OUR EXPERTS
Michał Barański (PhD) assistant professor and leader of the Labour Law and Social Policy Research Team at the Institute of Legal Sciences at the University of Silesia in Katowice, attorney-at-law, editor-in-chief of the academic journal „Z Problematyki Prawa Pracy i Polityki Socjalnej” („Labour Law and Social Politics Issues”). Author and co-author of over 55 publications, including labour law and social insurance law, intellectual property law and contract law.
Dominika Bek (PhD), Assistant Professor at the Institute of Law, University of Silesia in Katowice. Mediator in criminal matters at the Arbitration and Mediation Center of Silesia. Editor-in-Chief of “Forum Polityki Kryminalnej” (Forum on Criminal Policy). Specialist in criminal law and criminology. The author focuses in her works on several areas:
• restorative justice, mediation in criminal and medical matters,
• domestic violence and violence against women,
• culturally motivated crimes and cultural defense,
• crimes against state and local government institutions.
dominika.bek@us.edu.pl
ORCID 0000-0003-4560-808X
Marlena Drapalska-Grochowicz (PhD), an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia. In September 2022 r. she defended PhD thesis “Reconstruction of ≤closeness≥ category in Polish legal system”.She conducts a research project financed by the National Science Centre on “Reconstruction of the closeness category in the Polish legal system”. As part of the project, she examines a relational approach in law, particularly the meaning, and importance of close interpersonal relationships in law from philosophical and psychological perspectives. Interests: legal interpretation, legal psychology, Law&Emotions approach, vulnerability group’s status, the ethic of care.
ORCID: 0000-0002-8602-2918
Iwona Gredka-Ligarska: barrister, PhD in jurisprudence, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia in Katowice. Laureate of the OPUS-21 competition organized by the Polish National Science Center. Member of the Labour Law and Social Policy Research Team. Chairwoman of the Programme Board of the National Institute for Museums and Public Collections in 2016–2022. Member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). Specialist in labour law, civil law and cultural heritage protection law. Author of numerous scientific publications and a participant in national and international scientific conferences. Member of the expert group acting on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
doctor of law, assistant professor, member of the Self-Government Board of Appeals in Katowice.
Scientific interest:
– decisional leeway in the theoretical model of applying administrative law
– judicial review of the administration
– legal forms of administration activity
– administrative, enforcement, tax and court-administrative procedures
– administrative legislation
– programmatic (task) norms, administrative acts of planning
Tomasz Gwóźdź – assistant, Financial Law Research Team, specializing in financial law and tax law, author of research publications in financial law, tax law, and constitutional law. Member of the Local Government Appeal College in Katowice. Contact email: tomasz.gwozdz@us.edu.pl, https://orcid.org/0000–0002-1769–1210.
Ph.D of legal science, the assistant professor in the Institute of Law at the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Silesia in Katowice. The graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Silesia in Katowice and postgraduate Copyright Studies at the Intellectual Property Law Institute in Kraków.
She is an author of articles concerning especially industrial property law and business activity law published in scientific and professional journals and books.
ORCID: 0000-0003-0079-1685; e-mail anna.holda-wydrzynska@us.edu.pl.
PhD She is an assistant professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice, and a member of the Research Group on International Law and Human Rights at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia in Katowice. She is also a Dean’s Plenipotentiary for the Erasmus+ Program.
Her PhD thesis “The responsibility for using autonomous weapon systems in international humanitarian law” has been successfully completed in 2020. Previously, she worked with the Silesian Centre for Arbitration and Mediation, Polish Commissioner for Human Rights, and interned with the Organisation for Aid to Refugees in Prague. Her research concerns impacts of neural networks on international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
She is a primary investigator in the research project ‘The prohibition of discrimination in algorithmic decision-making’ financed by the National Science Centre of Poland.
Mariusz Jagielski – PhD in law, professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice (USK). Since 1994 employed at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the USK. In 2011–2016, vice-dean of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the USK. From 2018, the plenipotentiary of the USK Rector for the protection of personal data. He cooperates with the USK Ethics Committee for research involving humans, the USK Data Protection Officer and the USK Doctoral School. He deals with constitutional law, fundamental rights and personal data protection. Author of numerous scientific studies in the indicated fields. From 2020, a contractor in the EU research project H2020 Multi-Agent Systems for Pervasive Artificial Intelligence for Assisting Humans in Modular Production Environments (MAS4AI). From 2023, the leader of the research team Constitutional rights in the digital world.
