Funkcje wspólnot gruntowych w świetle badań empirycznych

Common lands are special kind of institution of agricultural law, structurally similar to co-ownership in fractional parts. Its content contains the right to collectively possess the land by entities residing or having homestead in the locality of the common land. Common lands were subject to very different legal regulations whose axiology was justified by the moods of a given historical moment. The normative function of the current Act of 29 June 1963 on the development of common lands was justified by the assumptions of the agricultural policy of the period, i.e. indirect socialization. The transformation of the political system in Poland after 1989, followed by the accession of Poland to the European Union on May 1, 2004 under the Accession Treaty, resulted in the introduction of a number of changes in law, politics, economy and society that outdated the objectives that guided of the legislator in 1963. The purpose of this article is to confront the normative functions of land communities with real functions in the light of empirical research.