Summary:

Harmonisation of the Polish law of environmental protection and the EU environmental acquis has changed the practice of how the rules are interpreted,  directing it into efficiency. However, along with being directed towards the objective of the legislation, the interpretation of the provisions of the environmental protection law, from the EU Treaties to the implementing acts, requires that their spirit, taxonomy and wording be equally taken into account. In the light of the above, the following question arises: what does the interpretation of rules „in the spirit of the environmental protection law” mean? In this regard, three arguments may be put forward: 1) the interpretation of the rules in the spirit of the environmental protection law should be conducted in the context where environmental protection is regarded as the system objective; 2) the proper construction of the grounds for a decision in cases regarding the environment requires that the contexts of the interpreted regulation be identified and harmonised (the corroboration rule); 3) the interpretation of the provision of the environmental protection law should be aimed at identifying  the underlying values of the law („axiological presuppositions”).

Key words: interpretation of environmental law, harmonisation of context, axiological presupposition