Rozwój instytucji wznowienia postępowania administracyjnego: od totalitaryzmu do demokracji

Abstrakt

The purpose of the paper is to present the evolution of the legal shape the institution of resuming administrative proceedings has undergone, starting from the classic regulation in the second decade of the 20th century, through the Polish People’s Republic period, to the present day. The main function of the discussed procedural institution is to verify the final resolution of an individual case if the already completed procedure was affected by what qualified as procedural defect. The resumption of administrative proceedings in the present formula, mainly regulated by the Code of Administrative Procedure, was shaped mainly during the totalitarian rule of the Polish United Workers’ Party of the PRL period. As a consequence, the way the discussed procedural institution formed was influenced by such circumstances as: the one-party system, the lack of social consultations before its passing, or the imposition of the communist ideology adopted in advance, affecting the legal understanding of individual premises for the resumption of proceedings. Due to the lack of administrative judiciary until 1980, which could independently control the public administration activities in the context of correctly interpreting and applying the provisions on resuming administrative proceedings, it was entirely dominated by the communist authorities. Importantly, the administrative law system during the existence of the so-called Polish People’s Republic — which was de facto a non-sovereign state strongly influenced by the Soviet Union — made it impossible for individual legal institutions, including the institution of resuming administrative proceedings, to settle into social and economic realities naturally and free from extra-legal influences. Establishing the administrative judiciary in the form of the Supreme Administrative Court on September 1, 1980 was the first announcement of the system transformation planned for the Polish Republic and democratic changes that were to affect the resumption of administrative proceedings institution by introducing an independent control of its application and interpretation. Due to the changes initiated in 1980 and continued in 1989, 1997, and 2002, the institution of resuming administrative proceedings was separated from political influence and totalitarian values in favor of a democratic state ruled by law.