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Die Vorbereitungen laufen bereits viele Jahre, nun liegt er endlich vor: der Entwurf der Europäischen Kommission für ein Gemeinsames Europäisches Kaufrecht als Optionales Instrument. Beteiligte an den Vorarbeiten und wichtige Kritiker derselben setzen sich in diesem höchst empfehlenswerten Buch mit dem Kommissionsentwurf auseinander. Wie wird die Harmonisierung des europäischen Vertragsrechts durch den Entwurf vorangetrieben? Wie "schlägt" sich der Entwurf im Vergleich zum BGB, zum DCFR oder zu den Acquis-Principles? Beleuchtet werden insbesondere Irrtumsanfechtung, AGB-Kontrolle, allgemeines und besonderes Leistungsstörungsrecht beim Kauf und bei verbundenen Dienstleistungen sowie übergreifende Fragestellungen zum Verbraucherrecht. Der Band wird abgerundet durch eine Synopse des Kommissionsentwurfs und der vorangegangenen Machbarkeitsstudie, in der die Entwicklung des Textes deutlich wird.

Traditionally, the quality of law is associated with observing certain principles of law making, the so-called principles of good legislation. Such a way of thinking, however, seems to be an over-simplification. Thus, the author indicates that the high-quality of legislation and the principles of good legislation are not the same. Law passed on the basis of good legislation procedures does not automatically result in the high-quality law, in particular, if one makes an assumption that the quality of law depends, above all, on legal certainty being ensured. The reflections presented here express an opinion on the immediate connection between the quality of law and the theory of law. In this perspective, thoughts on the quality of law resulted in an opinion how firmly the process of improvement in law quality is associated with the development of the theory of law. As regards the studies on the quality of law as a measure of legal certainty, three issues are pointed out in the material: 1. the quality of law from the point of view of its formation in reference to certain general social phenomena, 2. the quality of law relating to a person, 3. the quality of law in judicial activities.

This article deals with the evaluation of some of the new and significantly modified concepts included in the Tax Ordinance bill. The proposed bill introduces a number of previously non-existent regulations (e.g. non-executive forms of settlement) into the general tax law, it codifies the general principles of the tax law, and substantially modifies some of the existing regulations (e.g. statutes of limitation, correction of declarations). The purpose of the publication is to clarify these regulations and to indicate possible changes, which the author finds essential, to the proposed legislation. ; Artykuł poświęcony jest ocenie niektórych nowych oraz istotnie zmodyfikowanych instytucji, zawartych w projekcie ustawy Ordynacja podatkowa. Przedstawiony projekt wprowadza bowiem do ogólnego prawa podatkowego szereg instytucji dotychczas w nim nieistniejących (np. niewładcze formy załatwiania spraw), kodyfikuje ogólne zasady prawa podatkowego, a także w sposób istotny modyfikuje niektóre z obecnie obowiązujących przepisów (np. przedawnienie, korygowanie deklaracji). Celem publikacji jest przybliżenie tych instytucji oraz wskazanie ewentualnych niezbędnych, zdaniem autorki, zmian proponowanych przepisów

Socialisation of private law in the second half of the 19th century brought about a new approach to a civil process and its purpose. The main characteristics of the evolution of the civil procedure in the 19th and 20th centuries was limited autonomy of the parties to a process. This limitation was introduced to ensure fair, expedient and cost-effective judgment. A tendency to replace the principle of an adversarial trial with elements of an inquisitorial trial was observed in civil law as well as common law systems. Relevant changes were fi rst made in the Franz Klein Austrian code of civil procedure, followed by departures from the formal truth in the civil process implemented in the system in Germany, Hungary, the Swiss cantons of Zurich and Bern, in Poland, and later, in the second half of the 20th century, also in France. In the common law system, the reform of 1999 ascertained judges a number of discretionary powers to help them establish the facts in a civil proceeding. Those changes added the public element in the civil procedure, but the very idea of a private process and the protection of private interests has been maintained. The totalitarian regimes which emerged in some European states considerably distorted the process of shaping the relationship between the state and the individual. In the socialist civil proceeding, the principle ne eat iudex ultra petita partium was replaced with ex offi cio ultra petita, which was a novelty characteristic of the civil procedure of totalitarian states. The departure from an adversarial principle in the socialist civil process was not much different from the general tendencies observed in the civil procedure in West European states. After the political transformations and change of the regime, former states of the Eastern Bloc sought to signifi cantly increase the autonomy of the parties in a civil process. However, as experience of the Western European states shows, certain public elements must be taken into account in a civil procedure if the European Convention on Human Rights is to be observed.

