Effective administrative cooperation and mutual assistance in direct taxation are crucial for the proper application of tax laws and for combating tax fraud and evasion in the EU. However, these collaborative efforts face legal and practical challenges, particularly due to the internal market and cross-border mobility of taxpayers and businesses. This paper reviews the legal structure established by Council Directive 2011/16/EU and related instruments, and examines recent develop-ments and proposals to enhance said cooperation – including automatic information exchange, joint audits, tax ruling exchanges, and mutual assistance in claim recovery. It also explores the potential benefits and drawbacks of extending cooperation to non-EU jurisdictions and the role of the OECD and other international organisa-tions in promoting the cooperation in question. The paper concludes that while significant progress has been made, some challenges need still to be addressed. It recommends measures to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of said coopera­tion while respecting the rights and interests of taxpayers and Member States.

This article argues that regulatory sandboxes have become a necessary legislative tool to foster new business models. In the past, some new ideas failed because of the lack of such a legislative tool, shown by the Uber case. AI may play a dual role as an object of regulation and a tool of supervision, including RIA, which poses an additional threat to society at a time when it is becoming apparent that it may escape human control. This requires a reversal of the goals of a sandbox where providing security becomes more important than nurturing novelty. While the EU Commission and scholars encourage trust in AI, distrust should be the guiding principle. In addition, the rule of law may be compromised due to the use of regu-latory sandboxes as a back door for the legislative and administrative authorities to go around the established principles.

The history of laws regulating types of companies in Vietnam was born later than in other countries, only when Vietnam implemented the “DOI MOI” (renewal) process according to the market economy in 1986. The laws have been supplemented over time to promote and encourage investors to contribute capital to establish various business organisations. However, increasingly diverse and rich economic relations pose urgent needs for the law, on the one hand, to recognise and expand the freedom of business of its subjects, and on the other hand, to anticipate, recog-nise, and protect new associations that create unregulated types of business enti-ties. Only then can the law regulating types of companies in Vietnam establish a legal basis to promote deep integration into current international economic activities. This article analyses, evaluates, and recommends theoretical and practical issues on the laws regulating the types of companies in Vietnam.

With ongoing economic, social, and technological changes, the nature and method of performing work are changing. The development of modern digital technologies has a significant impact on the traditional model of work, based on performing it in a strictly defined ‘physical’ place and under an employer’s supervision. Naturally, the ongoing changes are multidimensional and have consequences, including an intriguing phenomenon of remote work, which in the cross-border dimension has led to the emergence of a new group of labour providers known as ‘digital nomads’. The specificity of business activity of these nomads poses conceptual and practical challenges in the area of various branches of law, including tax law. The main pur-pose of the article is to answer the question whether international tax law, adequately to the changes taking place, regulates the taxation of digital nomads’ income from cross-border remote work.

The regulations introduced by the Act of November 4, 2022 amending the Act on the National Court Register, the Act on the Code of Civil Procedure and the Act on the Code of Commercial Companies constitute the first stage of implementation of Directive 2019/1151 of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) of June 20, 2019. These regulations are primarily intended to facilitate the functioning of entrepreneurs in the sphere of economic turnover. Despite the broad scope of the regulations of the so-called „company law package” in Directive 2019/1151, it should be recognized that the implementation law itself is not revolutionary. This is due to the fact that most of the regulations contained therein are already successfully applicable in Poland, while the changes introduced are primarily aimed at organizing the Polish legal system and facilitating access to information about entrepreneurs. The purpose of this article is to present the statutory changes consisting in the implementation into the Polish legal order of the regulations included in the so-called „package of company law” and the scope of implementation, as well as an attempt to assess the rationale for their introduction

Digitisation is changing not only our society but also markets, strategies and business models, which has increased competition in many markets. At the same time, large companies with a digital business model, such as Amazon, in particular, are experiencing a rapid rise, which has triggered a debate about fair competitive conditions. However, it is not only the company’s significant market power that is a cause for concern. The increasing vertical integration of platform operators such as Amazon, which makes them direct competitors of their own platform users, also raises competition law issues. Against this backdrop, it is the aim of this article to analyse Amazon’s business model in more detail from a competition law perspective. The analysis aims to identify which parts of the company’s business model and the resulting strategies may be seen as problematic under competition law.

Many of the principles of taxation that were developed in the first half of the 20th century, such as the arm’s length principle and the definition of the term “permanent establishment” (PE) in determining the tax position of international business operations, when applied to the business models of the 21st century, often result in the under-taxation of businesses that are otherwise fully compliant with the laws as presently written and implemented. Compounding the problem is the fact that these rules and principles of taxation are broadly recognized and are enshrined in a wide network of tax treaties. This makes the task of modifying or updating these rules and principals extremely difficult. Using legal-dogmatic and legal-theoretical methods, the author will show that present attempts to tax e-commerce transactions unilaterally are not effective and that, under present conditions, even organizations such as the EU are unable to address the problem at hand. The OECD project, commissioned by the G-20, which seeks to create a set of international e-commerce taxation rules, faces some very serious difficulties – largely because a well-established “set in stone” complement of internationally accepted laws, rules, and regulations is serving to block the development of new, more appropriate rules. This phenomenon has become known as the lock-in effect or legal impossibilism. In order to effectively address this phenomenon, lawmakers on a global basis must understand the mechanisms that are blocking the effective evolution of business taxation.

