Recent Submissions

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Compliance w spółkach kapitałowych ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem spółek z udziałem Skarbu Państwa
(2024) Staniszewska, Zuzanna
Corporate governance and compliance in state-owned companies are recognized as crucial areas of regulation by the European Commission, World Bank and the OECD. This is because state ownership influences the corporate governance model and compliance obligations within these entities. The main issue of the dissertation is whether the current regulation of compliance duties under Polish law in state-owned companies allows effective protection against non-compliance and levels the playing field with private entities. Despite the separate set of compliance norms included in law acts aimed at these types of companies, the current legal framework raises doubts about the integrity and transparency of decision-making in state-owned companies. This issue is compounded by the specific status of state-owned companies resulting from the supervision exercised over them by the state under the competence of relevant government members, along with the Prime Minister, who both supervise these companies and act as regulators for such companies. To reduce the risk of being used as a pretext for political purposes by a party or a group, the implementation of the public interest in state-owned companies cannot exclude the application of corporate governance principles and should be guaranteed in the company's statute or articles of association. The aim of the study is to identify compliance norms and determine areas of non-compliance risk with legal regulations to assess the significance of compliance in state-owned companies. The scope of the thesis includes compliance norms (soft law and legislative) directed at capital companies, with a particular focus on those applied to state-owned and legal characteristics of state-owned companies, including the specifics of conducting business activities, requirements regarding their bodies, and principles of ownership supervision. The research attempted to apply selected sources of compliance obligations to companies with a unique ownership tructure due to state involvement. Given the dual source of law regarding the state economic activities (dominium), i.e., those applicable to all capital companies and those forming the system for state-owned companies, an in-depth analysis combining both categories was necessary to fully illustrate the complex legal architecture. Analyzing compliance norms sources allowed for the identification of distinguishing features of these norms. The entity responsible for identifying compliance norms at the company level is the compliance unit and management. An effective compliance management system enables the prevention of abuses and violation of law. In the case of state-owned companies, it also creates equal market rules compared to private entities. Despite available regulatory tools for implementing compliance management system (CMS) in these companies, they have not been utilized so far. One solution based on the existing regulations is to issue by the Prime Minister a document of best practices for compliance in state-owned companies. Therefore, the study suggests the need to establish an obligation to implement a compliance system in state-owned companies either through 1) best practices established by the entity responsible for coordinating the exercise of state rights in companies (the Prime Minister), 2) as a provision in the State Property Management Act, or 3) as an obligation in the Companies Code applicable to all qualifying capital companies. The study formulates recommendations for future legislative reforms in this area (de lege ferenda). To achieve its objectives the thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter introduces the research topic, justifies its selection, specifies research questions and hypothesis, outlines the structure and research methods used, as well as lists the literature and main legal sources. The second chapter discusses key terminology and essential aspects of compliance, such as its definition, types of compliance activities, and its importance for organizational functioning. The third chapter presents the legal basis of compliance norms in companies and outlines the complex network of Polish and international regulations defining companies' obligations in this regard. The fourth chapter provides legal justification for distinguishing state-owned companies among commercial companies and discusses the specifics of compliance activities in state-owned capital companies. Finally, the fifth chapter conducts a comparative study on legal norms regarding the obligation to establish a compliance management system in stateowned companies in two selected jurisdictions: French and American, as well as analyzes the regulatory gap in compliance regulations concerning state-owned companies. In these countries the obligation to establish compliance management system results from sources specific to a given system and depends primarily on the size of the enterprise and whether the company is listed on the stock exchange. The dissertation concludes the research on compliance systems and sources of compliance norms, detailed regulations on legal compliance obligations, and relates them to ownership supervision of Polish state-owned companies. The attempt to identify compliance obligations in state-owned companies arises from two legislative and political factors: gradual reforms in state commercial activity worldwide due to economic crises and the increasing number of compliance and regulatory due diligence obligations for all commercial companies - a result of public expectations regarding business responsibility for actions affecting corporate governance, labor, human rights, the environment, and climate change.
