The text is now available in early access to the journal Prawo i Więź (Law & Social Bonds): https://doi.org/10.36128/yxtxgm07. The publication is in Polish (original title: Publicznoprawny samorząd gospodarczy jako instrument decentralizacji i deregulacji funkcjonalnej w publicznym prawie gospodarczym – analiza konstytucyjna but online access allows automatic translation). It addresses the universal issues of decentralization and deregulation of public tasks through the use of chambers of commerce.
Abstract:
In the Polish constitutional order, the decentralization of public authority constitutes a systemic principle of a normative nature (Article 15 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland). At the same time, the implementation of the principle of a social market economy requires dialogue and cooperation between the state and social partners (Article 20). A public economic self-government should be the institutional representative of entrepreneurs – however, it has not been established. The 1989 Chambers of Commerce Act (Article 2) incorrectly refers to private-law associations established under it as “economic self-government organizations,” which is the result of the legislator’s erroneous identification of the concepts of self-government and self-government.
This study argues that public-law economic self-government constitutes a constitutionally permissible and systemically necessary instrument for implementing functional decentralization and deregulation in the sphere of public economic law. Without its establishment, both processes remain deprived of a proper institutional vehicle.
The subject of the analysis is the constitutional meaning of the concepts of decentralization and self-government in the context of Articles 15, 16, and 20 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (taking into account the regulations of Chapter VII regarding the performance and financing of public tasks), considered in relation to Article 17, Section 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, which permits the establishment of economic self-government as a specific form of self-government. The provisions establishing agricultural chambers and the Polish Insurance Chamber, as well as the wording of Article 17, are also considered. 5 section 3 of the Act on Chambers of Commerce. The above considerations lead to the conclusion that the deep decentralization of the performance of public tasks and the requirements of functional deregulation using public-law economic self-government are based on the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.
