This study systematically investigates the primary issues and obstacles impeding the establishment of a functional and credible judiciary in Kosovo, adopting an international perspective. The research methodology includes a combination of qualitative and empirical analytical approaches to concrete actions based on a review of relevant literature, reports, and legal documents. This paper concludes that Kosovo should be ready to reach compromises, strengthen the independence, pro­fessionalism, transparency and accountability of judges and prosecutors, and increase public confidence in justice, to achieve a successful reform in the judicial system. The paper offers several recommendations for improving the quality and efficiency of justice in Kosovo, such as promoting cooperation and coordination with international factors in this field.

The article deals with the normative patterns of communication of judges in a theoretical perspective. Their identification is thus taken as a universal problem, occurring in all legal cultures and regardless of current disputes concerning them. It is assumed that normative patterns of communication among judges are built on the understanding of the role of the judge and the place of the judiciary within checks and balances. Based on the assumption that the role of judges and the status of the judiciary have evolved, three successive historical models of judicial communication were proposed, i.e. the first model – impersonal, the second – self restrained, and the third – accurate communication. The thesis was also put forward that the last of the models may prove to be inadequate in the face of contemporary challenges, resulting primarily from cultural changes driven by the development of new communication technologies.

The amendment of Article 209 of the Polish Criminal Code, which took place on 31 May 2017 with the entry into force of the Act of 23 March 2017 on Amendments to the Criminal Code Act and the Act on Assistance to Persons Entitled to Maintenance (Journal of Laws of 2017, item 952), resulted in significant changes not only in the wording of the said article itself, but also in the picture of the statistical effects of pre-trial and court proceedings for the crime in question. From the very beginning, the said amendment raised questions and reservations among a substantial number of supporters of the established line of judicial decisions issued in the domain of criminal law. They considered it unfit to keep to the principles of adequacy and proportionality, as well as posing a threat to a significant – and ultimately destructive – increase in the burden on law enforcement authorities and the judiciary in general. At the same time, taking into account the main objectives and ideas of the amendment, which was intended in particular to improve the enforcement of maintenance obligations, it needs to be said that it proved ineffective and was actually a manifestation of penal populism.

The purpose of this text is to answer the question of whether and to what extent traditional court symbols and rituals remain (and should remain) present at remote hearings. Some legal symbols have archetypal meaning. Others are born with their era, judged in a particular context. There are many of them in traditional courtrooms. Which remain on computer screen? The author investigates whether and to what extent visual symbols (e.g. elements of architecture, furnishings) are present at remote hearings. Considering courts and online courts (or ‘e-courts’) as heterotopias (in Michel Foucault’s sense), she looks deeper into and explores their properties.

The role of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in the management of cases and disputes in Nigeria and across the globe cannot be overemphasized. The judicial arm of the government is the arm responsible for interpretation of laws in Nigeria and the judiciary’s role in preserving the rights of citizens across Nigeria also cannot be overemphasized. It ensures that the society is stable in the face of insta-bility and ensures that lawlessness is not maintained. The judiciary ensures that laws made by the legislature are obeyed by ensuring that those who violate the provisions of any established laws are punished. In doing all these, it has been established that the system of administering justice in our courts in Nigeria is extremely slow. Considering the foregoing, alternative dispute resolution as a means of settling disputes has been of tremendous help in easing the hardship of getting cases resolved through the court system. This paper examines ways through which alternative dispute resolution has assisted the Nigerian judicial system and the need to use alternative dispute resolution the more in order to ensure that number of cases handled by courts are drastically reduced. Recommendations are made at the end of the research.

The main purpose of the presented research project is to prepare an initiating answer to the present state of judicial integrity recognised as the top of legal professions and the legal system as such. The method comes mainly from the Oxford analytical jurisprudence, nevertheless, the historical and interdisciplinary approaches, as well as a legal practice, were taken seriously into consideration. The main theses and their scientific standpoints are: (i) at present, we are facing the disintegration of integrity; (ii) one of the sources of it lies in the very grounds of major jurisprudential terms, understood as parts of the Hartian internal point of view and that there are fundamental analytical paradoxes of integrity, generating practical dysfunctionalities; (iii) it is possible to solve main problems through a completely new approach: an ontological turn in the philosophy of law causing the idea of law as a concept and a new concept of integrity, namely ‘negative integrity’. It could be easily and effectively treated as practical support for firstly improving judicial integrity and secondly legal practice in general.

