Public Documents Act and Its Role in Preventing Document Forgery

Abstract

Forgeries of documents concern almost all types – from ID cards, passports, to money marks and securities. This procedure is a serious threat to proper legal transactions. Security of legal transactions means the need to ensure the credibility of documents by caring for trust in the document as a formal way of ascertaining the law, legal relationship or circumstances that may have legal significance. For this reason, the document benefits from protection in many areas. There are nearly 400 legal acts in the legal system in force in Poland, the subject of which are documents. Representatives of the scientific community, lawyers and experts in the field of document research, however, have for years emphasized the need for a legal act to legally organize the issues of documents. The Act of 22 November 2018 on Public Documents, therefore, constitutes a long-awaited legal regulation and thus is an important element in the process of preventing crimes against the credibility of documents, filling the organizational and legal gap in the broadly understood issue of public documents. The Act had to be a form of coherent, comprehensive legal regulation that would be used in both administrative, civil and criminal law. Its solutions should be considered as correct and necessary in creating a system of public document security. The implementation of the provisions of the Act on Public Documents gives hope for comprehensive regulation of the indicated issues. Both from the perspective of securing the interests of the state and its citizens, the Act deserves a positive assessment of its provisions.