A sole proprietorship is the most common form of running a business. The number of enterprises operated in Poland has been growing dynamically for over 30 years. At the same time, the population of Poland is the fastest ageing society in the EU. In the light of the above, many enterprises may soon face the problem of maintaining business continuity in the event of death of their owners. The article attempts to evaluate the implementation of the institution of succession management of a natural person’s enterprise into the Polish legal framework one year after new solutions were offered to Polish entrepreneurs. To this ennd, the way how entrepreneurs make use of this institution has been analysed.

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.

The paper tries to conceptualize the social and structural change that self-governments underwent during systemic transformation in Poland. First, the situation of professional self-governments before the systemic transformation is discussed, including their liquidation at the onset of communist rule in Poland as well as the beginnings of their revival at the end of it, which was described as the first wave of development of professional self-governments. Both the reasons for liquidation, as well as revival of professional-self-governments are described. After this we discuss the second wave of this development, covering the first years after the fall of communism up to the adoption of the Polish Constitution of 1997, which regulated the status of professional self-government in the “social constitution”. Next we analyse the third wave of development of professional self-governments, which lasted until 2001 and was a portent of the conflict discussed at the end of the article between two ways of understanding what professional self-governments are and what role they should play (one focused on social constitution and other on efficiency). It is argued that from 2001 onwards professional self-governments have been treated more like a tool of effective governance (and very often – as something that hinders this governance) rather than an expression of civic society.

One of the most effective systems of protection of human rights is the system defined in the European Convention of Human Rights. Until 2010, the European Court of Human Rights had rarely handled tax cases because, in principle, it excluded this category of cases from its jurisdiction in the field of the protection of taxpayer rights. Such cases had always been qualified – in accordance to the requirements of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights – as criminal or civil (property-related) cases. A major change in the ECHR’s approach to cases featuring tax-related aspects occurred in 2011. Given the protection of the right to property as set out in Protocol No. 1, the ECHR ranted taxpayers protection related to the return of value added tax in situations in which the taxpayer fulfilled their record-keeping obligations. The adopted trend in the issued decisions is seen to be dominant, but to be considered grounded, a greater number of ECHR judicial decisions than at present is needed. There is no doubt that the new tendency in the judicial decisions issued by the ECHR may have a major impact on the decisions issued by administrative courts in Poland.

Cash pooling is a method of managing financial resources, which works well primarily in enterprises with an extensive corporate structure and operating within capital groups. The choice of a given form of cash pooling will depend on the entrepreneur’s individual preferences. Although using this method has many advantages, it still raises legal doubts. There is a lack of provisions in Poland that would precisely regulate this type of greement. In many cases, the design of the cash pooling agreement is similar to a loan agreement. However, it is worth paying attention to the basic differences, such as the fact that the essence of cash pooling is not an obligation to transfer a specific monetary value to an entity specified in the contract. These and other specific features of cash pooling agreements mean that it is not always obvious to which entity and on what terms an entity can be granted the status of beneficial owner. An additional, verification obligations imposed on the Polish payer and the need to act with due diligence are practical impediments.

Cash pooling is a method of managing financial resources, which works well primarily in enterprises with an extensive corporate structure and operating within capital groups. The choice of a given form of cash pooling will depend on the entrepreneur’s individual preferences. Although using this method has many advantages, it still raises legal doubts. There is a lack of provisions in Poland that would precisely regulate this type of greement. In many cases, the design of the cash pooling agreement is similar to a loan agreement. However, it is worth paying attention to the basic differences, such as the fact that the essence of cash pooling is not an obligation to transfer a specific monetary value to an entity specified in the contract. These and other specific features of cash pooling agreements mean that it is not always obvious to which entity and on what terms an entity can be granted the status of beneficial owner. An additional, verification obligations imposed on the Polish payer and the need to act with due diligence are practical impediments.

This text is a contribution to the discussion on the state of legal education in Poland. The author refers, in particular, to the article by A. Czarnota, M. Paździora and M. Stambulski regarding a hidden program in legal education, describes the existing situation and proposes changes that should be introduced in legal studies and teaching methods for future lawyers. On selected examples, she shows how one can oppose the domination of dataism in university teaching at law faculties in
Poland and at the same time educate competent lawyers and conscious citizens.

Changes in the university model related to such phenomena as globalisation or technological development are important from the point of view of lawyer education. The aim of the study was to assess whether Polish legal provisions on the design of the programmes of law studies and the specific normative criteria for the evaluation of the quality of education allow a lawyer education model corresponding to a knowledge-based economy (KBE) to be formulated. The analysis showed that the provisions on the design of study programmes and the evaluation of the quality
of education do not allow a model study programme for the field of law, so that it can fully meet the requirements of the KBE, to be created. It was noted that creating a minimum normative standard in a legal education programme is necessary. Persons involved in the teaching of lawyers and beneficiaries of legal services should be involved in the development of this standard. The conducted research may improve legal solutions in such a way that they contribute to the improvement
of the process of creating study programmes in the field of law. The point is that they should be comparable and comply with GOW requirements. At the same time, they must ensure equal access to the legal professions for all law graduates.

