The paper deals with a bibliometric analysis of a sample of the top law schools included in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022. An equal number of Western European and Central and Eastern European law schools have been analysed. The results show that both groups follow similar publication patterns. There is a clear tendency to publish in journals controlled by the authors’ universities. Citation rates in the sample are very low, and in line with what has already been found for humanities. There is a clear division between the multidisciplinary and transnational legal journals that are more international and less internationally recognised law reviews focusing on domestic issues. Law clearly follows its own publication pattern, and the East–West division is in this respect negligible: both groups perform equally well (or equally poorly) as far as the metrics indicate.

It is quite paradoxical that such a negative social phenomenon as the ever-present threat of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its mutations has contributed to the exceptional acceleration of the widespread adoption of the institution of remote hearings in the area of civil trials in our country. Traditional hearings are no longer the only possible format of public hearing in the form of a trial. We are now witnessing a new quality in the way in which civil cases are heard. Most importantly, the nature of the court’s communication with the parties and other participants of such proceedings has changed significantly in the broad sense due to the remote nature of the hearings. At present, the venue where a court gets to hear the parties to proceedings is not only the courtroom in a court building, but also cyberspace. Thus, the landscape and the structure of civil trials have changed considerably.

It is quite paradoxical that such a negative social phenomenon as the ever-present threat of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its mutations has contributed to the exceptional acceleration of the widespread adoption of the institution of remote hearings in the area of civil trials in our country. Traditional hearings are no longer the only possible format of public hearing in the form of a trial. We are now witnessing a new quality in the way in which civil cases are heard. Most importantly, the nature of the court’s communication with the parties and other participants of such proceedings has changed significantly in the broad sense due to the remote nature of the hearings. At present, the venue where a court gets to hear the parties to proceedings is not only the courtroom in a court building, but also cyberspace. Thus, the landscape and the structure of civil trials have changed considerably.

The article examines the application of the principle of the active role of the court in the administrative proceedings of the Republic of Kazakhstan and foreign countries. The attention is paid mainly to the identification of the main function and the system of application of this principle. The scientific novelty lies in the study of important subordinate guiding principles, the influence of which is decisive when applying the principle of the active role of the court in the administrative proceedings of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The authors conclude that the judge should apply the principle of the active role of the court in order to have a fair trial within a reasonable time.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the environmental authority proceeds when they receive a freedom of information request and when such a request pertains to a waste collection licence. This objective is closely accompanied by the research problem worded as follows:
1) Is an authority allowed to share information about a waste collection licence as requested under the freedom of information principle even though it is information about the environment and its protection?
2) Which pieces of information included in a waste collection licence are shared as public information and which as information about the environment and its protection?
The achievement of the research objective and solving the scientific problem served to put forward a research hypothesis that information on a waste collection licence is shared under the Environmental Law. Nevertheless, certain elements of information in waste collection licences are public information. The method of interpretation of the law in force was employed in this paper to achieve the above-mentioned scientific outputs

The European Union and its Member States are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to enhance border controls. This is one of the manifestations of a broader trend of moving towards the so-called smart borders of the Union. This article presents EU initiatives on the development and implementation AI-based digital technologies to improve the control and security of the Union’s external borders. The main directions of the use of AI were analyzed, i.e. in the field of automatic recognition of fingerprints and faces, emotion detection, algorithmic profiling and monitoring, analysis and forecasting of migration. The aim of the article is, on the one hand, to show that the careful implementation and use of AI-based technology for border control can bring many benefits. On the other hand, however, these benefits must be balanced with the significant threat posed by these technologies to the protection of the fundamental rights of the individual.

Collection, disposal and management of plastic waste and polythene bags is a growing problem in Nigeria. The use of plastic/polythene bags made of thin plastic film has increased significantly in recent years. The manner of disposal of these items has resulted in the degradation of the natural environment. In Nigeria, lots of plastics are used on daily basis, of which most, if not all of them, are not properly disposed of. Some of these items end up in landfills, littering the environment, harming wildlife or blocking drainages, therefore, increasing the risk of flood. This paper examines the existing laws in relation to waste management in Nigeria and the inadequacies of the existing legislation in combating this phenomenon. The doctrinal method of research was used and it is recommended that there is a need for new legislation to be enacted for Nigeria to surmount the menace of plastic pollution.

It is the intention of the author of this article to present the theoretical and legal views of Sigmund Freud and Emil Durkheim and to place them in the context of classical texts on political-legal theory. Both thinkers, rather associated with sociology or psychology than with law, treated law as one of the most important reference points in their social concepts. In both cases, we are dealing with the treatment of the social order as transcendent to the empirical individual, and at the same time created by society. At the same time, the law is supposed to impede the emancipation of the individual and to allow the individual to have a real influence on the creation of power structures. At the same time, despite numerous analyses of the theoretical-legal views of these thinkers in the European scientific literature, this is the first such analysis in Polish. In addition to presenting Freud’s and Durkheim’s views, it opens up the possibility of not only situating them among political-legal theories, but also points to perspectives on the operationalisation of these theories – as well as their possible social implications. To this end, the following article juxtaposes their theories with the traditions of legal positivism as represented by Hans Kelsen and Herbert L.A. Hart – two authors who were inspired by Freud and Durkheim respectively.

