petitions in order to consider complaints about the activities of the executive body and local government organizational units, as well as motions and petitions submitted by citizens.