The article considered written sources concerning the practice of imperial power, represented by administration of K.P. Kaufman, the first governor-general of Turkestan and national courts of Turkestan.

Polish System of Disciplinary Liability of Judges in the Light of Standards European Union Law

The study presents current issues of the disciplinary liability of judges, starting with an indication of historical attempts to introduce new, unified regulations intended to cover most of the legal professions, up to the enactment of the statutes of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court and the so-called Disciplinary Law for judges. The author conducts an in-depth analysis of the disciplinary regulations in terms of testing compliance with EU law standards and the need to ensure the effectiveness of EU legal solutions.

In this article, the author tries to point out the problems of the legal system and democratic society after 1989 in the condition of Slovak Republic and ultimately almost in all the countries of post-Communist period. The aim of this work is to point out the development of justice and judicial authorities in Slovakia since 1989 and its current state. The result should be the naming of all elements influencing the judiciary, decision-making activity of court in the context of the directive and the rules of the European Community. The next point is the description of the independence and connection of the judiciary and its offices to state power and related isues. Also, the autor describes to the establishment of the Judicial Council of the Slovak Republic as the highest office of the judiciary in the Slovak Republic, its competences, powers and functioning. In the same way there are listed other offices without which the judiciary as such could not function like Prosecutor’s Office of the Slovak Republic, Slovak Bar Association, Notary Chamber of the Slovak Republic and Slovak Chamber of Executors. At the end of the article the author evaluates the development of justice in the context of an ever-evolving democratic society.

In the context of reforming the legal system of Ukraine, the issue of judicial argumentation, which is developing in modern law schools, is necessary in current conditions of law enforcement process. In this regard, there is a need to outline the problematic aspects of the use of argumentation in the Ukrainian judicial system. This article is devoted to some features of the argumentation contained in decisions of Ukrainian courts. The article describes typical problems that occur during judicial argumentation, which hinder quality of justice. The author analyzes the logical approach to judicial argumentation, argumentation based on principles, the rhetorical approach and inductive as well as deductive argumentation during proceedings in Ukrainian courts. These are some of the most widely used approaches in judicial argumentation. The article provides some recommendations that can improve argumentation in Ukrainian judicial practice. These problems can be solved by improving the level of legal culture, increasing the education of litigants and by using other methods.

Legal Question to the Constitutional Tribunal. Expectations and Directions of Changes

This study is devoted to the analysis of the provision of Article 193 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, which authorizes each court to submit a legal question to the Polish constitutional court about the compliance of a normative act with the Constitution, ratified international treaties or the act, if the answer to a legal question depends on the resolution of a case pending before the court. It is worth considering the expectations and directions of changes of the analyzed institution against the background of the applicable legal provisions. The practice of applying a legal question to the Constitutional Tribunal needs to be examined. During these more than thirty-five years, the constitutional measure has undergone some transformations. The main goal of this work is to assess the title legal question through the prism of over three decades of its operation.

In Western legal traditions, democracy is inseparable from the rule of law, which presupposes the state to establish an effective and transparent judicial system that guarantees human rights and freedoms. The involvement of Lay Participation in the administration of justice (lay judges (mixed tribunal) or justices of the peace (magistrates) is one of the instruments for achieving this objective. The constitutions of the fourteen EU Member States, including Poland, oblige some Lay Participation in the administration of justice. However, the formulations of the norms in the constitutions, establishing Lay Participation in the administration of justice, differ. Based on the analysis of the Polish case, the article focuses on the question whether it would be sufficient to establish a relevant general provision in the Constitution, leaving the specification (form and extent of Lay Participation) to the legislator. The case of Poland has shown that the legislator can, without amending the Constitution, introduce other forms of Lay Participation (such as justices of the peace) or/and extend the extent of Lay Participation to judicial disciplinary cases when they are elected by the legislature; however, this poses a threat to the rule of law in Poland. Therefore, the article aims at discussing the impact of the Polish constitutional regulation of the Lay Participation on the violation of the rule of law.