The main thesis of the article concerns the pluralism of expert legal language. Such an assumption contradicts the tradition of development of legal dogmatics, which, especially in its conservative approach, assumes monism of legal language. New trends in social sciences introduce post-positivist approaches that suggest a multiplicity of research perspectives. This multiplicity is also translated into modifications of the conceptual grid. The Eurocentric vision of law is one of many parallel narratives, and the reception of European models has nowadays an increasingly conscious and functionally justified character.
The various narratives which condition the understanding of law in many contexts related to who interprets a given norm. This is not strictly related only to the legal family itself, or to the particular system of law in which the interpreted norm is anchored. It is rather about pluralism connected with diversity of perception resulting directly from conditions connected with the researcher-interpreter himself. It may be an expert in law connected with an academic centre, or a judge, whose education, cultural environment he comes from, mother tongue he speaks, or specific professional experience influence his understanding of the world and his understanding of law. In this case, there is a multiplicity of narratives and a plurality of legal language.

The purpose of this article is to present two tax preferences, in force from 1 January 2022, dedicated to taxpayers transferring their residence to Poland. Their way of design is an incentive to become a Polish tax resident, and their introduction to Polish income tax is justified by both economic and demographic reasons. The first of the instruments is a lump-sum tax on foreign revenue amounting to PLN 200,000, addressed mainly to natural persons with very high foreign income (high net worth individuals), who are ready to allocate significant funds for the implementation of socially beneficial projects. The second instrument stimulating the transfer of residence is the tax exemption due to the return to the country, which can be considered a type of ‘tax holiday’, as selected domestic income during the four tax years from the transfer of tax residence is subject to a limited tax exemption. The article indicates the stimulating nature of both concepts by analysing the conditions for their application in the context of a deviation from standard taxation rules. Moreover, the paper indicates that similar solutions are also applied in other countries.

The issue of law-making is a key issue in a democratic state ruled by law. Particularly interesting seems to be the issue of enacting electoral law, which is exposed to the phenomenon of instrumentalisation. The aim of this article is to analyse the institution of legislative silence in Polish electoral law and to try to find an answer to the question whether the application of this solution may be an effective tool limiting the political influence on the shape of electoral law. In order to find the above questions, it was necessary to carry out a detailed analysis of this solution, primarily on the basis of the jurisprudence of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and international law standards specified in the documents of the Venice Commission. The work uses the formal and legal method and the literature and jurisprudence are reviewed.

The present article discusses the problem of the enterprise in the inheritance as a subject of the specific bequest. Its aim was to defend the thesis according to which it is legally permissible to make the enterprise in the inheritance or the share in the enterprise in the inheritance the subject of the specific bequest. The article uses the logical-linguistic method and also the argumentative method (legal topic). The analysis conducted in the article shows that the subject of the specific bequest can be the enterprise in the inheritance or the share in the enterprise in the inheritance, for which an extensive argumentation has been presented.

The publication looks into the conflict that occurs between values protected under the Constitution of the Republic of Poland – i.e. the right to privacy and the protection of communication versus the protection of property rights – in a situation of declaration of bankruptcy. Acting pursuant to Article 176(2) of the Bankruptcy Law, the legislator has a priori given preference to the protection of property rights over the right to privacy and the protection of communication. The conflict in question has been resolved in favour of bankruptcy creditors. The legislator’s adoption of a hierarchy of values in the area of bankruptcy law does not, of course, deal with all the problems arising in the field of the conflict between these values, and does not mean that the solution chosen is in accordance with hierarchically higher norms – meaning constitutional norms. In principle, the Constitution of the Republic of Poland makes the legislator free to resolve conflicts of competing values protected under this normative act. What is important is that this conflict be resolved by the – legislator in a way that meets the requirements of Article 31(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.

The publication looks into the conflict that occurs between values protected under the Constitution of the Republic of Poland – i.e. the right to privacy and the protection of communication versus the protection of property rights – in a situation of declaration of bankruptcy. Acting pursuant to Article 176(2) of the Bankruptcy Law, the legislator has a priori given preference to the protection of property rights over the right to privacy and the protection of communication. The conflict in question has been resolved in favour of bankruptcy creditors. The legislator’s adoption of a hierarchy of values in the area of bankruptcy law does not, of course, deal with all the problems arising in the field of the conflict between these values, and does not mean that the solution chosen is in accordance with hierarchically higher norms – meaning constitutional norms. In principle, the Constitution of the Republic of Poland makes the legislator free to resolve conflicts of competing values protected under this normative act. What is important is that this conflict be resolved by the – legislator in a way that meets the requirements of Article 31(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.

The last decades of the 20th century saw a dramatic expansion of economic liberalisation in Indian film and television industry. The stellar rise of the business has enticed the youth to engage and utilise this platform to exhibit their creative ability. The rise of young artists appearing on reality television and in feature films has sparked a variety of concerns. The article aims at discussing issue of the negative impacts of stardom on child performers in the entertainment industry, focusing specifically on the violation of their fundamental and other rights because of the nature of the employment in the film and television industry.

Law is in crisis, because the old has died and the new has not yet been born. Although this reflection seems to be pretty dated, the law – very much like the strange non-death of positivism – stands perfectly still and cares very little about any critique thrown its way. In the monograph the author seeks a new quality of law, tries to identify it, seize it and point obstacles on the way to it. For these reasons the faculty of law has been selected as a focus point of the monograph. This review sheds light on the key aspects of the book, provides critical assessment and alternative solutions.

The present paper is a reaction to Maciej Pichlak’s article "Law in the Snares of the Political: Addressing Rafał Mańko’s Critical Philosophy of Adjudication" which was published in this journal (“The Critique of Law” 2020, 12(3), pp. 109–125). The present response addresses selected issues raised in Pichlak’s critique, focusing on three aspects: law and the political, the importance of justice in the critical project, and finally the question of adjudication and ideology. On a more general note, the polemic reveals the importance of philosophical, political and ideological commitments and presuppositions of legal theorists and poses the question of the limits of the autonomy of jurisprudential debates vis-à-vis such commitments.