Monika Jagielska – Professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice. A former member of the working groups of the Codification Commission on Civil Law at the Polish Ministry of Justice. The author of several books and numerous articles on EU private law, sales law, consumer protection, product liability and international family law. Expert and reviewer in numerous EU and international projects (among others Study on all mandatory rules applicable to contractual obligations in contracts for sales of tangible goods sold at a distance and, in particular online; JUST/2015/RCON/PR/CO02/0112; Study to support the fitness check of EU Consumer Law; JUST/2013/EVAL/BC/0159/A4; Progress in Collective Redress Mechanisms in Environmental and Consumer Mass Harm Situations; JUST-JCOO-AG-2017 Cross-border litigation in Central-Europe: EU private international law before national court, H2020 MAS4AI https://www.mas4ai.eu. Expert and reviewer in several European Commission calls and in the Polish National Science Centre. Deputy Dean for Development and Cooperation.
Michal Kania is a professor at the University of Silesia, Faculty of Law in Poland. His main research expertise focus on public procurement law, Public–Private Partnerships and concession contracts with over 100 research publications.
Senior Researcher in Centre for the Private Governance at the University of Copenhagen (2022-2024), Visiting Fulbright Scholar at the George Washington Law School at GWU (2018-2019),
a Visiting Fellow at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich (2017).
In the past, Michal has provided his insight and expertise through variety of roles among others an independent expert in the European Investment Bank’ European Public Private Partnership Expertise Centre, vice-president of the Silesian Arbitration Tribunal, contributor to World Bank reports on PPP.
A speaker at Polish and international conferences, a founder and lecturer at the Postgraduate Studies in Public-Private Partnership and Public Procurement at the University of Silesia, a founder and the first president of the PPP Academic Support Foundation, a founder of the program ‘’PPP – Good Choice’’ (active in the years 2009 – 2014). An active member of the Public Procurement Association in Poland.
Former president of the PPP Commission by the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland, an independent adviser for the Polish Ministry of Development for the concept of the new Polish Public Procurement Act adopted on 11 September 2019, plenipotentiary of the President of the University of Silesia for PPP projects, member of the commission of the Polish ministry of development in the competition for the president of the Polish National Chamber of Appeal (Public procurement and PPP cases).
Michał finished the Gdansk Foundation of Managers and Aix-Marseille Graduate School of Management two – years MBA program, with the final thesis entitled “Economic and financial analyses in public – private partnerships“.
Mauro Arturo Rivera León holds a Ph.D. in Law from the Complutense University in Madrid and a Masters in Parliamentary Law, Elections and Legislative Studies from the same University. He obtained a Degree in Law from the University of Sonora (Mexico).
Dr. Rivera has been a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg (Germany), by the Perelman Center for Philosophy of Law by the Free University of Brussels in Belgium the Silesian University in Katowice, Poland. He was awarded the advanced researcher level of the National System of Researchers in Mexico (SNI II). He has published four monographs and over forty scientific papers/book chapters in English and Spanish. He has received six national prizes for his research. He has published ten translations of scientific papers to Spanish from Polish, English, German, and Italian. Mauro Arturo Rivera holds extensive professional experience. In 2012-2013 he was a Constitutional Doctrine Fellow at the Spanish Constitutional Court (Madrid). In 2016 and 2017, he subsequently worked as Junior Law Clerk, Auxiliary Secretary, and Advisor at the Mexican Supreme Court. In 2018 he was a senior law clerk at the Federal Electoral Court, and in 2019-2021 he was a Senior Law Clerk at the Mexican Supreme Court, writing more than 70 rulings on behalf of the court.
Currently, Mauro Arturo Rivera is an Assistant Professor at the University of Silesia, leading research project no. 2020/37/K/HS5/02758, titled “Qualified majorities in counter-majoritarian mechanisms: Towards a new theory of supermajorities in judicial review.”
PdD Assistant professor at the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. His research interests focus on infringements of author’s economic rights, the law of the Internet, and protection of folklore and intangible cultural heritage. ORCID: 0000-0003-0198-9036
professor, specialises in international public law and human rights. She was involved in the COST action on ageism (IS1402). In 2019, she joined the European Network on Law and Ageing Group (ELAN). She is also a member of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights Group of Experts on Older Persons. Moreover, she is a member of the Odysseus Academic Network for Studies on Immigration Asylum in Europe. She was appointed the ad hoc judge in the European Court of Human Rights (2012 -2014).