Recent years in Poland have been marked by a heated discussion on the system of education in place. A significant contribution to the discussion was the 2018 Law on Higher Education and Science Act, redefining the current operating model of higher education institutions. Tertiary education and the way it is organised are set in a global environment with an indefinite number of stakeholders. The turbulent nature and changeability of this environment has surfaced even more strongly in the light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. All this requires looking at the design of curricula and the delivery of the process of education from a broader angle, identifying the internal and the external stakeholders and determining their expectations as well as the capabilities to affect higher education institutions and the very process of education. The article points to the area of research made in the said domain, offering a description of the current state of affairs.

100 years of constitutionalism of two neighbouring European states – Czechoslovakia, later becoming the Czech Republic, and Poland – encourage a reflection on the paths of development of their respective constitutions, on the historical stages and successive political transformations, not just in the context of individual constitutionalisms of each of those states but with an emphasis on the similarities and differences in this domain. And this is what this study focuses on. Starting from the common fate of rebirth of both states after WWI through the inter-war efforts to establish democratic constitutional systems and the obstacles found on the way, followed by the post-WWII period of real socialism ending with the era of transformations and stabilisation as democratic states of law. The text explores all the similarities found in both general aspects – like the references to the European tradition of parliamentary governance – and in certain specific solutions – like the differences in the concept of the two-chamber parliament. But there are also situations occurring in only one of the states, e.g. the federalisation of Czechoslovakia, the emergence of two separate states of the Czechs and Slovaks, or the differences in the course and sequence of events of democratic transformations in each of the states in the 1980s (martial law in Poland and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia), which brings us to the conclusion that despite all the possible differences, the two constitutional systems have actually been very similar to each other.

This paper concerns a broader technological revolution which is currently happening all around the world, including Poland, in terms of tax return completion. The paper is divided into parts. The individual parts indicate and describe the current state, change-causing factors as well as the changes progressing currently both in Poland and the world. The purpose of this paper is to analyse and describe the possibilities resulting from the automation of the tax returns completion process and to determine the directions of potential changes in the future.

The article aims to cover the issue of foreign entities having a “fixed establishment” in a given country. A phenomenon discussed at length in recent months, but one that entities conducting digital business seem to have not really explored in great detail in the context of determination of the principles of taxation of VAT transactions. In this article, we will attempt to analyse the definition of FE on the basis of both binding legal regulations and the existing Polish and EU judicial decisions. At the same time, we will try to answer the question about the impact of the practice of tax authorities pursued in the area of interpretation of the conditions for a FE to be established on the stability of tax settlements of taxpayers operating in the digital industry. In addition to that, the authors will also try to arrive at a balance among the current views on FE, which depict Poland from the tax administration perspective as a country with highly unstable tax practices, detached from logical arguments and unaware of the nature of business.

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.

A sole proprietorship is the most common form of running a business. The number of enterprises operated in Poland has been growing dynamically for over 30 years. At the same time, the population of Poland is the fastest ageing society in the EU. In the light of the above, many enterprises may soon face the problem of maintain-ing business continuity in the event of death of their owners. The article attempts to evaluate the implementation of the institution of succession management of a natural person’s enterprise into the Polish legal framework one year after new solutions were offered to Polish entrepreneurs. To this end, the way how entrepre-neurs make use of this institution has been analysed.

Climate change is one of the key civilisational issues. This change is caused by greenhouse gas emission. Stopping this change requires multidirectional actions on a global scale, primarily limiting the combustion of fossil fuels. What reaches towards these needs is the proposals of the international community, which are determined in the protocol of 15 December 2015 (called the Paris Agreement). The legal framework for the strategy of implementing it in the European Union and the member states is formulated by the legislative package “Clean Energy For All Europeans”. The directions and terms of developing the economy pose particular challenges for Poland which plans to maintain
the significant role of coal in the energy industry for decades. Government documents show that the government of the Republic of Poland will not decide on the spectacular decarbonisation of the economy. It cannot be obligated to do it, either, due to the treaty conditions. However, the future of the coal energy industry seems prejudged. This results from the development directions of European economic-legal instruments which serve the direct (determining binding emission standards and environmental quality standards) and indirect (through influencing the prices of greenhouse gas emission allowances) rationing of the activity of entities from the energy sector in the environment.

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.