Women constitute half of the population in Kosovo, thus representing half of the voters in elections. Given the high importance of women’s representation in local governance, Kosovo has approved relevant legislation to guarantee gender equality at this level. The purpose of this study is to critically analyse Kosovo’s legislation on women’s political participation rights in the country’s municipalities. The analysis of Kosovo legislation on gender equality, international standards, and statistical data on women’s representation in local governance in Kosovo proves that women are underrepresented in municipal-level politics, with an average of 14.5% during the last twenty-three years, much lower than the gender quota in Kosovo and the world average of 36%. This is due to the non-harmonisation of the electoral quota with the gender quota (50%), the non-implementation of Kosovo Law on Gender
Equality, traditions, prejudice against women, and the reluctance of women to assume governing positions.

Women constitute half of the population in Kosovo, thus representing half of the voters in elections. Given the high importance of women’s representation in local governance, Kosovo has approved relevant legislation to guarantee gender equality at this level. The purpose of this study is to critically analyse Kosovo’s legislation on women’s political participation rights in the country’s municipalities. The analysis of Kosovo legislation on gender equality, international standards, and statistical data on women’s representation in local governance in Kosovo proves that women are underrepresented in municipal-level politics, with an average of 14.5% during the last twenty-three years, much lower than the gender quota in Kosovo and the world average of 36%. This is due to the non-sharmonisation of the electoral quota with the gender quota (50%), the non-implementation of Kosovo Law on Gender Equality, traditions, prejudice against women, and the reluctance of women to assume governing positions.

The article is devoted to the study of the correct application of the evaluative concepts contained in the norms of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Attention is drawn to certain difficulties in the application of the evaluative norms in the Convention: despite their objective necessity and usefulness, they create a room for the law enforcement entity’s own discretion up to subjectivism in resolving specific cases; they serve as an objective obstacle to the unification of the case law of the ECtHR and this creates preconditions for unequal implementation of ECtHR judgments in the national legal order; they cause the risk of errors in the application of the provisions of the Convention by the competent authorities of the Contracting States. It is established that the application of legal norms containing evaluative concepts is challenging not only owing to the specific properties of the evaluative concepts themselves, but also due to the peculiarities of adjudication by the ECtHR when applying the evaluative norms. The relevant case law of the ECtHR as well as examples of national legislation are analysed in support of these theoretical conclusions. Since the lack of uniform application of the evaluative norms of the Convention causes divergent use of the ECtHR’s judgments in the domestic judicial system, it is advised to follow a number of rules for reasoning of decisions by the domestic court. These rules will serve as a certain guarantee against ambiguous implementation of ECtHR judgments at the national level.

The aim of this paper is to address the issue of implementation of international legal instruments regarding cybercrime into the Polish criminal law. Effective protection against cybercrime requires, among other things, the establishment of an appropriate legal framework. Criminal prohibitions of a deterrent effect, which are a part of this framework, seem of particular importance. In Europe such a set of rules is provided for in the instruments of the Council of Europe as well as in the European Union instruments. As a member of both these international organisations, Poland is obliged to implement their standards. The author’s aim is to analyse whether and, if so, to what extent the current Polish criminal legislation is in line with European requirements. The process of implementation of these norms has expanded in the span of over 10 years and was initiated even before Poland accessed the European Union. Polish criminal law, however, is not yet fully compliant with international requirements on cybercrime. This paper is an attempt to identify some areas of the criminal law which are still to be amended as well as to submit some solutions de lege ferenda.

These standards were introduced at four international organizations and supranational associations: 1) the European Union; 2) the Council of Europe; 3) the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; 4) the Commonwealth of Independent States. The article states that the key reason for the introduction of standards for the regulation of lobbying at the international level was considerable corruption in the adoption of legal acts. It is concluded that latent and unregulated lobbying can seriously undermine public confidence in the institution of government, especially in the countries of the so-called “new democracy”. International regulation of lobbying takes the form of resolutions, procedural rules, guidelines, recommendations and model legislation. Notably, the first steps towards international regulation of lobbying were taken by the institutions of the European Union. Today EU standards for the regulation of lobbying is based on a series of articles set out in the EU-founding treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. EU standards for the regulation of lobbying influence not only the EU Member States, but it also extends to EU Partner Countries. Significant steps in the implementation of international standards for the regulation of lobbying are being constantly carried out by the Council of Europe. The establishment of CE standards for the regulation of lobbying is reflected in the activity of statutory bodies of the Council of Europe and its semi-autonomous bodies. In recent years a lot of work on the strengthening of international standards for lobbying regulation has been done by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. To help address the concerns with transparency and integrity in lobbying, the OECD Member Countries adopted in 2010 a Recommendation on Principles for Transparency and Integrity in Lobbying as guidance to decision-makers on how to promote good governance in lobbying. Another international organization, which began to regulate actively the practice of lobbying is the Commonwealth of Independent States. In order to intensify the work concerning legislative regulation of lobbying in the member countries of the CIS, at the XXII Plenary Session of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS member states the Resolution No. 22-16 of November 15, 2003 was adopted, which approved a model law “On regulation of lobbying activity in state authorities”.

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a tool that allow predicting the environmental
effects of a project. Undoubtedly, the basic element of the EIA is the EIA report: and if so, the question arises who is qualified to prepare the report. The purpose of the study is to present the evolution of the rights of EIA report experts from the 1970s to modern times, presented from the perspective of legal sciences. The implementation of the amended Directive 2011/92 took place from 1 January 2017 by introducing formal education criteria and / or experience for EIA experts, which were softened by the amendment of 19 July 2019. In the study, I put forward the thesis that there is a tendency in Polish legislation
to lower the requirements for EIA experts, which makes national regulation contrary to the spirit of Directive 2011/92. Research methods used in the study include primarily the dogmatic approach, the method of consistent interpretation, and – to a lesser extent – the comparative and historical method.

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a tool that allow predicting the environmental effects of a project. Undoubtedly, the basic element of the EIA is the EIA report: and if so, the question arises who is qualified to prepare the report. The purpose of the study is to present the evolution of the rights of EIA report experts from the 1970s to modern times, presented from the perspective of legal sciences. The implementation of the amended Directive 2011/92 took place from 1 January 2017 by introducing formal education criteria and/or experience for EIA experts, which were softened by the amendment of 19 July 2019. In the study, I put forward the thesis that there is a tendency in Polish legislation
to lower the requirements for EIA experts, which makes national regulation contrary
to the spirit of Directive 2011/92. Research methods used in the study include primarily the dogmatic approach, the method of consistent interpretation, and – to a lesser extent – the comparative and historical method.