Judicial Review of the Implementation of Development Policy – Ten Years of Practice

Abstract

The article addresses the issue of judicial review of decisions in the area of development policy (that consist in not qualifying a specific project for funding) and an attempt is made to assess the functioning of this measure on the tenth anniversary of its introduction into the national system for implementing this policy. The analysis of legal acts, doctrine and case law in the field of development policy allows one to draw the conclusion that the act of implementing the policy, i.e. selection of a specific project for financing, is a sui generis operation of administration, not subject to the provisions of the Code of Administrative Procedure. The most important criterion for assessing this measure should be its effectiveness, understood as the highest degree of implementation of the objective assumed under development policy. Hence, the model of review adopted in Poland and applied by administrative courts, appointed to examine the legality of reviewed acts, does not meet the expectations. The article is an attempt to assess the adopted review model in terms of its impact on the effectiveness of the development policy system and the effectiveness of protection granted.