Rector’s Decision Concerning the Recognition of a Student’s Act as a Lesser Disciplinary Breach

Abstract

Summary The article aims to draw attention to selected issues, inter alia imperfect legal solutions and potential interpretational discrepancies, generated by the present spin on the penalty of admonishment imposed on students by a rector for a lesser disciplinary breach of rules and regulations. The analysis conducted with the use of the formal-dogmatic method leads to a conclusion that de lege ferenda the legislator should clearly determine the legal character of the penalty of admonishment, as well as a rector’s procedural ‘decision’ on its imposition. The findings also indicate that a rector’s decision to impose a penalty of admonishment for a student’s act recognised in concerto as a lesser disciplinary breach of rules and regulations is not absolute in nature and, thus, it is difficult to treat it as a discretionary or arbitrary one. Analogically, it should be assumed that while classifying a disciplinary breach of rules and regulations as a lesser breach of law, it is of extraordinary importance to refer to the content of Article 1 § 2 CC and the provisions of Article 115 § 2 CC. As a result, it should also be indicated that what is especially important in order to explain the essence of a lesser disciplinary breach of rules and regulations is the output of the doctrine as well as penal case law, which tries to explain a concept of a ‘lesser offence’.