Ewolucja i aktualne wyzwania ustawodawstwa w sprawach o wykroczenia
Evolution of legislation in petty offences cases and current challenges

Summary/Abstract: The evolution of legislation in petty offences cases has been going on continuously since 1918. Furthermore, the dispute over the place of petty offence law in the legal system, dating back to the codification works after 1918, seems to be extremely topical today. The aim of this article is to present and analyse the directions in which petty offence law is developing, and to shed light on the current challenges facing this branch of law. The doctrine has for many years emphasized the need for a thorough reform of the petty offences law (e.g. due to the rather archaic Polish Code of Petty Offences of 1971). The authors use the historical-legal and dogmatic-legal methods. The undertaken analyses were conducted based on a historical analysis of legal acts pertaining to petty offences and their numerous amendments, as well as an analysis of current trends (e.g. changing petty offences into the so-called administrative torts). The conducted considerations lead to the conclusion that petty offences law is a dynamically changing branch of law, which, however, still requires a comprehensive and thorough reform. Currently, there is no doubt that petty offences law belongs to the branch of criminal law, and only the court is authorized to impose penalties for petty offences. The material-legal nature of petty offences necessitates searching for the most optimal model of reaction to them. In response to the urgent need of petty offences law reform, proposals for adjudication by non-judicial authorities in petty offences cases are put forward. The authors emphasize that possible changes to the adjudication model in petty offences cases are even more challenging, as they must at the same time satisfy the norm expressed in Article 237 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, according to which the court is the competent authority to adjudicate in petty offences cases.

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