The Principle of Legitimate Expectations and the Protection of Trust in the Polish Administrative Law

Abstract

The principle of legitimate expectations concerns primarily the relationship between public administration and individuals. It endeavours to solve the conflict between the administration’s goal to protect confidence in its activities and the need for change of the objectives of administrative policy. In the Polish administrative law, the concept of legitimate expectations has so far been identified with the principle of the protection of trust. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that the recent amendment to the Polish Code of Administrative Procedure should serve as an impulse for further research into the meaning of this principle in the domestic legal order.