Uniwersytet Warszawski otrzymał 1 531 000,00 PLN z Narodowej Agencji Wymiany Akademickiej (NAWA) na realizację projektu w ramach programu „PROM – krótkookresowa wymiana akademicka". Kierownikiem projektu jest prof. ucz. dr hab. Piotr Grzebyk, prodziekan ds. badań naukowych i współpracy międzynarodowej. Wydział Prawa i Administracji UW będzie koordynatorem działań w ramach projektu
Research question and goal
The project is focused on addressing the growing issue of financial exclusion among the elderly, specifically in the context of rapidly advancing digitalization in financial services. As financial institutions increasingly shift their services online, the elderly, who often face
challenges related to digital literacy, cognitive decline, and access to technology, are at risk of being marginalized. The project aims to explore the impact of this digital shift on older people’s ability to access financial services, such as making payments for goods and services, which is critical to their independence and well-being.
The project is responding to a clear gap in the current research landscape. Most existing studies on financial inclusion treat consumers as a homogenous group, without accounting for the specific needs of different demographics, particularly the elderly. This is problematic because the elderly face unique challenges when it comes to engaging with digital financial services. These challenges include lower levels of financial literacy, difficulties in adapting to new technologies, and cognitive impairments that increase with age. As a result, the elderly are often excluded from accessing essential financial services, which undermines their ability to live independently and participate fully in society.
The existing legal research on financial inclusion tends to focus on consumers who are already digitally engaged, neglecting those who are involuntarily excluded due to barriers like digital illiteracy or lack of access to technology. Furthermore, there is a need for a more interdisciplinary approach that combines legal, sociological, and economic perspectives to better understand the implications of digital exclusion. This project seeks to address this gap by focusing specifically on the elderly and proposing legal reforms that would ensure their inclusion in the digital financial ecosystem.
The project’s ultimate goal is to develop a regulatory roadmap that can help ensure that older adults are not left behind in this transition. This roadmap will address the legal, economic, and social aspects of digital exclusion, proposing specific regulatory
frameworks that can help combat financial exclusion and promote inclusivity in the financial sector. It will assess the potential for public and private law interventions, focusing on how regulations can be designed to protect vulnerable consumers, particularly the
elderly, who are less able to adapt to digital financial services.
The research builds on empirical findings that highlight the vulnerability of the elderly population to financial exclusion due to their lower levels of digital literacy, cognitive impairments, and lack of access to technology. The central research objective is to determine how legal and regulatory frameworks can be reformed or designed to ensure financial inclusion for the elderly. The project spans multiple disciplines, including law, sociology, and political economy, and involves a comparative study of the legal systems in various countries such as the U.S.A., EU member states, and the UK. This comparative approach will provide insights into the global dimensions of the issue.
The prevalence of company groups in the modern economic landscape creates multiple new legal challenges. The regulations currently in force were created for autonomous entities, operating independently, in their own interest and on their own account. With the emergence of corporate groups, consisting of several, a dozen or even several hundred formally separate entities acting collectively, the fundamental principles underlying the authors of contemporary codes have been called into question. The search for specific rules for the creation, operation and, in particular, liability within so-called holdings has become one of the leading problems in many areas of law. Apart from company law, where this topic has been of great interest for many years, a particularly interesting area of regulation in this regard is competition law, located on the borderline between public and private law and harmonised at the EU level. Meanwhile, the direct impulse to undertake research on antitrust holding liability is provided by newly designed regulations introducing into the Polish legal system - following EU standards - liability for competition law violations by an entity exercising decisive influence on the direct infringer (RCL project No. UC69).
The project aims to analyse the prerequisites for antitrust liability in a holding company and to answer the question: what is the actual objective of piercing liability (i.e. both administrative and civil liability for the actions of another company within the same holding
company) in competition law, in light of the well-established decisional practice of the EU antitrust authority? This question is particularly pertinent in the context of recent case law indicating that a subsidiary can be held liable for damages caused by an infringement of competition law by its parent company. Preliminary research suggests that, contrary to the assumptions of the European Commission and the Court of Justice, this aim is by no means prevention or the need to ensure the effectiveness of the law, but rather increased repression. The project involves a precedent-setting comparison between antitrust liability and the general principles of vicarious liability (for the conduct of another) in other liability regimes. In addition to the traditional in legal sciences dogmatic method, the research will also draw extensively on the law-comparative method and the economic analysis of law. The American and German legal systems will be a particularly important point of reference.
