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Administrative Silence: A Polish Perspective

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The Sound of Silence in European Administrative Law

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Abstract

The chapter offers the analysis of regulations and practice concerning administrative silence in Poland. Generally, the Polish legislator uses two normative strategies for preventing and combating the pathology of inactivity or excessive duration of proceeding: (1) an urging claim, followed by an inactivity complaint to the administrative court or (2) silent consent (silent authorization or silent termination of the proceeding). If the inactivity or excessive length of the administrative body’s proceedings particularly jeopardizes the protection of citizen rights, the legislature chooses a stronger preventive measure (i.e., the silent consent, for example, as in the Construction Law and the Tax Law). Authors of the chapter highlight that silent consent seems to be increasingly applicable, replacing the urging claim model. In Poland, administrative silence ceases to be a negative phenomenon and clearly becomes an alternative to the classical model of the obligatory completion of administrative procedure.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Olsen (2003).

  2. 2.

    Ziller (2007).

  3. 3.

    Consolidated text: Journal of Laws (JoL) 2018, item 2096. All consolidated texts available on: http://www.isap.sejm.gov.pl.

  4. 4.

    JoL 1997, no 78, item 486.

  5. 5.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 1302.

  6. 6.

    Judgment of SAC, I SA 258/82. All Judgments of SAC and RAC available on http://orzeczenia.nsa.gov.pl.

  7. 7.

    Judgment of SAC, II GSK 916/15.

  8. 8.

    Judgment of RAC, VI SAB/Wa 30/07.

  9. 9.

    Judgment of SAC, II OSK 1237/07.

  10. 10.

    Act of 7 April 2017 on Amendments to the Code of Administrative Procedure and Other Acts (JoL 2017, item 935), entered into force on 1 June 2017.

  11. 11.

    As a result of doctrinal discussions: Suwaj and Perkowski (2010), Dobosz (2011), Miłosz (2011), and Suwaj (2014), and others.

  12. 12.

    JoL 2011, no. 6, item 18.

  13. 13.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 1330.

  14. 14.

    Wróbel (2018).

  15. 15.

    Hauser (1997, p. 1).

  16. 16.

    Przybysz (2018, para. 3).

  17. 17.

    Dawidowicz (1983, p. 159) and Wróbel (2018, para. 9).

  18. 18.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2017, item 776.

  19. 19.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 1202.

  20. 20.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 408.

  21. 21.

    Wróbel (2018, para. 8).

  22. 22.

    The survey, conducted by researchers from University of IT and Management in Rzeszow in March-June 2018, covered 227 persons in 13 public administration units in the Podkarpackie region (2,129,138 inhabitants).

  23. 23.

    Resolution of SAC, FPK 5/96.

  24. 24.

    Judgment of SAC, OSK 111/11.

  25. 25.

    Judgment of SAC, IV SAB 8/91.

  26. 26.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2017, item 2168.

  27. 27.

    See, e.g., judgment of SAC, II GSK 1918/14; Judgment of RAC, VI SA/Wa 1240/12.

  28. 28.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 646.

  29. 29.

    Gurba (2015, p. 100).

  30. 30.

    Kubiak (2009, p. 46).

  31. 31.

    Threats caused by the silent authorization, e.g., regulation (a) favors opportunistic and even corrupt behavior aimed at exceeding the deadline by the administrative body, (b) manipulating the delivery time of documents, (c) the problems of timely delivery of official correspondence (judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal, Kp 7/09).

  32. 32.

    Sześciło (2017, pp. 267–280).

  33. 33.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 994.

  34. 34.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 995.

  35. 35.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 913.

  36. 36.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2017, item 2234.

  37. 37.

    Judgments of SAC: I OSK 9/15, I OSK 2075/14, I OSK 1832/15.

  38. 38.

    Judgment of SAC, I OPS 12/13.

  39. 39.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 1954.

  40. 40.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 2188.

  41. 41.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 799.

  42. 42.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 1202.

  43. 43.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 427.

  44. 44.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 992.

  45. 45.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 1184.

  46. 46.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 2115.

  47. 47.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 2067.

  48. 48.

    Gurba (2016).

  49. 49.

    http://orzeczenia.nsa.gov.pl/cbo/query.

  50. 50.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 917.

  51. 51.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2016, item 1169.

  52. 52.

    The survey, conducted by researchers from University of IT and Management in Rzeszow, covered 227 persons in 13 public administration units in the Podkarpackie region (2,129,138 inhabitants).

  53. 53.

    Kulig (2015).

  54. 54.

    Act on Employees of Governmental Administrative Bodies (consolidated text: JoL 2018, item 1915); Regulation of Prime Minister on explanatory and disciplinary proceeding against public officers and on disciplinary commissions and disciplinary ombudsman (JoL no 145, item 1628).

  55. 55.

    Act on Civil Service (consolidated text: JoL 2017, item 1889).

  56. 56.

    Giętkowski (2013, p. 268ff).

  57. 57.

    Supreme Audit Office, Information on Results of Audits of 2 April 2015—implementation of judgments of regional administrative courts and the Supreme Administrative Courts by tax offices and customs chambers, https://www.nik.gov.pl/kontrole/ (accessed 5 January 2019).

  58. 58.

    Judgment of RAC, III SAB/Kr24/18; Wróbel (2018).

  59. 59.

    Judgment of SAC, II OSK 880/17.

  60. 60.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2017, item 2344.

  61. 61.

    Olejniczak (2014).

  62. 62.

    Judgment of Supreme Court, IV CSK 406/11 All Judgments of SC and Appeal Courts available in: http://www.sn.pl/orzecznictwo and https://orzeczenia.ms.gov.pl/.

  63. 63.

    Consolidated text: JoL 2017, item 958.

  64. 64.

    www.rpo.gov.pl.

  65. 65.

    2016 Annual Ombudsman’s Activity Report, pp. 77–78.

  66. 66.

    Dobosz (2011) and Miłosz (2011).

  67. 67.

    Gurba (2016, p. 96).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Information Technology and Management, Rzeszów, Poland

    Agata Jurkowska-Gomułka, Kamilla Kurczewska & Katarzyna Kurzępa-Dedo

  2. University of Warsaw, Warszawa, Poland

    Dawid Sześciło

Authors
  1. Agata Jurkowska-Gomułka
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  2. Kamilla Kurczewska
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  3. Katarzyna Kurzępa-Dedo
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  4. Dawid Sześciło
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Agata Jurkowska-Gomułka .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Good Governance Studies, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Dacian C. Dragos

  2. Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Polonca Kovač

  3. Faculty of Law, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Hanna D. Tolsma

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Jurkowska-Gomułka, A., Kurczewska, K., Kurzępa-Dedo, K., Sześciło, D. (2020). Administrative Silence: A Polish Perspective. In: Dragos, D., Kovač, P., Tolsma, H. (eds) The Sound of Silence in European Administrative Law. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45227-8_14

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