Fixed establishment (FE) is one of the institutions of the EU value added tax system; its structure is essential to correctly determine the right tax jurisdiction of an EU Member State for the purpose of VAT settlement in situations of cross-border provision of services. However, the legal structure of a FE adopted by the EU legislator (and, consequently, adapted to national legislation of the Member States) causes uncertainty when it comes to its interpretation. In the absence of unambiguously defined conditions in EU law to consider a specific presence and activity of an enterprise to be a FE, interpretation rules contained in judicial decisions
issued by the Court of Justice of the EU play an important role. Among attempts
made by the CJEU to clarify the ‘blur areas’ resulting from the dynamics of modern
business processes, one of the most interesting ones is the possibility of considering
a subsidiary to be a fixed establishment for a parent company. The purpose of this
paper is to analyse legal and economic factors, the fulfilment of which may constitute a condition for considering a subsidiary to be a fixed establishment for
a parent company, with particular emphasis on the ruling of the Court of Justice
of 7 May 2020 in the Dong Yang case (C-547/18).

This ruling applies to the notion that gives rise to numerous controversies in the tax law doctrine and refers to the classification of expenses incurred for catering services during meetings with business partners at restaurants (the so-called representation costs) as tax deductible costs.

One of the consequences of the post-1989 significant legislative activity of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland is the fact that legal acts that play a special role in the legal system (codes) are also subject to numerous amendments. What is the influence of such amendments on the cohesion and transparency of the legal regulations included in these codes? Was the intention to fulfil the demands of the business trading of the time, undoubtedly deserving of approval, by modernising the existing regulations, introducing new ones, and – potentially – abandoning those whose practical significance and application is currently marginal in the context of the discussed matter an essential motive for undertaking many legislative changes applied to the Civil Code regarding the legal regulations of economic relations – including in particular the legal regulations of the specific part of commercial contracts law – after the transformation of the socio-economic system in the years 1989–1990? Is it therefore possible to say with respect to the present shape of the specific part of commercial contracts law in the Civil Code that this is in an optimal state? Or perhaps there is an excessive or insufficient number of legal regulations in this matter? Are there any draft amendments to the said area of legal regulations? What directions do they follow? The subject matter of this paper is to search for answers
to the questions asked above.

This paper presents an analysis of legal issues related to the use of a blockchain in business. Considering the legal aspects at as early a stage as possible is one of the key areas which are crucial for the success and timely realisation of a project. The scope of legal issues depends on the type of the decentralised solution chosen by the organisation. The authors explain the differences between an open blockchain and a closed one, noting the degree of control and the advantages of both solutions. When it comes to the following paragraphs of the paper, the meaning of jurisdiction selection and the manner of managing personal data in projects related to the use of blockchain are discussed. The authors explain what smart contracts are to the reader. They point out sector regulations which may have an influence on the carrying out of blockchain projects in individual sectors that are regulated. They analyse the issues of the cryptocurrency market and explain to the readers why the taxation of cryptocurrencies is controversial. In the final part, they signal that organisations planning to implement a blockchain-based solution should take the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations and related issues concerning Know Your Customer (KYC) into consideration. The paper makes it possible to understand why the legal regulations discussed may turn out to be an essential project risk if they are not recognised in time, and how addressing legal issues smoothly helps in the transformation of a project at the Proof of Concept stage, into a solution that works productively.

The author of the paper understands the term of “excess of legal regulations” as the situation of imposition of regulations governing a specific institution of the com-mercial activities law under the Civil Code, which are fully or partially obsolete from the point of view of the needs of contemporary business trading. The term of “deficiency of legal regulations”, in turn, is to denote a complete lack of a regula-tion of a specific institution of the commercial activities law as may be desired in the domain of contemporary business trading, or the existence of such a regulation but in a form that is limited, incapable of addressing the needs and challenges of the said domain. When it comes to the legal regulations of the commercial activi-ties law, the author argues that it is hard to regard the current legal situation in Poland as successfully fulfilling the requirements of a coherent legal system and of the legis­lative technique principles that are applied therein. In the text, the author provides a detailed explanation of why commercial activities governed by the Civil Code suffer from a substantial deficiency of legal regulations in the scope in question.