The article covers the legal and tax aspects of the implementation of general anti-avoidance clause in Polish tax law, including the historical outline of the clause, its essence, and the usefulness of achieving the legislator's intended effects. The article deals with the disadvantages and advantages of the clause, its compliance with constitutional regulations, as well as the institution of GAAR protective tax opinions and the position of the Council on counteracting tax evasion. ; Artykuł omawia prawne i podatkowe aspekty wdrożenia do polskiego prawa podatkowego klauzuli o przeciwdziałaniu unikania opodatkowania, rys historyczny klauzuli, jej istotę oraz przydatność dla osiągnięcia zamierzonych przez ustawodawcę efektów. Artykuł odnosi się również do kwestii wad i zalet klauzuli, konstytucyjności regulacji oraz instytucji opinii zabezpieczających i pozycji Rady do Spraw Przeciwdziałania Unikaniu Opodatkowania.

Adjusting the legal status, and support policies for migrant workers is an issue on the agenda of international institutions for nearly a hundred years. The first efforts to protect foreign workers have been taken during the first session of the International Labour Conference in 1919. In the following decades ILO activities has led to the preparation of three international documents concerning this issue (non-binding ILO Convention No. 66 in 1939, and Convention No. 97 of 1949, and No. 143 of 1975). For many decades, the problem of the protection and assistance of migrant workers' rights was considered as a narrow issue of international labor law. Codification efforts, undertaken during seventies, has led to the adaptation of the UN document (International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families) in 1990, and inclusion this issue into more general area of international human rights law. Despite this fact, and the existence of several categories of documents concerning migrant workers within Council of Europe, the European Union, and even ASEAN, the protection of migrant workers has never been effectively functioning system. The aim of this article is the analysis of the codification of that issue, and the main obstacles to consensus on the protection of migrant workers' rights. The state parties of the UN Convention contains primarily countries of origin of migrants (such as Mexico, Morocco and the Philippines). It seems, therefore, that despite 46 ratifications the, UN convention does not have a global character, and activities of its monitoring body (Committee on Migrant Workers-CMW) reflects primarily demands of sending countries. The article closely examines particularly controversial provisions of the ILO and UN documents from the point of view of current labour migrations and policies of sending and host countries.

Services of general interest form an essential element of the European model of society as a way to increase quality of life and to overcome social exclusion and isolation. They are also at the core of the public debate touching the central question of the role public authorities and the institutions of the European Union play in a market economy. The competencies and responsibilities conferred by the Treaty, the EU regulations and directives lay emphasis on the essential role and the wide discretion of national, regional and local authorities in defining, organizing, financing and monitoring services of general interest. The same time the EU Law provide the European Commission with a wide range of means of action to ensure the compliance of the process of organizing and financing such services according to a comprehensive regulatory regime at Community level to make them compatible with the internal market and to prevent a distortion of the competition rules. The paper indicates divergences of the points of view of public authorities and the Commission on their role, shared responsibility and powers in that process. ; Usługi użyteczności publicznej stanowią zasadniczy element modelu europejskiego, służąc polepszeniu jakości życia i przezwyciężeniu społecznego wykluczenia i izolacji. Pozostają również w centrum publicznej debaty co do roli, jaką w gospodarce rynkowej odgrywają władze publiczne państw członkowskich i instytucje Unii Europejskiej. Kompetencje i obowiązki określone przez Traktat oraz unijne rozporządzenia i dyrektywy podkreślają zasadniczą rolę i szeroki zakres swobody krajowych, regionalnych i lokalnych organów władzy w definiowaniu, organizowaniu, finansowaniu i monitorowaniu usług użyteczności publicznej. Jednocześnie prawo unijne wyposaża Komisję Europejską w liczne instrumenty mające zapewnić zgodność procesu organizowania i finansowania tego typu usług z ogólnym reżimem prawnym Unii – tak, aby uczynić je kompatybilnymi z jej rynkiem wewnętrznym i zapobiec zakłóceniu konkurencji. Artykuł wskazuje na rozbieżności w punktach widzenia władz publicznych i Komisji na ich rolę oraz podział odpowiedzialności i władzy w tym procesie.

