Funkcjonowanie unii celnej wymaga od państw członkowskich stosowania jedno­litych regulacji prawa celnego dla całego obszaru gospodarczego objętego wspól­nymi zasadami obrotu towarowego z zagranicą. Stawia to istotne wyzwania dla wszystkich administracji celnych realizujących politykę celną w ramach unii celnej. Działania państw członkowskich powinny w tym zakresie umożliwiać prawidłowy rozwój gospodarczy oraz wysoki poziom ochrony interesów społecznych i gospo­darczych ugrupowania integracyjnego. Zależności te powodują konieczność koor­dynacji działań administracji regulujących obrót towarowy z zagranicą w poszcze­gólnych państwach członkowskich unii celnej. W Unii Europejskiej konieczność koordynacji działań w ramach funkcjonowania całego systemu celnego stała się podstawą gruntownej reformy regulacji prawnych określających ustrojowy, materialno­prawny i proceduralny model funkcjonowania unii celnej. Wdrażane zmiany legis­lacyjne mają na celu reformę informatyczną zapewniającą integrację rozwiązań informatycznych służących administrowaniu obrotem towarowym z zagranicą oraz powołanie nowych podmiotów administrujących mających zapewnić właściwą koordynację działań w ramach systemu celnego Unii Europejskiej.

Każde demokratyczne państwo ma swój jasno określony i uporządkowany prawnie zbiór norm i reguł, które wyznaczają zasady wewnętrznej organizacji, zarządzania i systemu organów władzy publicznej. Zasady te pod wpływem wielu okoliczności podlegają naturalnym procesom zmian. Z perspektywy większości współczesnych krajów do kluczowych zmian odnoszących się do systemu zarządzania publicznego należy przede wszystkim odrzucenie państwa jako legitymizowanego monopolu przymusu, wprowadzając szeroko rozumianą, choć nie zawsze i wszędzie obecną – decentralizację władzy. Zamysłem autora jest wskazanie w artykule wybranych oczywiście, z uwagi na szeroki zakres omawianego zagadnienia, administracyjno­prawnych aspektów obecności zarządzania publicznego w rozwoju administracji publicznej. Rozważania podjęte w tekście prowadzą do wniosku, że pomimo widocz­nych kierunków upowszechniania różnych, często bardzo uspołecznionych form zarządzania publicznego, w praktyce funkcjonowania administracji publicznej dostrzega się wielowymiarowość implementacji tego systemu.

Public prosecution service has an irreplaceable place in the system of state authorities. However, the years of authoritarian regimes transformed independent public prosecution authorities existing on the territory of Slovakia and the Czech Republic into authorities protecting primarily the regime and persecuting all persons who were non-compliant with this regime. It was not until the fall of Communism in 1989 that a change came – a return to the original mission of public prosecution service (the independent protection of law). However, after the division of the Czechoslovakia in 1993 opinion plurality and the lack of a clear opinion on the nature of the public prosecution service resulted in the creation of two relatively different models – the model of prokuratúra in Slovakia and the model of státní zastupitelství in the Czech Republic. This is the reason why the author of this paper deals with the constitutional status of public prosecution service in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He analyses public prosecution service as a constitutional institution in general and then by comparison he focuses on constitutional regulation of the Slovak and Czech public prosecution service. The final parts contain brief evaluation of the current legal status and some possible considerations de constitutione ferenda.

One of the basic aspects of modern education is the development of key compe-tences. This requirement is included in the legislative acts (domestic ones and those of the European Union) as well as in documents specifying core curricula in individual countries. By analysing this problem as exemplified by Poland, we show that communication competence in the language of the legislative acts, fun-damental for a modern, conscious people, is an absent element of key competences. In the article, we show why it is important to learn about the real features of the legislative acts in a rapidly changing, knowledge-oriented society. We present the results of the analysis of the core curriculum applicable in Poland for secondary schools in terms of legal education. We also present a proposal to include issues developing legal communication competence in the secondary school curriculum.

The purpose of the article is to present selected aspects of the issue of legal (administrative and legal) impossibility and to propose structural solutions that can contribute to reducing the scale of that negative phenomenon. Firstly, the article refers to the causes of legal impossibility and its form. Next, a structural solution that has been used and verified in developed administrations, that is, the accountability of administration, was presented, and its application to Polish administrative law was proposed. The study includes the use of, among other things, the method of transferring management solutions to administrative law. In the paper, a thesis was formulated that a systemic and correct introduction of the institution of the accountability of administration into the Polish system of administrative law (in the form of proper structural norms) may significantly contribute to reducing the scope of legal impossibility. The reflections presented in the article are provided in two dimensions – one that is formal and dogmatic and another that concerns legal realism.

The current system of human rights protection has a multifaceted nature. There are three standards of the protection (universal, regional and national). It’s difficult to create the relationship between those standards. Each of those system relates the different ranges of application. The aim of article is to answer the question whether it is possible to create
a uniform standard of protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Research into liberal democracy’s self-preserving quality is usually confined to the notion ‘militant democracy’ and focuses mainly on the specific instruments the political system employs to challenge its adversaries and bolster its structure. This paper takes a different approach to understanding liberal democracy’s self-preservation. It challenges the boundaries of the dominant concept by exploring consolidative tendencies in a more general and comprehensive fashion, focusing on gradual political – and legal evolutionary developments that contribute to the solidification of the political system. On that basis, a critical follow-up question is posed: what are the implications of these consolidative endeavours? By highlighting ‘political impotence’ and its destabilizing effects as one of more socio-political implications, the paper suggests that the self-preserving vigour of liberal democracy might turn out to be counterproductive, and that the crisis which liberal democracy is now experiencing does not occur in spite of but rather because of its self-preserving characteristics.

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.

The aim of the paper is to create an updated typology of soft law. It places soft law among mechanisms of a rather moral, sociological and political origin. This does not mean that it is completely irrelevant in legal terms, but the inclusion of the regulations of soft law in the framework of a “normative system” does not deserve to be taken into account i.a. due to the character of soft law (i.a. formulating the regulations in a general, imprecise manner, the uncertainty of introduced instruments, the lack of an obligatory force to implement them). This paper indicates the roles played by soft law in the international public law discourse. It also presents differences in their consideration on the grounds of the international law (including the Community law) as well as the internal law. Out of the whole catalogue of individual functions and tasks of soft law, special heed should be taken of the co-ordinating role of the mechanisms of soft law. Against this background, the paper makes a categorisation of the opinions of the Venice Commission in the framework of soft law. This is because they show the typical features of the mechanisms of that law: they play a binding role, relatively clarifying the international law, they are based on the undisputed authority of the creating entity. However, they are not subject to the forced implementation of them. In the conclusions of the paper, a chance, but also a fundamental threat related to the conduct of the international legal discourse on the basis of the mechanisms of soft law were indicated.