Precautionary principle (PP) is commonly understood as a criterion that should be used in decision-making under risk and/or uncertainty. Yet, long before the approval of PP in the literature – a set of concrete, formal criterions existed in the field of decision theory. Therefore the main goal of this paper is to compare these classical decision – rules with PP. This very comparison will bring us to answer the question: if PP may be reduced to any of the classical criterions? It will tur out that such a reduction cannot be done. Therefore PP has got its own specificity. 

JEL: D01, D81, G18, H12, I18

This paper presents a legal regulation regarding the institution of unlawful building work legalisation in Poland combining its historical review and evaluation. The paper shows the complexity of the problem and the difficulty of providing a legal regulation of the matter. The updated regulations on the procedure of unlawful building work legalisation came into force in Poland on 19 September 2020. After changing the legal regulations, the final decision on the legalisation of unlawful building work still remains in the hands of construction supervision authorities. However, in contrast to the previous legal status, a legalisation procedure can be initiated only upon developer’s request. In addition, the lawmaker has introduced an option to legalise unlawful building work completed over 20 years ago in a simplified legalisation procedure. The final part of the paper presents all procedures for unlawful building work legalisation effective from 19 September 2020 as well as general conclusions regarding the institution under scrutiny.