Article aims to invigorate the study of judicial smiles in Polish legal science. Judicial smiles are treated as an element of psycho-social processes in the courtroom, in particular the judge’s non-verbal communication. Such an opening will be made by identifying and discussing a few real cases of judges’ smiles in Poland, and more precisely in the courtrooms of Krakow’s lower courts (civil and criminal divisions). The empirical material was obtained through passive observation of the hearings, supported by a standardized observational questionnaire. According to the results, (i) there are more smiles of judges in courtrooms than one might think, (ii) a judge’s smiles during questioning the witnesses (as a rule) is generally less controversial than that smiles expressed in relation to parties or participants, (iii) five types of judicial smiles were distinguished, (iv) two of them seem to violate important procedural rules, while the role of others is positive, (v) it is possible to reflect on the development of the judges’ ability to use a smile in a situational manner, of course in a narrow scope and under many conditions.

The review process of texts submitted for publication in scientific journals is one of the main ways of evaluating the scientific output of their authors. Any disruptions in this process can have serious and far-reaching consequences, not only in terms of the credibility and integrity of the author themselves, but – most importantly – in terms of the confidence in their achievements. Attempts to distort the review process have so far occurred most often in medical and exact sciences. The case of “The Critique of Law” discussed herein shows that attempts at scientific fraud affect also legal sciences. The purpose of the article is to inform the scientific community worldwide about subsequent attempts of unethical scholarly activities, to describe instances of malpractice, and to point out some of the possible ways to prevent the fraud in question.

The review process of texts submitted for publication in scientific journals is one of the main ways of evaluating the scientific output of their authors. Any disruptions in this process can have serious and far-reaching consequences, not only in terms of the credibility and integrity of the author themselves, but – most importantly – in terms of the confidence in their achievements. Attempts to distort the review process have so far occurred most often in medical and exact sciences. The case of „The Critique of Law” discussed herein shows that attempts at scientific fraud affect also legal sciences. The purpose of the article is to inform the scientific community worldwide about subsequent attempts of unethical scholarly activities, to describe instances of malpractice, and to point out some of the possible ways to
prevent the fraud in question.

The Polish Personal Income Tax Law provides for a relatively extensive group of tax exemptions related to various benefits offered to doctoral students and academics. It also includes an exemption for scholarships and assistance grants referred to in Law 2.0, as well as scholarships received under programmes or projects aimed at implementing the current state scientific policy. The rule adopted is that the exemption applies as long as the rules for granting the scholarships and grants in question them have been approved by the minister in charge of higher education and science. The research objective adopted in the gloss is to verify the jurisprudential practice regarding the issue of the tax exemption in question. The analysis and evaluation have been performed also in the context of the guidelines and ideas behind the reform of higher education and science (regulations of the so-called Law 2.0). This gloss is a critical commentary. It makes use of dogmatic-legal and normative analysis.

The article is the second in a series of papers that seek to present and analyse the meaning ascribed to the notions of ‘gambling’ and ‘gambling games’ in the gambling law provisions of selected European countries as well as to confront the normative meaning of this concept with gambling characteristics from the perspective of social sciences. The analysis covered provisions of those English-speaking countries in which the notion of ‘gaming’ is used to describe the aggregate category of gambling activities, i.e. Malta and Ireland. The article mainly uses methods of comparative law. The presentation of the characteristics of gambling from the perspective of social science draws on the scientific output of researchers in the field. The studies carried out justified the thesis that the scopes of the notion of ‘gaming’ in the gambling law provisions of Malta and Ireland are substantially different. On the one hand, the situation results from different traditions in the regulation of gambling activities. On the other, it reflects the attitude public authorities currently adopt both to the activities bearing the features of gambling and to such games in which the outcome is determined by the player’s skill but which might pose a threat similar to those related to gambling. In both Malta and Ireland, the normative meaning of ‘gaming’ extends beyond the meaning that is ascribed to the notion of ‘gambling’ in social science.

So far, numerous influential studies have been made in reference to the phenomenon of ‘good governance’ in formal and legal, and economic terms or in terms of political science. The purpose of this paper is to present an interdisciplinary approach that attempts to integrate legal, economic and political sciences to analyse especially the legal and economic contexts of the indicated concept. The task of the article is to show the co-dependency and interactions between ‘good governance’ and the school of law and economy, especially within the phenomenon of supranational institutionalisation whose foundations still include the realisation of the principles of ‘good governance’. Despite the legal and economic themes, the indicated areas also formulate a defined scope of politics that is worth seeing through the prism of the apparatus of political science. The extremely economic approach demands focus on the processes of maximising profits/minimising resources; however, one must not ignore the element of classic politics that refers to disputes about various attitudes and values. The hypothesis of the article is the following statement: the decomposition of the liberal model of law and global economy translates into the phenomenon of the economic downturn of supranational structures, which leads to more primitive forms of domination and subordination in place of current practices whose purpose is to implement the regulations of ‘good governance’.

