Marek Konstankiewicz - Legal provisions of archival activity in Poland (legal status as of 1.10. 2010)


This article attempts in a concise way to present legal provisions concerning archival activities that are in force in Poland as of the beginning of 2010. The most important legal provisions concerning the preservation of archival materials, structure of public archival institutions and the appraisal, arrangement, description and access of state archival holding and the definition of status of not state archival holding were indicated. They are in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997, in the act on national archival holding and archives of 1983 together with executive orders and a number of other acts, international agreements and regulations.

The dispersion of these norms among a vast number of legal acts and numerous and fragmentary changes made to the most important ones, constitute substantial problems of the Polish archival law. The other problem is also the increase of details in provisions concerning broadly understood circulation of information in society. These issues should be taken into account during the discussion on changes in Polish archival law.