PRIVATE FOUNDATION IN THE POLISH LEGAL SYSTEM AS A SPECIFIC INSTITUTION OF THE CIVIL SOCIETY

Abstract

The paper is an attempt to analyze the selected features and legal regulations related to foundation’s institutions, as defined in Polish law, as the specific institution of the civil society. As Authors, we are trying to follow the path of one of the most important problems regarding the theory on the civil society, taking the form of the question about locating the civil society somewhere between the public and private spheres. These issues can be especially clearly illustrated with an example or foundation’s institutions, as listing socially or economically useful goals by the lawmakers determine some scope of essential problems seen (not listed here) that could be expressed in the form of the two questions. Firstly, can a foundation be considered a social organization at all? Secondly, can a foundation perform only business activities, as the lawmakers used the conjunction typical for the nonexclusive disjunction? We think there is no simple answer for questions formed in such a way. The considerations included in this paper are included in the scope of social sciences, with particular attention paid to legal sciences and political and administrative science. This text should be qualified as interdisciplinary, though also oriented mostly to analyze legal, economic and social conditions of the essence of a foundation, as the specific formula within which tasks typical for civil society organizations can be executed.