The aim of the article is to offer proposals for reforming and speeding up health care in Ukraine, in particular by comparing the current system with a decentralized system. The methodology of this research follows basic social science methods (formal analysis, inductive method, deductive method, analogy, synthesis, etc.). With these methods, we address the issues of the health care reform in Ukraine. The article explores the issue of improving the health care in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government is carrying out two important reforms – a health care reform and a decentralization reform that includes changes in the municipal government. These two reforms have a huge potential for improving Ukraine’s health care system. Such potential remains largely untapped.

The aim of the article is first of all an attempt to organize the ways of understanding the “form (of conventional actions in law)” and the contexts of the use of this term in detailed legal sciences. The author also considers the issue of performing conventional actions in law by non-linguistic actions and omissions, as well as the issue of significance of form ecognition in the context of identifying conventional actions in law. The results of the research presented in the paper (apart from their cognitive value) are to serve the development of the theoretical concept of conventional actions in law and, as far as possible, to put in order the dogmatic-legal discussion concerning the title issue.

The purpose of the article is analyse how essential the issue of personal data protection is in the procedure of leading a collective dispute. In order to make some findings in this matter, the dogmatic and legal method was primarily used and the provisions of the Act on Resolving Collective Disputes and the GDPR were analysed in the first place. The findings made lead to the conclusion that despite the fact that the dispute itself is collective, both parties (both the trade union and the employer) process a range of personal data during the dispute. Due to the specifics of the procedure and the fact that the Act was essentially created before the GDPR came into force and it was not amended for the inclusion of broadly understood requirements for the correctness of the processing of personal data, it is necessary to rely on general principles resulting from the GDPR, and a certain indicator of it may be opinions issued by the PDPO.
The issue raised in this paper has so far been included in certain statements from the doctrine, but its practical significance and importance for social partners who execute their constitutional right to lead collective disputes fully justify further research in this direction as well as the fact of findings resulting from that research reaching various target groups (apart from the above-mentioned social partners, representatives of the judicature and science should also be reached).

The ambiguity of understanding and use of the term “human rights” reduces the effectiveness of the law-making and law enforcement activities of state and inter-national bodies, creates negative conditions for the formation of the unified worl-dview and legal position of future lawyers and representatives of other humanities. This article aims to define, formulate the content and describe the legal essence of the term “human rights,” and to substantiate the thesis about the harmfulness of the legal science, law-making and law enforcement use of this term with different meanings. The leading method of research is the method of analysis, which allows one to study the subject, imaginatively dividing it into constituent elements, and to consider each of the selected elements separately within a single whole. This article presents the argumentation of the need for a single wording, understanding, and use of the legal term “human rights.” The materials of the article have practical value for the effective implementation of the law-making and law enforcement activities of state and international bodies, for the formation of the unified worldview and legal position of future lawyers and representatives of other humanities, as well as for a correct and clear explanation of problems with the implemen-tation and protection of human rights.

The purpose of the article is to accomplish several complementary research tasks. First, the issue of sources of the content of conventional acts in law is discussed. Then, detailed issues regarding the content of conventional acts in law are presented against the background of dogmatic and legal reflections as well as problems related to the identification of conventional acts. Additionally, the author makes an attempt to determine the ways of understanding ‘the content (of conventional acts in law)’ in particular legal sciences. The research results presented in the article (apart from their cognitive value) are supposed to serve the development of the general theoretical concept of conventional acts in law, as well as to organise the dogmatic and legal discussion on the titular issue as much as possible.

Recently, interest in the method of administrative law regulations to tackle the problems of labour law has remained high in the Polish doctrine of labour law. New studies on this subject emerge every now and then. Leaving aside the perceived validity of the method to arrange labour law relations based on public law, I would like to point to the undoubted “appeal” of the axiological foundations of administrative law for the labour law system and, at the same time, to reflect on the consequences of the aforesaid axiology when looking at the potential choice between the method based on private law or public law in the realm of labour law relations. I assume that such a choice should be ultimately made for the sake of the science of labour law. However if labour is treated as a commodity, there can be no question of an extensive axiology that highlights the good of humans and the morality of the employer.

This paper presents the issue of a lawyer’s integrity from the perspective of the assumptions underlying the original concept of a holistic approach to law and legal practice. In the course of the discussion, the basic principles of legal holism, the assumed understanding of lawyer’s integrity and their personal qualities forming the lawyer personality, and the problem of integrity in the context of the formula (model) shaping the lawyer-client relationship will be introduced. Legal holism recognises a lawyer’s self-knowledge, their conscious choice of professional role(s), the ways in which they are performed and the formula for working with clients and parties to disputes as crucial issues for the practice of law. It emphasises their complexity and possible impact on the postulated observance by a lawyer of the integrity of attitudes and actions in professional and private life. The author represents a research approach related to the concept of ontological and methodological multidimensionality of legal phenomena and the postulate of the so-called external integration of jurisprudence with the achievements of other sciences, including branches other than social (e.g. psychology or sociology).