Crowdfunding has transformed how businesses raise capital, offering an accessible alternative to traditional financing. Equity crowdfunding, in particular, allows individuals to invest in ventures with potential financial returns. While this model fosters innovation and democratizes investment opportunities, it exposes investors to significant risks, such as inaccurate stock valuation, misleading advertising, capital dilution, and limited regulatory oversight. The lack of robust legal protections can leave investors vulnerable to fraud and financial losses.
This project explores the legal and regulatory challenges of equity crowdfunding, aiming to strike a balance between investor protection and market growth. By examining regulatory frameworks in Poland, the EU, and major global markets, it seeks to identify legal solutions that enhance security without stifling innovation. The findings will contribute to shaping policies that safeguard investors while allowing crowdfunding to remain a viable tool for entrepreneurship and economic development.
In light of the newest evidence from the natural sciences, human-induced climate change is increasingly being understood as the defining global challenge of our age. This has unleashed a profound societal and cultural transformation process – a sustainability revolution – which calls into question many basic organizing principles of economic activity.
In particular, notions on the role of companies within society are progressively being challenged. Climate policy ranks high on today’s global political agendas. International commitments like the Paris Climate Agreement or the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development shape the global course of sustainability policy. In the EU, alongside treaty-based obligations, the European Green Deal, with its climate neutrality commitment, sets the blueprint.
Companies are naturally at the centre of lawmakers’ attention. Their essential part in mitigating climate change by reducing their net emissions and by driving the innovation and adaptation that are necessary to bring about a net-zero economy is widely recognized. In the search for adequate policy mechanisms, the question of the role of corporate governance in the aspired transition toward sustainable capitalism is highly pertinent.
Whereas public law instruments, for example, direct regulatory controls on emissions or market solutions, have a long-standing tradition of serving as policy instruments for protecting the environment, most recent developments are increasingly emphasizing the role of private law, particularly company law, in implementing sustainability-driven policy goals. Fundamentally, a stronger responsibilization of companies for meeting sustainability objectives is being pursued. Consequently, the question arises whether company law institutions could reshape corporate governance frameworks to align companies’ conduct with climate policy objectives. ‘Corporate sustainability’ is the flag under which the emerging debate sails.
The project aims to investigate to what extent company law can function as a vehicle for sustainable economic activity in a German-Polish comparative perspective. Sustainability is an important requirement stemming from both national and European regulatory instruments for shaping the economy and financial markets.
The question of what purpose companies should serve is among the central ones within the doctrine and case-law of corporate law. Questioning the, once dominant, pure shareholder value approach, and taking into consideration the interests of other stakeholders such as employees, creditors and consumers as well as climate and environmental protection are being considered by legislators in different jurisdictions. The project explores these developments and thereby looks beyond the dichotomy of shareholder and stakeholder model. Just considering the two variants is both limited and misleading from the perspective of corporate sustainability.
In Polish and German, as well as of most other EU member states, company law addresses the question of company purpose through the legal concept of the company interest. This core concept of company law needs to be re-evaluated to effectively meet the current ecological, social and economic challenges that arise under the umbrella of sustainability in an international and intergenerational context.
Celem projektu jest podniesienie potencjału instytucjonalnego UW poprzez wsparcie kadry wnioskodawcy, zaangażowanej w przyjmowanie studentów oraz akademików z zagranicy
Instytucja finansująca:
Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej
Projekt ma na celu zbadanie zjawiska zróżnicowanej integracji w Unii Europejskiej i jego wpływu na stosunki polsko-niemieckie. Zróżnicowana integracja jest definiowana jako proces, w którym nie wszystkie państwa członkowskie UE chcą lub mogą współpracować w określonych obszarach polityki integracyjnej, objętych traktatami stanowiącymi UE. Podłożem badań jest postępujące zróżnicowanie w UE, które nabrało znaczenia w następstwie Brexitu oraz odgrywa coraz większą rolę w debacie nad przyszłością integracji europejskiej. Niemcy i Polska są odpowiednio - największym w pełni zintegrowanym i - częściowo zintegrowanym państwem członkowskim UE (np. Unia Gospodarcza i Walutowa). Zgodnie z tym relacjom niemiecko-polskim należy przypisać szczególne znaczenie w postępowaniu ze skutkami omawianego zjawiska.
Kierownik projektu: dr Aleksander Grebieniow
Konkurs: SONATA 15 NCN
Przyznana kwota: 221 860 PLN
Rozpoczęcie projektu: 2020-07-14
Zakończenie projektu: 2024-07-13
Kierownik: Gniewomir Jan WycichowskiKuchta