The Role of Public Order Regulations as Acts of Local Law in the Performance of Tasks in the Field of Public Security by Local Self-government in Poland

The subject of the article are the issues concerning the enactment by local self-government bodies in Poland of a special category of acts of local law, i.e. public order regulations. Public order regulations belong to the sources of universally binding law in Poland. Not only government administration bodies, but also local self-government may adopt them. By means of public order regulations, such values as: life, health, property of citizens, environment, public order, peace and public security are protected. The status of public order regulations in the Polish legal order, which are bodies of local self-government units to protect the life or health of citizens and to ensure public order, peace and security, is not the subject to clear legislation or consent among scholars in the field and in relevant case-law. Therefore, the aim of the article is to determine the legal status of local law acts in the form of public order regulations in Poland and to define their role in the performance of tasks in the field of public security by local self-government. The author refers also to relevant legal solutions applicable in other member states of the Visegrad Group. The main thesis of the article is a statement that acts of local law in the form of public order regulations are a desirable manifestation of the law-making decentralisation of the state, which is necessary for the effective performance of tasks in the field of public security by local self-government bodies.