The research objective of the publication is expressed in its content devoted to the
general analysis of the solutions adopted in the draft regulation of the European
Union on the digital asset market. The entry of this legal act into force will fill the
so-called ‘regulatory gap’ as the digital asset sector is not regulated in the EU. The
research approach has been determined by the subject of the legal analysis, namely
the provisions of the proposed new EU regulation on the digital asset market. The
study describes the proposed legal regulation and its systemic importance, as well
as indicates the similarity of the proposed solutions to well-known legal institutions
in the area of the capital market. The main theses are as follows: the proposed legal
act will order the digital asset market in terms of law (firstly); the proposed legal act
in terms of content is based on solutions provided for in the capital market law
(secondly); the proposed legal act provides for legal institutions ensuring the
so-called safety of trading (thirdly). The results should be considered original
because the publication constitutes a pioneering study on the proposed legal act.
With its entry into force (the date is unknown), a discussion on specific topics will
begin in the science of law. Therefore, it is worth speaking up and evaluating the
proposed regulation before the new law is passed. The cognitive value of the publication results from its pioneering nature, and the impact on social relations is
significant. The digital asset market is developing extremely dynamically, and the
interest in this sector is very high.

The research objective of the publication is expressed in its content devoted to the general analysis of the solutions adopted in the draft regulation of the European Union on the digital asset market. The entry of this legal act into force will fill the so-called ‘regulatory gap’ as the digital asset sector is not regulated in the EU. The research approach has been determined by the subject of the legal analysis, namely the provisions of the proposed new EU regulation on the digital asset market. The study describes the proposed legal regulation and its systemic importance, as well as indicates the similarity of the proposed solutions to well-known legal institutions in the area of the capital market. The main theses are as follows: the proposed legal act will order the digital asset market in terms of law (firstly); the proposed legal act in terms of content is based on solutions provided for in the capital market law (secondly); the proposed legal act provides for legal institutions ensuring the so-called safety of trading (thirdly). The results should be considered original because the publication constitutes a pioneering study on the proposed legal act. With its entry into force (the date is unknown), a discussion on specific topics will begin in the science of law. Therefore, it is worth speaking up and evaluating the proposed regulation before the new law is passed. The cognitive value of the publication results from its pioneering nature, and the impact on social relations is significant. The digital asset market is developing extremely dynamically, and the interest in this sector is very high.

The aim of the research was to identify conditions and forms of international and cross-border cooperation of Polish higher education institutions (HEIs). In order to achieve the goal, the formal-dogmatic method was applied, analyzing the literature on the subject, the law (mainly Polish law), as well as various statements and press releases. A request for public information was also used. The article was divided into three parts. The first one concerns the conditions of international and cross-border cooperation of Polish HEIs. The next part covers the forms of cooperation identified by the author, and the last one refers to the formula of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation as a form of international and cross-border cooperation of HEIs. The results of the research show that international and cross--border cooperation of Polish HEIs is based primarily on national law, which, however, is characterized by high variability, which does not favour building stable relations. The cooperation of HEIs takes various forms, from non-institutionalised to quasi institutionalised and institutionalised. Polish HEIs are trying to join the internationalization process, and the availability of external funding is conducive to gradual institutionalization of international and cross-border cooperation
of HEIs. There is a scarcity of studies on the subject, therefore the article may be
of great cognitive value to legal science, especially in Poland, but also abroad (for
scholars conducting comparative research).

In the paper, we deal with the issue of education of lawyers in doctoral schools in
Poland. We describe the basic solutions adopted by the Constitution for Science regarding doctoral students. Based on socio-legal theory of the neutralisation of values in the law, we point out a few basic the categories of problems resulting from the regulations and the implementation of the act. They are: a vision of a doctoral candidate, a vision of a graduate, internationalization, interdisciplinarity, structure of doctoral schools and financing of doctoral education. The article is exploratory in nature, so its primary purpose is recognising and drawing attention to the problems and research questions that should be studied in further research.

The literary activity of Wenceslas Makowski (1880–1942) who was a prominent politician in the Second Republic of Poland (1918–1939) as well as a lawyer and a scholar, encompassed three main subjects: scientific, journalistic (mainly political and social), and artistic. His literary achievements in the scientific field of legal sciences are highly regarded. Of Makowski’s literary work in the scientific and journalistic field, his achievements in the field of criminal and constitutional law are noteworthy. Undoubtedly, this was associated with his extraordinary activity in the state bodies of the Second Republic of Poland. W. Makowski was also devoted to artistic activities and literary criticism.