Open AccessREGULATIONS WITH RESPECT TO CIVIL TURNOVER IN THE ACT ON THE RESTITUTION OF POLISH HERITAGE ASSETS AND THEIR APPLICATION TO MUSEUMS’ OPERATION
Author(s) -
Adam Barbasiewicz
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
muzealnictwo
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.101
H-Index - 1
eISSN - 2391-4815
pISSN - 0464-1086
DOI - 10.5604/01.3001.0015.1752
Subject(s) - restitution , dispose pattern , context (archaeology) , business , law , cultural heritage , political science , history , engineering , archaeology , waste management
It is the legal regulations related to civilturnover specified in the Act of 25 May 2017 on theRestitution of Polish Heritage Assets (consolidated text,Journal of Laws 2019, Item 1591) in the context of theactivity of museums and other institutions runninga museum activity that is the topic of the paper. Theyspeak of legal activities including ownership transfer orcharge on Poland’s heritage assets pertaining to publiccollections, or the ban on acquiring assets from a personunauthorized to dispose of them or manage them byprescription, as well as of the non-limitation of claimsfor their release. The Author analyses the central concept of the quotedAct: that of the national heritage assets of the PolishRepublic pertaining to public collections, while discussingin detail both criteria that are related to it: subject- andownership-related ones. He points to the fact that thedefinition of public collections it contains is extremelybroad, covering not only public collections in the colloquialmeaning of the term, but also the collections of the majorityof private museums, as well as non-museum collections ofprivate entities and persons, as long as they have appliedpublic financing.In the further part of the paper, the civil-law regulationsspecified in the Act are discussed, with special emphasison the requested form of the legal actions including thetransfer of ownership or burden (in writing with a certifieddate) suggesting that this can apply also to deposit or lendingcontracts. He also discusses the praxis and judicaturewith respect to the in writing with a certified date pointingto the possible lack of the awareness of the contract partiesthat the object of the contract pertains to a public collectionin compliance with the provisions of the Act, and that thespecial contract format should be kept. In this context theAuthor presents some practical solutions allowing to avoidcertain negative consequences.In the conclusion it is emphasized that the regulation containscertain concepts which might inspire essential interpretativedoubts having impact on the application of thediscussed regulations.