Korzycka Małgorzata, Wojciechowski Paweł, System prawa żywnościowego

Jeszcze na początku lat 90. XX w. prawo żywnościowe zarówno w Polsce, jak i w Unii Europejskiej było zasadniczo utożsamiane z przepisami o charakterze sanitarnym albo z unormowaniami dotyczącymi handlu żywnością i to raczej o charakterze technicznym. W okresie stowarzyszeniowym, a następnie po wejściu Polski do Unii Europejskiej w 2004 r. nastąpiło zetknięcie się z innym porządkiem prawnym w zakresie ochrony zdrowia oraz interesów ekonomicznych konsumenta, jak i w zakresie handlu produktami żywnościowymi. Rzeczpospolita Polska znalazła się w krótkim czasie w orbicie silnego oddziaływania nie tylko prawa europejskiego, ale również porozumień międzynarodowych oraz standardów organizacji międzynarodowych, których stroną jest Unia Europejska, a które z kolei oddziałują na rozwój unijnego prawa żywnościowego.

Osadzenie prawa żywnościowego w unormowaniach międzynarodowych, unijnych i krajowych skłania do poszukiwania zasad ogólnych i wewnętrznej systematyki tego prawa we wzajemnych relacjach różnych porządków prawnych. Dwa rozwijające się równolegle zasadnicze nurty tego prawa, tj. bezpieczeństwo żywności i jakość rynkowa żywności, po okresie fragmentarycznego i niespójnego rozwoju mają już znaczący dorobek w postaci zasad wiodących i procedur.

Jeżeli chodzi o zaistnienie prawa żywnościowego w rodzimym szkolnictwie akademickim, to przedmiot taki funkcjonował przede wszystkim jako dyscyplina tzw. dodatkowa czy pomocnicza w różnego rodzaju szkołach wyższych o profilu rolniczym lub medycznym i był wykładany przez przedstawicieli dyscyplin pozaprawnych.

W latach 90. XX w. pewne zagadnienia tego prawa pod nazwą "instrumenty prawne chroniące zdrowie ludzi i zwierząt" zostały wprowadzone do akademickiego podręcznika prawa rolnego pod redakcją prof. Andrzeja Stelmachowskiego, a następnie –

Warszawa, luty 2017 r.

Małgorzata Korzycka, Paweł Wojciechowski

As recently as in the early ‘90s of the 20th century, food law, both in Poland and in the European Union, was in principle understood as the collection of laws of sanitary character, or as norms regarding food trade, and at that mostly of technical nature. In the association period, and then when Poland became a member of the European Union in 2004, there were increased contacts with a different legal order as regards protection of health and economic interests of the consumer, as well as in respect of trading food products. Within a short time, the Republic of Poland entered the orbit of strong influence of not only European law, but also international agreements and standards of international organizations to which the European Union is a party, and which in turn affect the development of the EU food law.

Anchoring of food law in the international norms, both EU and domestic, invites the search of general principles and internal systematics of this law in the mutual relations of various legal orders. Two simultaneously advancing main currents of this law, that is food safety and market quality of food products, following a period of fragmented an incoherent development, now have a substantial output in the form of guiding principles and procedures.

As regards the emergence of food law in the domestic academic education, this field of study functioned mostly as an additional or auxiliary discipline at numerous types of university-level agricultural or medical schools, and was taught by representatives of non-legal fields.

In the ‘90s of the 20th century, certain selected aspects of this law, known as ‘legal instruments protecting the health of people and animals’ were introduced in the academic agricultural law course book edited by Professor Andrzej Stelmachowski and, later, already as ‘food law’, they formed a separate part of this course book.

It was at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw that food law was first granted the status of a separate area of legal education. At the initiative of the erstwhile faculty Dean, Professor Józef Okolski, which resulted from the suggestion made by his spouse, Dr Grażyna Okolska (at the time employed at the Professor Aleksander Szczygieł Institute of Food and Nutrition), a resolution was adopted in 1999 by the University of Warsaw Senate, establishing the Research Unit of Food Law at what was then the Department of Agricultural Law (currently Chair of Agricultural Law and Food Protection System). To date, about 140 Master’s theses have been written on subjects related to this branch of law, as well as three defended doctoral dissertations and one habilitation dissertation.

We wish to express our great gratitude to the late Professor Andrzej Stelmachowski, father of the Polish school of agricultural law, for his invaluable advice and guidelines in respect of the first work penned by Professor Małgorzata Korzycka in the subject of food law, that is ‘Prawo Żywnościowe. Zarys prawa polskiego i wspólnotowego’ (Food Law. An Outline of Polish and Community Law), which serves as a basis for the present elaboration and which, prior to its publication, he kindly agreed to read and evaluated with approval. Professor Małgorzata Korzycka considers it an extraordinary privilege to have been Professor’s long-time student and then associate, which gave her the courage to explore this new area of law that - albeit strongly related to agricultural law - is a field in its own right. The doctoral dissertation of dr. hab. Paweł Wojciechowski, co-author of the present book, with a focus on the European model of official food control, had the good fortune of being reviewed and highly regarded by Professor Andrzej Stelmachowski in 2007.

We would also like to thank our colleagues from the Chair of Agricultural Law and Food Protection System of the University of Warsaw, as well as students of doctoral and Master’s programmes and to participants of seminars and tutorials in food law - for their insightful remarks and interesting observations that we have put to use in this book.

We dedicate this work to our fantastic Families and Friends, without whose support and companionship this book could not have been written.

Warsaw, February 2017

Małgorzata Korzycka, Paweł Wojciechowski