In addition to search engines, social networks represent an important digital service for many Internet users. Social network services such as Facebook, Xing, or Twitter provide vital platforms for communication and sharing of content as part of a modern, user-friendly Internet. Public criticism of social networks is expressed in particular with regard to processing of personal data. These play a central role in business models of many social networks, with regard to their use e.g. for advertising purposes. A question is, if it can be assumed that market-dominant providers, due to a lock-in effect, can demand a wide-ranging consent for the collection and use of personal data that would be expected in a functioning competition? In the following, social networks, potential competition issues and possible legislative measures due to concentration tendencies in connection with access to user data in the area of social networks will be discussed.

“You can get lost when standing still too.” These words of Edward Stachura are a metaphor of the main proposition of the paper. It aims to suggest a way to “set the ball rolling” by designing the paths of education for lawyers anew, with civil society in mind, and not just thinking of the requirements of legal training. Lawyers with knowledge in the field of information technology, interdisciplinary lawyers for business, lawyers-guardians of the rule of law and justice all need study programmes to take their predispositions, goals, skills, and abilities – all at different levels – into account. The purpose of the article is to shed light on the extra-legal barriers hindering the taking of a practical step ahead. The author shows three main ways of educating lawyers and explains why they are so important and why they call for changes in study programmes. Next, the author points to the obstacles faced by reformers and suggests exploring their actual impact on education in law and the level thereof.

As we are nearing the end of the first 25 years of the 21st century. What is increasingly noticeable is the growing dysfunction and pathology of big systems and of their elements, including – given the omnipresent interrelations and interdependencies – entire masses of smaller entities, together with micro- and family businesses. The author asks a question of whether it could be reasonable to consider returning to some of the assumptions, instruments, and methods adopted within the framework of the systems approach from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, which was originally
conceived and created to treat big systems. Do the achievements made in the field of research in recent decades make it possible to bridge the cognitive gaps that determined the failure of the systems approach in the past century? These gaps are mainly the social mechanisms of functioning of organised systems. There is absolutely no doubt that we have seen huge progress in this domain, mostly thanks to interdisciplinary research and research conducted in recently-emergent “hybrid” disciplines like economic or organisational sociology and psychology, sociology and psychology
of management, behavioural economics, behavioural finance, contemporary political
economics, but also hybrid legal sciences such as: economics, sociology, and politics of law, political sciences and strategic analyses. The author argues that we need an attempt of a certain reactivation of the systems approach in the context of diagnostics and treatment, meaning a redesign of entire organisational systems– or dynamic connections in a networked structure, actually. It is necessary to modify the classical procedure of systems analysis and adapt it to the specific nature
of the changeable networked structures of the 21st century.

One of the consequences of the post-1989 significant legislative activity of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland is the fact that legal acts that play a special role in the legal system (codes) are also subject to numerous amendments. What is the influence of such amendments on the cohesion and transparency of the legal regulations included in these codes? Was the intention to fulfil the demands of the business trading of the time, undoubtedly deserving of approval, by modernising the existing regulations, introducing new ones, and – potentially – abandoning those whose practical significance and application is currently marginal in the context of the discussed matter an essential motive for undertaking many legislative changes applied to the Civil Code regarding the legal regulations of economic relations – including in particular the legal regulations of the specific part of commercial contracts law – after the transformation of the socio-economic system in the years 1989–1990? Is it therefore possible to say with respect to the present shape of the specific part of commercial contracts law in the Civil Code that this is in an optimal state? Or perhaps there is an excessive or insufficient number of legal regulations in this matter? Are there any draft amendments to the said area of legal regulations? What directions do they follow? The subject matter of this paper is to search for answers
to the questions asked above.

The author of the paper understands the term of “excess of legal regulations” as the situation of imposition of regulations governing a specific institution of the com-mercial activities law under the Civil Code, which are fully or partially obsolete from the point of view of the needs of contemporary business trading. The term of “deficiency of legal regulations”, in turn, is to denote a complete lack of a regula-tion of a specific institution of the commercial activities law as may be desired in the domain of contemporary business trading, or the existence of such a regulation but in a form that is limited, incapable of addressing the needs and challenges of the said domain. When it comes to the legal regulations of the commercial activi-ties law, the author argues that it is hard to regard the current legal situation in Poland as successfully fulfilling the requirements of a coherent legal system and of the legis-lative technique principles that are applied therein. In the text, the author provides a detailed explanation of why commercial activities governed by the Civil Code suffer from a substantial deficiency of legal regulations in the scope in question.

Current legal studies curricula in Poland are still “analogue”, academic teachers themselves are still largely “analogue”, and students and articling students live in a different world: they are “digital natives”, in other words, “homo zappiens”, meaning “constantly clicking”. On the other hand, curricula and programmes are saturated almost exclusively with legal doctrines, but the market needs law graduates in economy, also with the knowledge of market, business and enterprise opinion principles, including special soft skills, completely different from those required for centuries in courts. The author presents arguments for the necessary reform of legal studies in connection with the above phenomena.