Jerzy Adamczyk

Lay missionaries - the concept, skills and formation

Summary

 

The Code of Canon Law of 1983 recognizes the laity as capable, according to their position in the Church, of taking up missionary work as missionaries commissioned by the competent ecclesiastical authority. In order to properly understand the canonical institutions of secular missionary, this study demonstrates who laymen are and explicates the legal definition of a secular missionary. Furthermore, the author pointed out the necessity for a layman to be qualified, as required by law, to be able to apply for the missionary commission from the competent ecclesiastical authority. Since having the necessary vocation and specific qualities is not sufficient to be a missionary. A conclusive stimulus for the involvement of a lay person as a missionary is a missionary commission from the competent ecclesiastical authority.

Finally, on the basis of the conciliar decree Ad Gentes, the author stresses the need to prepare lay people to work as missionaries.

 

Paweł Garbacz

Methods of artificial intelligence in legal knowledge representation

Summary

 

The article discusses the question of employing the methods of the so-called ontological engineering for the collection and processing of legal knowledge on computer systems. After the presentation of the major challenges facing the representation of knowledge in computer science, the author elaborates on some specific problems related to law and the legal vernacular. Then, the author outlines the key assumptions and methods of ontological engineering as a province of research on artificial intelligence. The central part of the article is the presentation and comparison of four selected legal ontologies, i.e. formal representations of universal legal concepts.

 

 

Marta Greszata – Telusiewicz

Indisputability of decrees and interlocutory sentences

in the canonical process to declare the nullity of marriage

Summary

 

The rule of indisputability of decrees and interlocutory sentences in the canonical process is implemented when deciding the issue, which is preceded by its prior adjudication, thus creating the formal proceedings. The decision on the issue remains the crucial stage of iudicium for the parties, since all the previous court's activity is important to the parties only if aiming to grant them the expected entitlements. Given the fact that in the canonical cases of nullity of marriage some incidental issues may surface that on the one hand delay the iudicium, and on the other, may assist in its elucidation, a rule of indisputability of decrees and interlocutory sentences must be observed in the system of canonical procedural law as constituting to the very essence of iudicium. The aforesaid rule is particularly important in the context of appeal. Its role is to strengthen the rule of appeal which allows for the appeal against decrees and interlocutory sentences in incidental questions. And all this out of respect for the principle of pace and economics of trials that arise from the principle of concentration and aim to further the executability of two lawful court rulings. This gives the parties to the issue a feeling of safety from the outset of iudicium that their case will not be unnecessarily prolonged and is fully explained, even when incidental issues arise - this is workable owing to the existence of the rule of indisputability of decrees and interlocutory sentences under the canonical iudicium.

 

Maciej Jabłoński

Primary and secondary EU regulations concerning rural areas

Summary

 

The European Union is confronted with two parallel legal orders, Community law and national law. Community law introduces the division into positive law and non-positive law (common law of the Communities). An inseparable component of the legislative process at the European level is the adaptation of legal norms to changing conditions. In order to keep up with the changes occasioned by the progress in society and civilisation, the European Union bodies must address such phenomena in advance. The total body of EU law, known as the acquis communautaire, cannot be reduced to the sum national laws; also, it has no equivalent in legal solutions adopted in other international organizations.

Agriculture has always been an area in which Community law played an important role in the process of modelling the regulations in other areas. Community agricultural law covers the scope of more than 60% of all EU legislation, which represents several thousand acts, highly diverse in terms of form and source of origin. The agricultural and food policy in European countries accepted the cyclical nature of agricultural production.

The analysis of substantive law supports the conclusion that Community law sets the primary objectives that the European Union should pursue and oblige member states to do likewise.  Treaties legitimize EU bodies to specify the subjective scope of activities in the Common Agricultural Policy. On the other hand, secondary legislation is even more accurate to underline the need for action, and indicates the conditions and boundaries of legal and financial frameworks. The process of orientating agriculture towards rural development has been confirmed and ways of Community and national support are long established.

