Scope of SAC activities
Administrative courts, headed by the Supreme Administrative Court, exercise the administration of justice in the Republic of Poland by adjudicating the legality of specific decisions, rulings and other acts and actions taken in the sphere of public administration that are appealed to the court, as well as resolutions of local government bodies and normative acts of local government bodies. In addition, administrative courts are concerned with monitoring the timeliness of the handling of individual administrative cases in the context of appeals about inaction or the length of administrative proceedings.
Control of public administration activities for legality in the first instance is exercised by sixteen provincial administrative courts.
The Supreme Administrative Court, based in Warsaw, exercises this control as a court of second instance, hearing appeals against decisions of provincial administrative courts. In addition, it resolves competence disputes between local government bodies, local government appeals colleges and between these bodies and government administrative bodies, and adopts resolutions clarifying legal issues.
Decisions of administrative courts, including the Supreme Administrative Court, as a rule, do not replace final decisions of public administration bodies. The essence of these rulings is to repeal or annul the contested act or oblige the authority to behave in a certain way in the course of further handling of the administrative matter.
The tasks and organisation of the administrative judiciary are defined in particular: the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (Article 175 and Article 184) and the Act of 25 July 2002 Law on the System of Administrative Courts and the Act of 30 August 2002 Law on Proceedings before Administrative Courts.