The forms of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedures were developed in the 1960s in the United States. The ADR is based on conciliation of the parties rather than judgement. This is possible through ensuring of broad participation of the parties in the dispute resolution. The ADR has as its objective the replacement of the adjudication process by forms of arbitration, contract, mediation and conciliation. The goal is to reach
a compromise. The basic division of the ADR is into the basic and the mixed (hybrid) forms. The basic ones include mediation, negotiations and arbitration. The hybrid forms include, for example, conciliation, fact finding, mini-trial. The ADR tools are successfully used for solving disputes in civil law, labour law, and administrative law and even in criminal cases. American agencies also apply ADR procedure called reg-neg to work out the content of legal regulations between officials and representatives of the parties concerned. ADR forms are also used in appeal proceedings. Despite unquestionable advantages of the ADR methods, there are critics who blame them for lowering the standard of the judiciary. There is no doubt that the application of ADR results in de-formalisation and simplification of the court proceedings and often in delegating the position of a negotiator or mediator to people without a legal background. However, this should not overshadow the greatest asset of the ADR, namely, the achievement of permanent agreements satisfactory for both parties.

The article presents the powers of the National Council of the Judiciary of Poland in terms of their potential impact on the implementation of the principle of the independence of judges and independence of courts. During the initial analysis of legal regulations of individual competences of the Council the author attempts to assess their potential impact or lack thereof on the implementation of art.186 of the Constitution. This may be a contribution to the evaluation of the National Council of the Judiciary of Poland and its relations with other state authorities.

The article deals with legal education in the Duchy of Warsaw (1807–1815), which was a transitory period between a feudal and modern state. The urgent need for institutional education of a state personnel resulted from existence of legal provisions stemming from several legal orders, divergence in qualifications of personnel in administration and judiciary, as well as a necessity for efficient implementation f Napoleonic law. Those circumstances were precisely diagnosed by the minister of justice. He initiated courses of law followed by the School of Law and School of Administration. As the Duchy’s territory was enlarged, legal teaching had place also at the university in Cracow. It seems that although the state existed for only a short period, a more or less cohesive governmental concept of legal education’s role existed. It was to serve mainly the development of the state and this utilitarian goal dominated. It is worth reminding that those first Polish endeavours in the field of modern legal education took place at the time of a public finance crisis. Although majority of income was devoted to military needs and many projects were put off until later, authorities noticed that for an efficient governing of a state a well-educated personnel is needed. At that time this belief was not common.

The paper indicates the most important arguments raised by the participants in the dispute concerning the possibility of control by the administrative courts of decisions of the President of the Republic of Poland on the refusal to appoint a judge and an attempt to make a substantive evaluation of them. In my opinion, the refusal to appoint a judge, as well as refusal to accept the judge’s position under the amended Act on the Supreme Court (SC) should be strictly exceptional and in principle be justified at the constitutional level, which should be seen as the duty of the President to ensure compliance with the Constitution. Both of these resolutions should contain the motives of the President, which would make this act, with all its arbitrariness, more transparent. This is important not only from the point of view of the person concerned, but this also has an important social dimension. The public has the right to know, not only which candidates, who met the requirements for the appointment as a judge and were recommended by the National Council of the Judiciary of Poland (NCJ), were not appointed by the President, but also what reasons were at the heart of such a decision of the Head of State.

The paper presents a comparative analysis of the institutions responsible for the election, promotions and nominations of judges in France, Germany and Poland. At the very eginning – in the introduction – the genesis of institutions which are equivalents of the National Council of the Judiciary was presented, starting from the philosophical basis for the idea of the independence of courts and judges, through international regulations to the constitutions of individual states. The main part was divided into 3 sections: a brief description of the judiciary, the composition of the institution responsible for the election of judges and the manner of appointing its members, and the competence of the council and the manner of appointing judges. Each of these issues was divided by the selected countries, thanks to which it will be possible to get a clear picture of how these institutions work in individual countries. As a summary, conclusions about how the principle of judiciary independence is met in selected countries, and whether meeting this principle depends exclusively on legal framework.

