This paper explores the environmental and legal aspects of green infrastructure, focusing specifically on green roofs in urban areas. The study highlights the importance of both existing and newly created green infrastructure in mitigating the effects of climate change. Green roofs offer various benefits, including energy efficiency, improved air and water quality, urban regeneration, and biodiversity enhancement, resulting in a higher quality of life in cities. Consequently, there is a need for formal regulations to support the development of green infrastructure in urban areas. The European legislator has recognized the environmental risks and benefits of green infrastructure and has provided guidelines for its implementation. This article evaluates the legal framework and examines the incorporation of European policy into local spatial plans to promote the integration of green infrastructure.

When it comes to public health, the issue of environmental health is worth clarifying and analysing more extensively, which may be of interest to lawyers. At the same time, in respect of public law, which may be of interest to the representatives of fields of sciences other than law, it is necessary to define terms in the sphere of legal protection of environmental elements. Such an analysis will lead us indisputably to the idea of health environmental law, which createslegal instruments for the implementation of environm ental health demands. The text’s first part introduces the concept and evolution of public health as well as the idea of new public health that emerges from it. The second part focuses on indicating the place in public health which is
occupied by the environmental strands that form the concept of environmental health and on presenting its characteristics. The third and final part presents the conception of health environmental law as a research area at the borderline between environmental law, as defined in this part, and environmental health, as defined earlier. The whole ends with conclusionsde lege lata and postulates de  lege ferenda. The work is based on national and foreign literature on public health, environmental law and environmental management. Legal status current as of 30 April 2023.

The subject of the article is an attempt to assess the level of implementation of European Union law into the Polish legal system in the field of the functioning of the energy performance certificate for buildings, which assesses the energy consumption of a building, its parts or investment. Thanks to this, it shows the need to introduce changes in order to reduce the energy consumption of the building. An energy certificate is prepared by an authorized person. Buildings with lower energy consumption, that are heated using modern technologies and renewable energy sources, are becoming more attractive in economic terms. In addition, they implement the objectives of the provisions of EU directives that provide for the strategy of environmental protection and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by humans.

The present work aims to draw attention to the fact that the language of legal texts (intended to describe all known reality) has not kept pace with the progress of science. Legislators use terms taken from the language of science, but do not always consistently assign uniform definitions to them. This can create difficulties in the application of laws involving scientific terminology. An example of such a definition gap is „microplastic” – it appears in acts enacted at the European Union level, but no definition has been formulated to cover the same designatums by a uniform name. This article first presents the legal texts that contain the concept of microplastics, which are recognised – along with pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors – as a new source of health risk present in food consumed by humans. Microplastic is the only one of the aforementioned triad that does not have a legal definition. Attempts at its definition from the scientific and official communities are discussed next. In Poland, the body that first drew attention to the dangers of microplastics and proposed its formal definition was the Supreme Chamber of Control. This article presents some of the conclusions of the Supreme Audit Office report on microplastics as a factor affecting human health. The review concludes with the author’s attempt to formulate a relatively concise definition that is potentially suitable for implementation in the content of national law.

The article is devoted to the issue of legal instruments for the protection of the environment against electromagnetic radiation. The threats of this pollution have been recognized relatively recently. No wonder that an efficient legal model for the above-mentioned issues has not yet been developed. However, the regulations in force in Poland should be considered adequate to the risks and effective.

The basis of environmental protection is the principle of “the polluter pays,” which is anchored in the provisions of Article 7 of the Act of April 27, 2001 Environmental Protection Law. However, the rule is not unlimited in nature. This is because its enforcement in practice must be carried out in compliance with rules that guarantee the entities using the environment the opportunity to defend their rights and present their arguments. At the same time, this must take place in a manner that guarantees the security of legal transactions. Therefore, by the Act of April 7, 2017 amending the Act – the Code of Administrative Procedure and certain other acts, Article 189g of the Code of Administrative Procedure was introduced, defining the general principles of the statute of limitations for fines. Unfortunately, the necessity to adjust to them the statute of limitations rules for fines arising from the legal acts under which fines are imposed was forgotten. As a result of this, there is a whole series of solutions in special laws that set out fully or partially autonomous rules for the statute of limitations on fines. This problem is with particular intensity in the field of environmental protection. Therefore, the study presents the basis for the statute of limitations of the various types of fines imposed for violations of the conditions for using the environment or conducting activities related to environmental protection, and the resulting problems. Therefore, de lege ferenda, it was proposed to take measures to unify the legal basis for the statute of limitations of the type of fines in question. This could be done by eliminating from the legal acts constituting the basis for imposing fines the reference to the application of the relevant provisions of the Tax Ordinance. Since the introduction of solutions dedicated to the imposition of fines into the Code of Administrative Procedure, it has become
redundant.

The subject of the presented article is the analysis of the spatial planning legislation that is currently valid and effective and its comparison with the spatial planning legislation that will come into effect on April 1, 2024, in the legal conditions of the Slovak Republic. The authors of the article focused primarily on the comparison of two basic spatial planning tools – spatial planning documents and spatial planning documentation. The issue of the spatial plan of the municipality is elaborated in more detail, while the article points to changes in its legal regulations in connection with the process of land consolidation and the battle against climate change.

The aim of the article is to discuss the individual stages of the investment process in the field of construction of photovoltaic installations. Particular attention was paid to cases where the implementation of the project requires obtaining a decision on environmental conditions and to the analysis of the compliance of the planned investment with the provisions of the local spatial development plan, performed by the architectural and construction administration authority before issuing the decision on the building permit.

The subject of the considerations contained in the article is the matter of civil liability for damage caused by the use of geological resources of the environment (threatening as a result of such activity), showed in the cross-border context. It presents the basic conflict rules that are applicable in determining the substantive legal regime of such liability. In particular, the most important rules in this regard, set out in Regulation (EC) No. 864/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (“Rome II”), were discussed. This act is of key importance for the issues considered in the article.

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is an instrument within the scope of the EU climate policy implemented in order to complement the EU emissions trading system and to avoid the danger of carbon leakage. The paper discusses the principal elements of CBAM and constitutes an attempt of its assessment as regards anticipated practical impacts and compatibility with chosen environmental principles.