European Union Accession and Polish Maritime Law

This article describes selected problems regarding the newest Polish maritime legislation that are concerned with Polish accession to the European Union. The author presents the most important normalizations and discusses some of them that are contained in the following legislation: on fisheries of February 10, 2004; on changes in the legislation regarding the maritime chambers of March 5, 2004; on changes in legislation on maritime safety of April 20, 2004; on marine equipment of April 20, 2004. Two amendments to the new Polish maritime code are also discussed, as well as changes to legislation on the Republic of Poland's marine areas and the maritime administration. The author also discusses the ratification of the London Convention of the 1990 OPRC. The author emphasizes the ambitiously adaptive character of the numerous changes made in Polish maritime law that bring it into compliance with European law. Since the Polish Academy of Sciences Commission on Maritime Law has published the twentieth volume of the Maritime Law journal, the author, who is also the chairman of the commission and the editor-in-chief of the journal, makes some remarks regarding the state of the studies of maritime law and the law of the sea in Poland.