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Amerykańskie prawo do posiadania i noszenia broni w kontekście historycznym, normatywnym i społecznym
(2024) Kapica, Paula Weronika
The main purpose of the dissertation is to present the US right to bear arms provided for by the Second Amendment to the US Constitution from a historical perspective, the evolution of its regulation at the federal level and outline recent trends in both federal and state legislation and jurisprudence, as well as to contrast this right with public opinion and civil and human rights. Chapter one reconstructs federal regulations from the time of the adoption of the Second Amendment to the present by presenting them in the broader context of state regulations, which constitute the bulk of all legal regulation in the United States. Chapter two analyzes the nature of the right protected by the Second Amendment. The basic issue under scrutiny is whether the right to bear arms is an individual right granted to an indi-vidual, or a collective right that can only be exercised through citizen militias and belongs to the states. The third chapter is an analysis of US jurisprudence on the Second Amend-ment, primarily decisions of the Supreme Court and federal courts. The primary issue analyzed was the nature of the right granted by the Second Amendment and the process of its incorporation at the state level. Chapter four presents contemporary regulations re-lating to the right of access to guns at the federal and state levels to show the complexity of regulations and their variation. The fifth chapter presents the latest trends and changes in public opinion regarding the right of access to guns. It discusses American gun culture, the phenomenon of mass shootings and their im-pact on legislative action. Chapter six presents the right to keep and bear arms in a broader international context and attempts to place this right in the human rights grid.
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Threats of Force and International Law: Practice, Responses and Consequences
(Routledge, 2023) Kleczkowska, Agata
Threats of force are an inherent part of communication between some States. One prominent example is the 2017–2018 crisis in relations between the United States and North Korea, marked by multiple threats issued by both sides. Yet, despite the fact that States seem to use threats of force with unlimited freedom, they are prohibited by international law. This book presents threats of force from the perspective of the practice of States. Thus, the book is based on an examination of multiple cases when States reported threats of force. It describes what threats of force are, examines the status of the prohibition of threats of force as a legal norm, presents examples and describes the mechanisms that are available for States in case threats occur, as well as their legal consequences. The book will be an invaluable resource for academics and researchers in the areas of international security law, public international law, law of armed conflict and international relations.
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National Courts and the Application of EU Law : Lessons from Poland
(Routledge, 2023) Domańska, Monika; Miąsik, Dawid; Szwarc, Monika
This book presents the case law of Polish courts, namely the Supreme Court, administrative courts and the Constitutional Tribunal, in which the principles of EU law have been successfully applied. It discusses how Polish courts apply principles of consistent interpretation, primacy and direct effect of EU law in their daily adjudicating practice in order to ensure effet utile of EU law, resulting in effective protection of individuals' rights derived from the EU legal order. The book explores the legal nature of these principles and, in particular, the requirement that national rules that are found to be incompatible with legally binding and enforceable EU law should be disapplied by the domestic courts. It explains Polish courts’ reasoning concerning the inseparable relationship between the principle of primacy of EU law and the remedy of disapplication of national law. As the guidelines provided for the national courts by the Court of Justice of the European Union are often quite vague, the work will be important and useful for academics and practitioners from different European jurisdictions to observe the manner in which these principles of EU law are applied in jurisdictions other than their own.
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Compliance i inne mechanizmy zapobiegania korupcji
(INP PAN, 2024) Nowak, Celina; Lizak, Robert
Korupcja towarzyszy człowiekowi od dawna, ale, jak z chorobą toczącą społeczeństwo, lepiej jej zapobiegać niż leczyć. Mechanizmem pozwalającym skutecznie zapobiegać korupcji są programy compliance. W kontekście prawnym pojęcie compliance odnosi się do procesu tworzenia, przyjmowania i obowiązywania norm (zasad i procedur) w ramach organizacji, które zapewniają zgodność jej działalności z przepisami prawa. W książce zaprezentowano teoretyczne ujęcie zjawiska compliance jako nowego poziomu regulacyjnego, a także modelowe rozwiązania praktyczne odnoszące się do compliance, oparte na amerykańskim modelu programu compliance. Analizie poddano także dwa inne mechanizmy zapobiegania korupcji, to jest system ochrony osób zgłaszających naruszenia (sygnalistów) oraz rejestry korzyści.