In the nineties of the last century there was a return to the traditional distinction between private property and public property, which is the division derived from the basic division of private law and public law. At the same time there was retained the subjective diversity between state agricultural holdings, cooperative agricultural holdings and individual agricultural holdings. Each agricultural holding as set of factors of agricultural production, which is organized as economic unit, does not serve to realize the interest, or the public purpose, therefore in the property classification into categories of public and private property, agricultural holding should be ranked as private property, regardless of the legal nature (legal entity or natural person) of the entity who is its owner. Among the total number of agricultural holding there must be extracted the following categories: individual holdings run by farmers –individual natural persons; holdings belonging to the agricultural producer groups; cooperative holdings, run by agricultural production cooperatives, and state holdings.
Restructuring of agricultural system after regaining independence in 1918 was of the nature of the evolutionary reform that consisted in the process of dividing surpluses over the determined size of the farms into smaller items. The reform was carried out by administrative methods and the provisions governing the reform initiated Polish agrarian law. However, the revolutionary (expropriation) reform that was carried out after the Second World War (1944-1946) remained in remembrance of the Poles.
Environmental protection is an integral part (component) of actions as well as financial and legal instruments undertaken in the course of the two pillars of the Common Agricultural Policy: market and income policy and rural development policy. Such protection is the aim pursued in the programs and legal regulations of the Common Agricultural Policy, and legal mechanisms of environmental protection, act as instruments of the Common Agricultural Policy, giving reasonable assurance, flexible but effective protection of the various elements of the natural environment. Imposing an obligation to protect the environment is justified in the concept of sustainable development of agriculture, as such development meets the needs of future generations. Connection between the obligation to protect the environment, which is the public aim, with economic activity in the private farmstead, does not raise doubts from the point of view of the principles of distributive justice. The legal construction that explains such a solution is, proposed by A. Stelmachowski, the concept of agricultural property, as a complex of rights and obligations determining the legal situation of the entity – the owner of the farm. A characteristic feature of agricultural property is that these obligations relate not only to specific individuals, but to the State representing the public interest of society as a whole. In exchange for the due performance of agricultural property, the owner has the right to expect assistance from the state, when they exercise their ownership rights.
Professor Andrzej Stelmachowski (1925-2009) is an outstanding person, deserving huge appreciation because of his activity in various fields; as a lawyer, a prominent specialist in civil law, commercial law, family law, who played a remarkable role in the development of agricultural law. He is the creator of a new school of Polish agricultural law, as he elaborated by his scientific achievements, a theoretical basis to distinguish (in the area of doctrine and didactics) agricultural law as a separate branch of law; he has proposed an original method of research – the study of law in the process of its application, and around these ideas he organized research teams – a large group of students at such universities as: Wroclaw, Warsaw and Bialystok (Professor has promoted 23 PhDs of law). Another merit of Professor Stelmachowski was to determine the object and scope of agricultural law, the fundamental structures of agricultural law (the concept of agricultural property), as well as the legal solutions for protection of individual farming. The recognition and respect for the position of Professor at the international level are demonstrated by His numerous professional contacts and honorary doctorates that he was awarded with. The Professor was the first Polish scholar in the CEDR (the European Committee for Agricultural Law), as well as the first President of the Polish Association of Lawyers specialized in Agricultural Law. The concept of teaching elaborated by Professor A. Stelmachowski was reflected in the subsequent editions of academic books in the field of agricultural law, issued under his scientific edit in the period 1970-2008. In all areas of his involvement, despite changes in the external environment, Professor A. Stelmachowski always presented a permanent system of values, among which we should mention: rightness, fidelity to convictions and responsibility, concern for the common good, solidarity with the weak and being guided by the social doctrine of the Church, all of which gave him an unquestionable moral authority as a Person of great strength of character.
JavaScript jest wyłączony w Twojej przeglądarce internetowej. Włącz go, a następnie odśwież stronę, aby móc w pełni z niej korzystać.