FORMATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE JUSTICE IN THE POLISH LANDS IN 1795-1918
Authors: Yurevych Yurii 
Published: August 2022

The article is devoted to the historical processes of formation of administrative justice in the Polish lands in 1795–1918. Foreign origins and influences on the Polish system of administrative justice are researched. The formation of mechanisms for resolving public law litigation in the Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1815) as well as the Kingdom of Poland (1815–1867) is characterized. The organization and activity of the State Council, prefectural councils and voivodship councils as authorities of administrative justice are analyzed. There were no separate administrative courts in the Duchy of Warsaw, and the function of resolving disputes between citizens and public administration was entrusted to the governing authorities. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland declared the independence of judges and the inadmissibility of the influence of the executive branch, however this guarantee did not apply to public law litigation resolved by mixed (administrative-judicial) bodies. The peculiarities of the Austrian model of administrative justice, which had been in force in Poland since 1876, are clarified. Its content was expressed in the functioning of a single instance – the Administrative tribunal in Vienna. The Administrative tribunal consisted of the first and second heads (presidents), chairmen of the senates and advisers, appointed by the emperor at the request of the government. Despite the lack of other instances, the Administrative tribunal was a court of cassation and therefore did not consider the facts of public law litigation. The purpose of the Administrative tribunal, on which its competence was based, was to resolve cases over the violations of individual rights by a decision of an executive authority or local self-government. The Prussian model of administrative justice, which operated on Polish lands as a part of the German Empire, is highlighted. The above model was three-tiered and three-instance. All three levels had not cassation but audit competence, i.e. they could carry out a full trial of the case between the administration and the citizen. The first level in this system was county and city departments. The second level was the regional administrative courts, but since 1883 – the regional departments. The third level was the professional authority of administrative justice – the Supreme Administrative tribunal in Berlin. The tribunal consisted of its head (president), the chairman of the senate and judges, at least half of whom had to have judicial qualifications, and the rest came from the administrative apparatus. It is found that the states with corresponding democratic tendencies were characterized by a relatively higher quality of development of administrative justice. Instead, the reactionary Russian Empire did not have such a legal institution at all. The influences of French, German and Austrian law became decisive in establishing the Polish tradition of administrative proceedings in the period under study. The diverse experience of the Polish people in 1795-1918 allowed him to further generalize it and develop his own system of administrative justice in revived Poland.