Journal of Business Law 09/2025

The aim of this article is to analyse the regulatory framework that determines the agency problem in state-owned enterprises, focusing on the legal nature of the State Treasury as a shareholder and the corporate objectives of these entities. The agency problem concerns the relationship between the shareholder (principal) and the manager (agent) and assumes an inherent conflict within this relationship. The analysis conducted in this article leads to the conclusion that the very structure of the State Treasury as an abstract legal entity, represented by a political body, generates significant challenges related to the agency problem. Furthermore, the statutory objective of exercising shareholder rights – achieving sustainable growth in share value while considering the state’s economic policy – ties decision-making to political factors, complicating the determination of corporate officers’ responsibilities. One potential approach to mitigating the agency problem is to define the objectives of state-owned enterprises explicitly in their statutes or resolutions of general meetings.

The aim of this article is to analyse the practice of requiring third party liability insurance as a condition for participation in public procurement procedures. A study of case law demonstrates a lack of consistency regarding the functions that legal provisions enabling such requirements are intended to fulfil. By examining the current practice, the authors argue that the requirement to have an insurance policy is not an adequate measure for verifying the economic and financial standing of contractors.

The article draws attention to the necessity and urgency of reforming the institutions of registers of regulated legal activities. This is because they are not in line with modern conditions and the objective needs of the market. They pose a significant threat to legal certainty and public safety and order. Regulatory deficiencies in the creation of such registries make it difficult, and in practice sometimes even impossible, to exercise public supervision over the rationing of such activities and the due exercise of the legal profession. Despite the broader importance of professional activities, registers of legal regulated activities should meet the standards of public registers for entrepreneurs, ensure automated data exchange with them, and become an effective tool for public oversight.

The article discussed the impact of technological advancements on administrative execution, with particular focus on safeguarding the right of students and teachers to cultivate digital competencies. It highlights the expansion of the catalog of items exempt from administrative enforcement, emphasizing the significance of the amendment to the Law on Administrative Enforcement Proceedings. Specifically, the article examines the addition of item 19 to Article 8, paragraph 1, which exempts from administrative execution laptops and vouchers intended to support the digital skill development of students and teachers. The article identifies the impact of the change in the catalog on exemptions from administrative execution on the expansion of the material scope of the principle of respect for the minimum subsistence of the obligor.

Taxis can play an important role in sustainable transport systems, particularly as a complement to public transit. They improve access to transfer points, reduce dependence on private vehicles and help lower emissions and traffic congestion in urban areas. The development of ride-hailing services has integrated taxis into the sharing economy model, promoting the efficient use of transport resources. While the Polish legislature has recognised the potential of this market and regulated it, it has failed to introduce effective pro-environmental regulations for private vehicles. The lack of satisfactory solutions in this area has a significant impact on the development of a sustainable transport system and on the state of the environment.

The article deals with a topical issue – a proposal for EU Regulation on plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques (NGT), and its planned provisions which crosscut several regulatory areas of biotechnology, the internal market, food and agriculture. The investigated draft of a new EU economic and environmental legislation is currently in the pipeline of the EU legislative process and subject of an inter-institutional trilogue between the Commission, the European Parliament and the EU Council due to many related regulatory controversies. The paper explores those controversies and appraises possible legal and economic consequences of the proposed solutions. The article argues that the proposal introduces a far-reaching normative deregulation and an unjustified complexity of legal provisions, which may instigate further polarization of national positions of the EU Member States regarding the use of NGT plants, techniques and derived products, as well as a decrease of legal coherence and certainty in the field concerned.

Forests, as a component of the natural environment, are a common good that requires proper protection, both because of their utility values and because of the need to preserve their value in a condition that is at least not deteriorated for future generations. One of the manifestations of forest land protection is limiting the change of their use for non-agricultural and non-forest purposes, resulting from the Act of 3 February 1995 on the protection of agricultural and forest land, and also ratio legis of the Act of 28 September 1991 on forests. The purpose of this publication is to answer the question whether there is a rule in Polish law that explicitly excludes the development of forest land, or whether the legislator provides the right to develop forest land, and if so – what restrictions it is subject to and, consequently, what buildings that fulfil a residential function can be founded on forest land. The descriptive, historical and axiological methods were chosen as the research method. The considerations began with explaining the assumptions of forest land protection. In the further part of the publication, the concept of forest land and forest was interpreted. The proper part of the analysis discusses legal regulations relating to the construction of residential buildings on forest land that meet the needs of forest management, enriching them with comments resulting from the practice of implementing investment processes. The publication ends with final conclusions constituting a set of guidelines for the authorities applying the law when issuing decisions regarding the construction of residential buildings on forest land.

The article examines the issue of collective entity liability following the legislative changes introduced in 2022. It has examined the culpability for prohibited acts committed by a collective entity, distinguishing between general liability and special liability, specifically connected with environmental crimes. The article has also explored the scope of private law succession within the specific elements of the legal structure of a collective entity’s liability. It has been established that the legal system includes a special capacity for non-physical persons to bear personal liability for environmental crimes. Consequently, it recognizes the inherently limited nature of private law succession, as this liability is non-transferable (personal and expiring). De lege lata, the legal framework provides for alternative mechanisms designed to ensure accountability, some of which may effectively prevent or restrict succession.

The commented judgment concerns the method of assessing the premise of ineffectiveness of enforcement against a limited liability company, which is crucial for accepting subsidiary liability of management board members. The Supreme Court found that the property items indicated by the defendant in the context of potential enforcement were of a specific nature, and the circle of their potential purchasers was very narrow – it concerned a patent and a prototype, research-type device intended to materialize it, the use of which did not go beyond the laboratory phase. Based on the above, it was found that enforcement from this component of the debtor’s assets is pointless. The author therefore analyses what circumstances may determine the pointlessness of continuing enforcement from specific property components and in what situations it is justified to believe that despite the existence of some property on the debtor’s side, enforcement from this property will be ineffective.