Commercial operations of municipalities in housing development . On the conflict between self-reliance and serving people and sufficiency of law

Abstract

This article deals with the relationship between three specific problems. These problems include legal issues related to running a business by municipalities, activities of municipalities in housing construction and municipal housing programmes (MHPs) as a manifestation of the legal and organizational independence of municipalities. In order to obtain reliable results of research in this area, the author decided to analyse the applicable standards and regulations regarding these issues and the views of the doctrine. In both cases, he observed that there are no detailed legal regulations relating to this issue, and thus there is also no in-depth analysis of this problem in the doctrine of legal sciences. All this resulted in the formulation of two types of conclusions. The existing regulations were assessed with the indication of their significant shortcomings. More­over, conclusions were formulated regarding changes that the legislator should introduce to the Polish legal system to aid municipalities in meeting the housing needs of local communities. This work uses the method of analysing the legal text and, to a limited extent, the dogmatic approach.