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.

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.

Corruption has been the centre of attention on a global scale. Almost all studies concentrate on corruptive effects on the governance, economics or politics. This paper investigates the citizens’ perceptions towards corruption and anti-corruption in Vietnam. This is a new look contributing to the panoramic picture of anti-corrup-tion. The study employed a descriptive approach with a researcher-made ques-tionnaire for 385 respondents selected by a stratified random sampling method based on Cochran’s formula. It was found out that preventive measures and corrup tion laws are not severe enough to admonish corruption offenders. Transpa-rency is not highly promoted for people to access information, so citizens’ super-vision is not very effective. There is a mismatch between citizens’ perceptions and external organisations’ assessment. It is necessary to implement anti-corruption law strictly and renovate people’s right to get corruptive information. Moreover, the government should recheck and adjust preventive anti-corruption laws to match each specific type of corruption. Urgently, the operation of the state appa-ratus ought to cooperate and join hands to combat corruption. It is advisable for the government to collaborate with external organisations to exchange experience in curbing corruption

The paper analyses the Guidelines issued in 2020 by the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau in Poland on the establishment and implementation of effective compliance programmes in the public sector. These guidelines constitute the very first Polish official document referring to compliance in the public sector. Its detailed critical analysis is therefore useful for the construction of compliance policies by public institutions, in order to prevent and possibly detect irregularities, including corruption, within these organisations.

Business intelligence agencies. What are they in fact? How do they understand economic intelligence? What is business intelligence? And what is it not according to the research? Who is the customer? And who is the object? And what are they looking for? At first I did not set the hypotheses, because the main goal of the research is to immerse and understand the mechanisms of the community on the basis of a „clean card”, not verifying the assumptions of the researcher. Bauman and Pilch write „negligible value of research hypotheses particularly highlighted in the ethnographic research, in which assumptions not only restricts the field of research, but is considered to be harmful, because it creates a false picture of the test of reality”. Despite the fact that during the research, I set a list of questions, I quickly managed to create research categories, under which the data collected is grouped, enabling to develop unambiguous conclusions. In the article, an image of the business intelligence market is defined, as well as an attempt to answer the question what organisations offering services like „economic intelligence” actually do, and what to look for when involving a detective.

These days, Banks are obliged to comply with a broad scope of the regulations and binding laws and this creates numerous challenges for those organisations. These challenges relate, particularly, to international banks operating in parallel within complex legislative, regulatory, social, political etc. realities. This article is a concise presentation of selected tasks brought about by the compliance function in banks that at the same time are the references for the internal norms created within those organisations.

The article deals with the possibility of strengthening Polish security by establishing strategic system resilience the country’s aggression. Discusses the enterprise such as irregular activities in the territory occupied by enemy; support operational troops by territorial defence; preparation of mobilizing reserves; the operational preparation of the country’s territory and protection of the critical infrastructure objects; security of citizens and the State structures, including the common civil protection; universal education for security, including the preparation of the defence of society. The article emphasises the role of the participation of non-governmental organisations and private entities in the provision of strategic resistance country, pointing to the legal, financial, organisational and historical circumstances.

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.

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 publication explores the phenomenology and content of ‘soft law’ in the international
and national law and reveals the designation of ‘soft law’ in protecting the electoral rights of the citizens. ‘Soft law’ is intended to mean optional international documents, most of
which are resolutions of the intergovernmental organisations containing statements, commitments, guidelines, common positions or statements on policy or intentions. ‘Soft law’ documents are usually adopted by the statutory bodies of the international organisations on issues that reflect new problems, tendencies or trends in the field of electoral law, for which there is no political will or the accordance of all the member states in the form of a classical international treaty. When it comes to the content, the ‘soft law’ documents are all kinds of statements, obligations, guidelines, codes of conduct, codes of ethics, guidelines and standards, common positions or statements of policy or intentions.

The Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was established in 1848, during the heated months of the revolutions of the time and “the Spring of Nations.” Starting 1869, the ministry was called the Imperial and Royal Ministry of the Empire and Foreign Affairs. In line with the conservative character of the monarchy, most of its workforce was still drawn from the environment of aristocracy and gentry, and the system was organised in a way to ensure that the staff was suitably trained. The main institution responsible for the education of professionals was the Oriental Academy established in 1754. In 1898 the Oriental Academy was transformed into the Imperial and Royal Consular Academy. Despite regular reorganisations, the Vienna Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintained a relatively stable internal structure, whose individual components were later implemented by a number of successor states. The central administration was divided into four sections, or departments. At the ambassador level, the Habsburg Empire had representations in the German Empire, France, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, Turkey, and at the Holy See that year (1883). The other diplomatic missions were headed by legates and appointed ministers. Two bodies had a significant impact on the monarchy’s foreign policy decision- -making: the Joint Council of Ministers and the Military-Political Conference.