Services of general interest form an essential element of the European model of society as a way to increase quality of life and to overcome social exclusion and isolation. They are also at the core of the public debate touching the central question of the role public authorities and the institutions of the European Union play in a market economy. The competencies and responsibilities conferred by the Treaty, the EU regulations and directives lay emphasis on the essential role and the wide discretion of national, regional and local authorities in defining, organizing, financing and monitoring services of general interest. The same time the EU Law provide the European Commission with a wide range of means of action to ensure the compliance of the process of organizing and financing such services according to a comprehensive regulatory regime at Community level to make them compatible with the internal market and to prevent a distortion of the competition rules. The paper indicates divergences of the points of view of public authorities and the Commission on their role, shared responsibility and powers in that process. ; Usługi użyteczności publicznej stanowią zasadniczy element modelu europejskiego, służąc polepszeniu jakości życia i przezwyciężeniu społecznego wykluczenia i izolacji. Pozostają również w centrum publicznej debaty co do roli, jaką w gospodarce rynkowej odgrywają władze publiczne państw członkowskich i instytucje Unii Europejskiej. Kompetencje i obowiązki określone przez Traktat oraz unijne rozporządzenia i dyrektywy podkreślają zasadniczą rolę i szeroki zakres swobody krajowych, regionalnych i lokalnych organów władzy w definiowaniu, organizowaniu, finansowaniu i monitorowaniu usług użyteczności publicznej. Jednocześnie prawo unijne wyposaża Komisję Europejską w liczne instrumenty mające zapewnić zgodność procesu organizowania i finansowania tego typu usług z ogólnym reżimem prawnym Unii – tak, aby uczynić je kompatybilnymi z jej rynkiem wewnętrznym i zapobiec zakłóceniu konkurencji. Artykuł wskazuje na rozbieżności w punktach widzenia władz publicznych i Komisji na ich rolę oraz podział odpowiedzialności i władzy w tym procesie.

The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is a descriptive formula used to reflect on asymmetries in economic development and consequential conflict of interests arising between various states of the world. These asymmetries and conflicts of interests have their reflection in these states' environmental policy mix - implemented domestically and pursued in the international context. The emerging map of mutual interests and dependences results from the consideration of external costs and benefits pertaining to respective national environmental policies. The EKC makes it evident that these costs and benefits cannot be evenly spread over all the states. This urges these states to adopt such interjurisdictional arrangements which are based on the identification of a possible multilateral exchange of economic policy favours and international financial transfers. Such an exchange, whenever occurs, has a generalized reciprocity formula. The function of such an arrangement is to make it possible for Nash equilibria to emerge, as such are most likely to produce the highest possible level of effectiveness in the long run. Such a behavior may not be cooperative in the short and medium term, yet the bottom-line cooperativeness is achieved because most states have similar if not the same long-term environmental goals.

The goal of this article is to an answer to a fundamental dilemma that appears in the organisation and functioning of democratic countries. It arises from the necessity to provide national security while simultaneously ensuring a specific catalogue of values, including citizen laws and freedoms. The author attempts a teleological analysis of the conception of national security in the conditions of a constitutional democracy. After defining the general characteristics of the security conception, the author investigates them in terms of relations between the security of national structures and personal and group interests of the citizens. The author points out their axiological and legal aspects formalised in the fundamental law and underlines the synergic interdependence between the security of national organisational structures and the security of the society – the nation. ; Celem artykułu jest odpowiedź na zasadniczy dylemat pojawiający się w organizacji i funkcjonowaniu demokratycznych państw. Polega on na konieczności zapewnienia bezpieczeństwa przy jednoczesnej ochronie określonego katalogu wartości, w tym praw i wolności obywateli. Autor podejmuje próbę teleologicznej analizy pojęcia "bezpieczeństwo państwa" w warunkach funkcjonowania demokracji konstytucyjnej. Po określeniu ogólnych desygnatów tego pojęcia, rozpatruje je w kontekście relacji ochrony struktur państwa do zabezpieczenia interesów personalnych i grupowych ogółu obywateli. Wskazuje na ich aksjologiczno-prawne aspekty sformalizowane w ustawie zasadniczej oraz podkreśla synergiczną współzależność pomiędzy bezpieczeństwem struktur organizacji państwowej a bezpieczeństwem społeczeństwa – narodu.

