The right to access to public information in the  verdicts of administrative courts

The access to public information plays very important role in democratic society. He provides access to information about very important public matters, about activities of organs of public authority, public duties. The right to access to public information has been developed in Polen as a constitutional right only to the Constitution in 1997. Until the adoption and entry into force of the Act on access to public information, the Article 61 of Constitution was basic regulation which guaranteed access to public information. The right to access to public information was and is still developed in the verdicts of administrative courts. The administrative courts played very important role in configuration limits of protection this right.

This article discusses the legal basis of citizen e-participation, understood as the use of digital media in the relations of citizens and governments in order to increase participation by citizens. The concept of top-down e-participation determines the scope of analysis. The legal review of the local, national and international law shows that there are some well-regulated levels of e-participation in Poland while others are not a subject of legal regulations.

Access to public information in Poland is most typically discussed in the legal and political contexts. However, it is not consciously discussed as a possibility for political scholars to exercise their right of access to public information. This paper, which is of postulatory nature, identifies the benefits for those political scholars who decide to use, in the process of data collection, their right of access to public information as a data collection technique. The proposed technic of data collection may be used by scholars – political scientists around the world.