The People’s Courts of the nomadic population of tsarist Turkestan – an important element of the “local” authorities’ structure (based on archives, legal documents and other materials)

The article considers the status and the role of “native” judicial power in the system of common local self-government bodies among the nomadic population in the pre-revolutionary Central Asia.

The adversarial principle is merely the name of a specific type of organizing process, not a specific Directive of criminal proceedings. The adversarial principle is uniformly recognized as non-codified directive, according to which the criminal process is conducted in the form of equal sides dispute before the impartial court. The adversarial principle in criminal proceedings is something other than adversarial in civil proceedings. The adversarial principle was exposed in the course of work on the revision of the Code of criminal proceedings. The creators of the reform emphasized that Article 167 § 1 of the Code of criminal proceedings differently than it did before, sets out the rules of proof, giving this task in the hands of the parties, leaving only the court admissibility of evidence, and reducing the possibility of taking evidence by the court to exceptional cases justified special circumstances. The creators of the reform emphasized that Article 167 § 1 of the Code of criminal proceedings differently than it did before, sets out the rules of taking of evidence, giving this process to the parties, leaving only the admissibility of evidence to the court, and reducing the possibility of taking evidence by the court to exceptional cases justified by special circumstances. Will be changed the rules for transfer of the court materials from preliminary proceedings. Another important issue is the systematization of the list of evidence, in accordance with the modified Article 333 § 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and solutions for planning of court hearings. May cause discussions restriction the possibility of taking the initiative of the evidence by the court. The changes enforce proactive stance of the accused, even though he should be able to take advantage of the „right to silence”. Militate against the principle of adversarial problems brought to light on the background of the appeal proceedings. You can express its concern that the adversarial principle in the present approach will detrimental to the presumption of innocence, leading to a model of „proceedings for the rich”. These changes will force to remodel the psyche of judges who feel guilty persons determining cases of dispute run by the parties, not the players involved who have the task of replacing the prosecutor.

Dysfunctionality of Election Protests in Poland in the Standard of Fair Elections

Fair elections are one of the foundations of electoral axiology in a democratic state ruled by law. Every citizen has the right to protest, and the justification of the citizen’s complaint is the public interest. An election protest is a legal measure to control the held General elections and its purpose is to protect the public interest in the electoral process. The standard of fair elections is not only a context for legal solutions strictly derived from the Constitution or the Electoral Code. The juridical architecture of electoral protests in Poland generally creates an effective mechanism to address obvious and flagrant violations of the law but remains dysfunctional from the perspective of the fair election standard. Nor does it provide an instrument to prevent a slide into electoral authoritarianism due to violations of the minimum criteria of democracy.

The article deals with the concept of fiduciary activity of an attorney-at-law. The author analyzes foreign experience, in particular, the EU and the USA on fiduciary activity, and conducts a comparative legal analysis. The author examines the prospects for introducing such activities into national legislation on the advocacy. The author focuses on European legislation, in particular, the Common Code of Practice for Lawyers of the European Community. The author examines in detail the procedure for fiduciary activities in the EU and the USA, with special attention paid to the procedure for providing such activities by attorneys. The author emphasizes the advantages and disadvantages of fiduciary activities in foreign countries. The author examines the draft amendments to the national legislation on the Advocacy regarding the introduction of fiduciary activities. The author emphasizes that although the experience of foreign countries with regard to fiduciary activities is quite positive, one should not try to quickly and blindly implement European standards into national legislation, as this will take time. The author determines that a lawyer who manages client’s funds in the course of performing professional duties in the territory of one of the Community States must comply with the rules for managing client’s funds and maintaining financial records established by the competent authorities of the State of registration. The author of the article also establishes that the competent authorities of all Community countries have the right to control and confidentially examine the financial documents of an attorney-at-law on the client’s funds placed at his disposal in order to identify cases of violation of the rules to be observed by the attorney- at-law and to impose sanctions on him in case of the above violations. The advocate, who manages the client’s funds in the course of the performance of his or her professional duties in the territory of one of the Community states, shall comply with the rules for the management of client’s funds and the maintenance of financial records established by the competent authorities of the state of registration.