The purpose of the article is to analyse the role of the public prosecutor's office as an institution that is specifically embedded in between certain elements of the political system, particularly between the executive and judiciary powers. For this reason, the public prosecutor's office can be regarded, together with courts, as an institution that aims to be actively involved in administering justice and an instrument of the executive power to guarantee internal security and to execute internal functions of the state. The public prosecutor's office, given its specific operation area, is expected to prosecute crimes effectively as well as safeguard the rule of law, which may be threatened by the infringing actions of not only individuals and criminal groups but also of officials and state institutions. Hence, with respect to the accountability of the public prosecutor's office, it should be more independent of the executive power which is subject to political rules. It appears, however, that separating it officially from the executive power does not have to lead automatically to the public prosecutor's office independence of political influence when other direct (the Prime Minister's and the Minister of Justice's authority over the Attorney General) and indirect mechanisms of prosecutors' political dependency (clientelism, politicisation and political bonds of prosecutors with politicians) exist.

The film is one of few examples of political documentaries produced in Poland after 1989. It is not limited to merely outlining the political argument over General Jaruzelski's decision to impose martial law. Although it concerns events in Polish history, it is not a historical documentary, as it brings forth present-day political conflicts that have arisen around historical events. Trying to reconstruct this current political argument, Zmarz-Koczanowicz reaches for a method developed in the 1970s by the so-called "Kraków School" led by Krzysztof Kieślowski. ^e "talking heads" method was meant to help documentary filmmakers in the Polish People's Republic reach what the person in the street actually thought and avoid the distortions of propaganda. For Kieślowski, however, the overriding aim was conciliation and an attempt to understand both sides of the political barricade - the authorities and the vox popu- li. His attitude, according to the terminology suggested by Chantal Mouffe, was a post-political one striving for an agreement through a rational dialogue. Zmarz-Koczanowicz's aim, however, is different: she is intent on showing a clash of different hegemonies that do not strive for consensus. Their agonistic argument, played out in the political register, rather than a moral one, is a guarantee, according to this Belgian philosopher of politics, that democracy will continue to exist.

Polish Problems with Genocide According to Rafał LemkinRafał (Raphael) Lemkin is currently the best–known Polish lawyer, whose name appears invariably as a point of departure for international discussions about genocide. He is the author of The German New Order in Poland and in 1944 published Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, containing the term: "genocide". At the time of the Nuremberg Trial Lemkin acted as adviser to United States Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson. Subsequently, he worked on devising an act of law that would define the principles of penalising the crime of genocide. On 9 December 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. In Poland the revival of interest in Lemkin has its positive and negative sides. The former undoubtedly include changing or rather initiating an alteration of a situation embarrassing or outright insulting for Poland, namely, when Polish–language versions of the above–mentioned books about the Axis occupation were not available and Lemkin was not mentioned in assorted studies. The latter aspect involves his sui generis sacralisation and elevation, hindering a critical discussion about his achievements, since such a debate could be interpreted as questioning them. This article endeavours to examine the conception of genocide from the viewpoint of an historian, and reflects on the extent to which it could become an instrument of historical analysis.

Polish Problems with Genocide According to Rafał LemkinRafał (Raphael) Lemkin is currently the best–known Polish lawyer, whose name appears invariably as a point of departure for international discussions about genocide. He is the author of The German New Order in Poland and in 1944 published Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, containing the term: "genocide". At the time of the Nuremberg Trial Lemkin acted as adviser to United States Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson. Subsequently, he worked on devising an act of law that would define the principles of penalising the crime of genocide. On 9 December 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. In Poland the revival of interest in Lemkin has its positive and negative sides. The former undoubtedly include changing or rather initiating an alteration of a situation embarrassing or outright insulting for Poland, namely, when Polish–language versions of the above–mentioned books about the Axis occupation were not available and Lemkin was not mentioned in assorted studies. The latter aspect involves his sui generis sacralisation and elevation, hindering a critical discussion about his achievements, since such a debate could be interpreted as questioning them. This article endeavours to examine the conception of genocide from the viewpoint of an historian, and reflects on the extent to which it could become an instrument of historical analysis.