Openness of Public Life as the Constitutional Rule of Access to Public Information and the Re-Use of Public Sector Information

The economic right to reuse public sector information derives from the entity’s fundamental right to acquire and disseminate information. It should be assumed that the Act on the re-use of public sector information is such a regulation that allows not only access to information but also the use of the public good for commercial and non-commercial purposes, which is the public information resource. However, the issue of the reuse of public sector information is also related to the principle of openness of public life expressed in constitutional provisions. The rights associated with this principle should be analyzed in the context of public subjective rights. This is also how the right applies to access to public information, but also the right to re-use public sector information, especially where public sector information meets the conditions of public information. The article undertakes an analysis of similarities and differences in the terms public information and public sector information.

Gloss to Judgement of the Supreme Court of 28 May 2021, file ref. no. III CZP 27/20

The glossed resolution has a significant impact on the catalogue of legal measures for environmental protection. Since the personal and collective dimensions of environmental protection are not in conflict, and the related private and public interests are based on a common value as the environment, seeking protection of individual rights threatened or violated as a result of environmental impact may constitute an important means of indirect legal protection of the environment and its resources, competitive to direct measures taken in the public interest. However, the reasoning of the Supreme Court indicated in the justification of the resolution raises certain doubts and may have significant consequences for the manner of interpretation of the provisions of the environmental protection law system.