Modernity understood as a permanent crisis of legitimacy and authority is a constant challenge for constitutionalism. The article reconstructs the danger of substituting political nature with moral imperatives. In modern societies, political disputes turn into so-called culture wars, and the dividing lines are marked by two moralities fighting each other: a liberal morality and a conservative morality. Using selected examples from the constitutional judiciary, I put forward a proposal of rethinking the definition of political nature in constitutionalism to deal with the crisis of legitimacy and authority that plagues it.

The subject of this article is the analysis of reasons and results of determining as well as changing tax residence in the light of Polish personal income tax. This topic underlies a broad concept of migration, especially that of profit-driven character. The author presents this research issue on the basis of the current legislation, doctrine as well as practice of applying the law by the judiciary and the tax autho-rities. The analysis of the valid regulations of tax law leads to the conclusion that the fiscal situation of migrants is so diversified as well as complicated from the legal point of view that it raises justified practical doubts. It is assumed that tax residence is dynamic and thus may change as a result of both intended and unin-tended taxpayers’ actions which may have specific tax law effects. They are reflected not only in tax preferences but also in obligations concerning tax settlements. Apart from ordinary tax consequences of determining or changing tax residence, the author relates also to particular legal solutions such as: exit tax, taxation of foreign controlled companies or appliance of the provisions of Multilateral Convention (MLI). The described issues are significant for both theory and practice of tax law application.

The paper presents a comparative analysis of the institutions responsible for the election, promotions and nominations of judges in France, Germany and Poland. At the very eginning – in the introduction – the genesis of institutions which are equivalents of the National Council of the Judiciary was presented, starting from the philosophical basis for the idea of the independence of courts and judges, through international regulations to the constitutions of individual states. The main part was divided into 3 sections: a brief description of the judiciary, the composition of the institution responsible for the election of judges and the manner of appointing its members, and the competence of the council and the manner of appointing judges. Each of these issues was divided by the selected countries, thanks to which it will be possible to get a clear picture of how these institutions work in individual countries. As a summary, conclusions about how the principle of judiciary independence is met in selected countries, and whether meeting this principle depends exclusively on legal framework.

The paper indicates the most important arguments raised by the participants in the dispute concerning the possibility of control by the administrative courts of decisions of the President of the Republic of Poland on the refusal to appoint a judge and an attempt to make a substantive evaluation of them. In my opinion, the refusal to appoint a judge, as well as refusal to accept the judge’s position under the amended Act on the Supreme Court (SC) should be strictly exceptional and in principle be justified at the constitutional level, which should be seen as the duty of the President to ensure compliance with the Constitution. Both of these resolutions should contain the motives of the President, which would make this act, with all its arbitrariness, more transparent. This is important not only from the point of view of the person concerned, but this also has an important social dimension. The public has the right to know, not only which candidates, who met the requirements for the appointment as a judge and were recommended by the National Council of the Judiciary of Poland (NCJ), were not appointed by the President, but also what reasons were at the heart of such a decision of the Head of State.

The subject of this article is the analysis of reasons and results of determining as well as changing tax residence in the light of Polish personal income tax. This topic underlies a broad concept of migration, especially that of profit-driven character. The author presents this research issue on the basis of the current legislation, doctrine as well as practice of applying the law by the judiciary and the tax autho-rities. The analysis of the valid regulations of tax law leads to the conclusion that the fiscal situation of migrants is so diversified as well as complicated from the legal point of view that it raises justified practical doubts. It is assumed that tax residence is dynamic and thus may change as a result of both intended and unin-tended taxpayers’ actions which may have specific tax law effects. They are reflected not only in tax preferences but also in obligations concerning tax settlements. Apart from ordinary tax consequences of determining or changing tax residence, the author relates also to particular legal solutions such as: exit tax, taxation of foreign controlled companies or appliance of the provisions of Multilateral Convention (MLI). The described issues are significant for both theory and practice of tax law application.