Will treasure hunting become easier? President Andrzej Duda will decide

It will depend on President Andrzej Duda’s decision whether searching for items using, for example, a metal detector will still require the conservator’s consent. Thanks to the slowness of the ruling coalition, and to the delight of 100,000 amateur searchers, the president can throw the law postponing changes into the trash, without a veto or referring it to the Constitutional Tribunal. How is this possible?

In July 2023, under the PiS government, a law was passed that was supposed to liberalize treasure hunting. This is the Act of July 13, 2023 amending the Act on the protection and care of monuments (Journal of Laws, item 1904), which is still waiting to enter into force. This is scheduled to take place on May 1, 2024.

According to it searches using e.g. a metal detector will be able to be conducted by an adult, provided that they have the consent of the owner and holder of the property and after reporting the search to the register kept by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The notification is to be made via a mobile application, which the ministry should make available.

Read more about what the act changes: Treasure hunting will be easy and the rewards for the seekers will be great

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This would make treasure hunting much easier for amateurs. Currently, the search for hidden or abandoned movable monuments, including archaeological monuments, using all types of electronic and technical devices and diving equipment, requires a permit from the provincial conservator of monuments.

It is worth recalling that In the previous term, the Senate was against the changes and recommended the rejection of the new regulations because it believed that they would not civilize the activities of monument seekers and, at the same time, could weaken the protection of national heritage. Such arguments were presented by the scientific community, including the Scientific Association of Polish Archaeologists. The seekers of valuable items themselves assessed the changes differently and were happy with the PiS law. We wrote about this conflict between archaeologists and amateur searchers here.

Coalition bill of October 15

However, the current ruling coalition has a different opinion than PiS and the treasure hunters. This is why At the last session, the Sejm passed an act postponing the entry into force of liberalized regulations by one year. Thus, it would be easier to search for treasures, but only from May 1, 2025.

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Such a postponement of the effective date is still more advantageous than the original project of the ruling coalition MPs, which assumed the complete repeal of the act. They emphasized that the real goal of the regulations adopted during the PiS government is to far-reaching liberalize the search for hidden or abandoned monuments using technical and electronic devices, which poses a real threat to cultural heritage. Moreover, due to numerous inaccuracies in the content of the regulations, there would be difficulties in their application in practice. However, an amendment was tabled in the Sejm which, instead of repealing the act that was not yet in force, extended its vacatio legis.

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Everything is in the president’s hands

On Thursday, the Senate did not propose any amendments to the billso that it does not reach the Sejm again. It meets only on April 24. Then the Sejm would have to take up the matter again, which would significantly extend the legislative process. Meanwhile the act is to enter into force on May 1, 2024, i.e. in less than two weeks. It would have to be published in the Journal of Laws on that day at the latest. Introducing amendments would mean that the act would not end the legislative process on May 1. — The delay will make it pointless, because the effect it was supposed to prevent will come true – the Act of July 13, 2023 amending the Act on the protection and care of monuments will come into force – points out the Senate’s chief legislator, Maciej Telec.

Therefore, the Senate Committee on Culture and Media recommended that the Senate adopt it without amendments, and senators did so. Despite this the coalition may fail to implement the plan. Even if the bill immediately reaches President Andrzej Duda’s desk, he may block it. And he does not have to veto it or refer it to the Constitutional Tribunal. It’s just that he doesn’t find time to sign it. The president has as many as 21 days to sign it. Even if the bill reached his desk on Thursday, April 18, this deadline will expire only on May 9. And on that day, the regulations adopted by PiS will come into force.

Author: Jolanta Ojczyk, head of the Legal Department of Business Insider Polska