Własność i zarząd urządzeniami wodnymi w orzecznictwie sądów administracyjnych

The analysis undertaken in this article covers two issues: the legal status of water facilities and the methods of management of those devices that are owned by the State Treasury. The first one has not been the subject of interest of legal sciences for a long time. The doubts related to it were present in legal debate only through the case law of the administrative courts. The ground-breaking importance is held mainly by the judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of 16 January 2009. It is the first judgment that settled on the legal status of the water facilities. The Administrative Court in Warsaw opined that the weir on the river was a part of the soil surface covered with fl owing water (river), however the Supreme Administrative Court questioned this view by affirming that such devices were subject to separate ownership and thus formed an exception to the principle of superficies solo cedit. Equally controversial is the governance of the water facilities owned by the State Treasury. The provisions of the Act on Water Law are inconsistent and incoherent. The problems arising in this context remain largely unnoticed in the case law of the administrative courts. The article is summed up by complex de lege ferenda conclusions, designed to remove incoherent and inconsistent provisions of the Water Law.