Poland: The Right To a Clean Environment as a Personal Interest – Seeking Distinction Between the Personal Interests and the Common Good

Relations between private and public law in each country and at all times are amongst the most sensitive from the point of view of the legal system. Recently several judgements of Polish courts have undermined this division by indirectly allowing the common good to be protected under the personal interests' provisions. This trend is not unjustified. Numerous public institutions and legal instruments, whose primary task was to prevent the common good from being compromised, have retreated from conducting their policies. As a result, many citizens commenced seeking help in the civil proceedings. This article aims to throw a spotlight on those examples of the common good that are currently being granted protection under personal interests' provisions and the yet unnoticed costs of such tendencies. Firstly, the recent resolution of the Supreme Court on whether the right to live in a clean environment is a personal interest is being discussed. The Supreme Court's remarks and case facts are contrasted with the explanation of the personal interests' regulation in Poland. Following that overview, other examples of the common good are being examined, namely the family bonds, the national heritage, and a group's good name. The discussed dysfunctionality of public bodies ensuring the protection of common interests that is being replaced with the use of civil law measures is presented as posing serious threats to other values. The most prominent of them being the freedom of speech, the freedom of scientific research, legal certainty, and procedural safeguards. After that, the alternative solutions with their pros and cons are being discussed. The author concludes that the tendency to substitute this dysfunctionality of some public institutions with the private law has its significant drawbacks, the awareness of which should be raised in the legal scholars debates.