Agricultural law in Poland

Abstract

This article explores characteristics of Polish agricultural law as a branch of legislation, a branch in the legal system, a detailed scientific discipline, and as a subject of teaching. The development of agricultural legislation has always been accompanied by the study of agricultural law and, as a rule, its teaching. Concerning its origins, agricultural law in Poland is more related to public law regulations. At the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, the instruments for influencing agriculture proper to this law were developed. In the interwar period, legislation on various aspects of agriculture developed, but fell primarily within the scope of public law. It was only in the 1950s, during the period of the People’s Republic of Poland, that civil law regulation on agriculture, in addition to public law regulation, developed. The change of regime after 1989 brought about a significant reduction in agricultural legislation due to economic liberalism. A significant development occurred only after Poland’s accession to the European Union. Many issues were regulated for the first time, and national law, in connection with EU membership, returned to a special regulation of agricultural property trade. The inclusion of Polish agriculture in the mechanisms of the CAP provided an impulse to intensify research and opened up a new stage in the development of the science of agricultural law, it has moved from the study of national law, to taking up topics of a regional and global nature under the conditions of EU membership. The research went beyond traditional land issues and the organization of agricultural production. The development of agricultural legislation and agricultural law science is linked to teaching. In the last few years or so, the position of agricultural law as a subject of teaching has been strengthened.