 

Grzegorz Jędrejek

The composition of the court in a case to amend a decision on parental authority contained in the divorce decree (Article 509 of the Code of Civil Procedure)

Summary

 

The article addresses the question of whether the change of a decision by the guardianship court on parental responsibility and its application contained in the divorce decree (Article 106 of the Family and Guardianship Code) represents a case of "limitation of the exercise of parental responsibility", according to Article 509 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CCP), which is examined by jurors. In the author's opinion, in order to qualify a case of limitation of parental responsibility as being decided by the jury, it is sufficient that the request to the guardianship court registers a demand for reducing the responsibility of a parent. If the request for granting, entrusting with the execution, suspending, deprivation or restoration of parental authority, contains a demand for limitation one of the parents' responsibility, the case should be qualified as a one of limitation of the exercise of parental responsibility, as worded in Article 509 of CCP, and, consequently, will be examined by the jury. De lege ferenda, a demand is justified that the jury in non-litigious proceedings should decide in all cases of parental responsibility and the prohibition on personal contact with the child.         

 

Lech Mażewski

Building the rule of law in the end-stage People's Republic of Poland

Summary

 

From the beginning of 1980 to the mid-1987, all institutions were created that today comprise of the notion of rule of law (SAC, ST, CT and the Ombudsman), although its formation was far from being completed. This resulted from a number of deficiencies related to the establishment of both the Supreme Administrative Court and the Constitutional Tribunal; suffice to note the absence of a general clause in the proceedings before the Supreme Administrative Court, or the fact that the Constitutional Tribunal was not a proper constitutional court, but merely a test body for the constitutionality and legality of substatutory acts. The source of these defects was the desire to maintain a monopoly of political power, albeit limited, in the hands of the Communist leadership. 

Nevertheless, it was a significant progress in the institutional guarantees of the protection of civil rights, made in the declining period of the People's Republic of Poland, and, what is noteworthy, predominantly after 13th December 1981.

 

The control of state's activity is a prerequisite for the protection of citizens' rights and liberties. This was the underlying cause of establishing the legal instruments in question, which, in the first years after the 1989 transformation of the political system, became the institutional foundation of a democratic rule of law.

 

Joanna Misztal-Konecka

The rules for preferential acquisition of the so-called company-owned apartments

Remarks on the grounds of the 15th December 2000 Act on the sale of state company-owned apartments, some state shareholdings, state legal persons and some apartments owned by the State Treasury

 

Summary

 

The Act of 15th December 2000 on the sale of state company-owned apartments, some state shareholdings, state legal persons and some apartments owned by the State Treasury fits into a group of laws governing a very vocal social issue of affranchisement, since it aims to implement the idea of common affranchisement through direct sale of the so-called company-owned apartments.

This law has been amended several times. Ultimately, it has found application to state-owned enterprises, with the exception of Polish State Railways (PKP SA), commercial companies, for which the State Treasury is the parent entity as defined in the law on public securities trading, other state legal persons, with the exception of the Military Housing Agency, and the apartments owned by the State Treasury that are under permanent management of an unincorporated entity. In the case of selling apartments by entities covered by the statute, precedence to purchase an apartment is given to tenants occupying the property under a rental agreement for an indefinite period of time, or under an administrative decision of allotment, seller's or former lawful seller's employees, who, before 12th November 1994, entered a rental agreement for a definite period of time associated with the employment relationship, and also those living with the tenant at the time of his death, as well as the spouse, descendant, ascendant, siblings, an adopter or the adopted person remaining in the same household. Importantly, the preference for the acquisition of an apartment by tenants occupying the flat under a rental agreement for an indefinite period is not contingent upon any relationship between the tenant and the seller.  Those entitled to purchase the apartment can take advantage of a 6% discount for each year of employment and a 3% discount for each year of tenancy, whether they worked for the seller, or only rented their apartment. Furthermore, pensioners or pensioners' widows (widowers) may benefit from a 95% discount, regardless of seniority and the period of tenancy. In the case of challenging the right of precedence in purchasing an apartment, or the right to discounts, the prospective buyer is not entitled to an action for a seller's commitment to make a declaration of intent on the establishment of separate ownership of property and its sale, but only to a declaratory action for the existence of contentious right to purchase the apartment, taking into account the price reduction.

 

Bartosz Rakoczy

Transfer agreement in Polish law

Summary

 

The article discusses a new type of agreement in the Polish legal system, namely the transfer agreement. Some issues of subjectivity are analysed in particular on the legal situation of the State Treasury and gmina (commune), as well as the issues concerning the rights and obligations of the parties.

Also the characteristic features of the agreement are listed in terms of property trading and property management.

 

 

 

 

Autor: Marzena Rzeszót
Ostatnia aktualizacja: 18.01.2011, godz. 00:59 - Marzena Karbowniczek