• Register
  • Login
    • Flaga wersji językowej  English Flaga wersji językowej  Język Polski
    Published: 2026-01-10
    Vol. 23 No. 2 (2025)

    The Legal Nature of Obligations and Objectives Contained in National Planning Acts in the Scope of Environmental Protection and Climate Policy: Between Soft Law and Binding Norms

    Filip Kucharczyk
    The Opole Studies in Administration and Law
    Section: Articles
    DOI https://doi.org/10.25167/osap.5908

    Abstract

    The aim of this article is to analyze the legal nature of the obligations and objectives contained in national environmental strategies and climate policy documents. The central thesis is that planning acts despite lacking the status of sources of universally binding law can nonetheless produce legal effects and influence both the practice of law application and the shaping of public policies. The main research question addresses the boundary between
    soft law and legally binding norms in the case of such documents. The primary subject of the research is national planning acts in the field of environmental protection and climate policy, considered as tools of strategic administrative governance and carriers of functional
    normativity. The significance of this study for legal sciences lies in illustrating the evolution and complexity of planning acts, which, although formally non-normative, play coordinating and directive roles, and in some cases also functionally normative ones. This issue has important implications for the theory of sources of law and the typology of administrative actions. The applied methodology includes dogmatic-legal, historical-legal, and comparative methods. Seventeen planning acts—both in force and in their draft form—were analyzed in terms of their legal basis, binding force, and the typology of included norms. The findings demonstrate that planning acts shape administrative practice and public policy despite lacking explicit normative authorization. Their influence increases with consistency with EU and international law and with proper integration into the strategic governance framework. A lack of timely updates and systemic coherence may diminish the effectiveness of implementation and weaken legal certainty.

    Keywords:

    public policy, planning acts, administrative law, environmental law, legal nature of planning instruments, climate law

    Download files

    Citation rules

    Kucharczyk, F. (2026). The Legal Nature of Obligations and Objectives Contained in National Planning Acts in the Scope of Environmental Protection and Climate Policy: Between Soft Law and Binding Norms. The Opole Studies in Administration and Law, 23(2). https://doi.org/10.25167/osap.5908

    Cited by / Share

    Licence


    This website uses cookies for proper operation, in order to use the portal fully you must accept cookies.