She has authored books and articles on the human rights of various vulnerable persons, such as migrant workers, asylum seekers, children, women (gender pay gap issues), ethnic minorities, sexual minorities and older persons. Her main field of research has focused on elder law and the human rights of older adults for the last ten years. Since 2019 she has been conducting the project “Social and digital inclusion of older persons as a special task for non-governmental organisations. The perspective of international human rights law” financed by the Polish National Science Centre.
ORCID 0000-0003-1584-2596
Professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, and a Lecturer at the Polish School of International Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflicts in Radziejowice since 2003. Her academic interests concentrate primarily on international humanitarian law, international criminal law, and human rights – with a particular focus on the situation of the most vulnerable groups. She is an author of monographs and numerous scientific articles on those topics.
She is a member of the Research Team on International Law and Human Rights and an investigator in the research project on Gender and International Crimes. The International Criminal Law Perspective at the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Silesia.
Since 2022 she is a member of the Expert Council at the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Silesia.
In 2014-2018 she was a contractor in the EU research project Gender Pay Gap (GPG) – Close the Deal, Fill the Gap (JUST/2013/PROG/AG/4890/GE).
In 2021 she participated in the expert evaluation for applications and in the review process of candidates in The Polish Fulbright Program for 2021-2022 academic cycle.
Since 2013 she is a member of the Board of the Polish Branch of the International Law Association (ILA), in the term of 2017-2023 she was the Vice-President and the Director of Studies and for the term of 2023-2027 she is the Communications Officer. She is a member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and a member of the Commission for the Dissemination of International Humanitarian Law at the Polish Red Cross.
(PhD) Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law and Administration University of Silesia in Katowice.
She specializes in public procurement law and issues related to the implementation of structural funds. She has many years of experience in awarding public contracts. Author of several dozen scientific publications in the field of public procurement law. Manager and contractor of international research grants financed by the Polish-German Foundation for Science.
agnieszka.piwowarczyk@us.edu.pl
ORCID: 0000-0002-4490-4330
Ph.D., Associate Professor
Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Silesia
The areas of my interest are broadly understood environmental protection law, in particular, nature protection law, climate law, air protection law, and geological and mining law.
More information is available at https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4669-3327
Lidia Rodak (PhD) is the coordinator of the Legal Anthropology Research Group at the Institute of Legal Sciences, University of Silesia, Katowice.
She holds LLM, from European Academy of Legal Theory, (Brussels), joint Ph.D. from the University of Ghent, Law Faculty, Department of Jurisprudence and Comparative Law, and Department of Law, University of Silesia in Katowice and Italian habilitation for associate professor in philosophy of law (2021). (BANDO D.D. 553/2021).
From 2020 she is the Principal Investigator of the research project awarded by the National Center Science (Poland), NCN, UMO-2019/33/B/HS5/02863, on the topic: Women’s Socio- Legal Justice. An Analysis of Women’s Circles.
Her academic research lies at the intersection of law, sociology and anthropology. Her recent works focus on the relation between objectivity and subjectivity, in particular from the perspective of feminist jurisprudence. She is the author of the book “Judicial Objectivity. Limits, Merits and Beyond” by Peter Lang (2020) and number of articles in academic journals such as: Oñati Socio-Legal Series, Studi sulla Questione Criminale, Hague Journal of the Rule of Law.
PhD, lawyer who specializes in the field of theory and philosophy of law. He holds a doctoral degree in law and a master’s degree in political science, and his interests lie in legal interpretation, lawmaking, and the interconnections of law and politics. He conducts research on a variety of topics, including communication between drafters and interpreters of legal texts, legislative errors, in dubio rules, and symbolic law. He has also completed a traineeship in the legislative bureaus of both the Sejm and the Senat of the Republic of Poland, gaining valuable practical experience.
He currently holds the position of Principal Investigator in a research project titled “Symbolic law. Creation and application perspective”, which is being financed by the National Science Centre of Poland. Additionally, he is a co-investigator in another research project, also financed by the same institution, named “Time trouble or the temporal dimension of legal interpretation”.
marek.suska@us.edu.pl
Institute of Law
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0950-5588
PhD Assistant Professor (adjunct) at the Faculty of Law and Administration. He graduated in law from the Silesia University in 2009. In 2010 he graduated general apprenticeship provided by The National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecution. In 2014 he completed attorney apprenticeship and passed attorney exam. He defended his doctoral thesis in 2015 which was published under the title „Military criminal procedure in the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939)”. A member of the Polish Society for Legal History. His scientific interests include the history of court law, especially criminal law and criminal procedure.