Public participation in dealing with cases in administrative procedure : reflections on the basis of the Polish legal system

In 2017 the Polish Code of Administrative Procedure was amended. As a result of the introduced changes, regulations regarding public participation in dealing with individual cases subject to settlement by way of decision were significantly extended. As a general rule, the authorities have been obliged to strive for amicable settlement of disputes whose nature allows it. In order to implement the above principle, apart from the institution of amicable agreement already applicable in Polish system, the possibility of conducting mediation between the parties to the proceedings, as well as between the party and the authority was introduced. Such solution is already applied in some legal orders and is gaining more and more importance in the countries of the EU. The objective of these regulations was to extend public participation in the administrative governance. The article presents an analysis and evaluation of solutions adopted in Polish law in the context of general and universal problems of purposefulness, scope and forms of public participation in authoritative resolution of disputes, which as a rule is the domain of the state.