Legal Eye: The right to sell arms

Although words are a politician's weapon of choice, I'm not referring to the accusations bandied about in the Sejm and Senate in the latest round of inter-party criticism/witch-hunts/finger-pointing. Rather, I'm talking about munitions, such as tanks, guns, hand-grenades and the like.

As a law-abiding and peace-loving person, I am relieved when I recall the numerous regulations controlling the production and sales of weapons. However, given that nearly every step in the production and sale process is regulated (and by different administrative authorities), I can imagine that the arms industry may be less than enthused about extensive regulations.

Weapons of mass production

Don't even think about producing weapons unless you've obtained a concession from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The application process requires that you provide abundant information about yourself and your business, including statements that none of your directors or shareholders has a criminal record and that your company is not on the bad-debtor black list. And any number of statutory reasons, including a catch-all of "threatening the defensive ability or safety of the nation," may be used to revoke a concession or deny its issuance.

If a concession is issued, it isn't forever. The maximum length of a concession is 50 years.

Firearms and fireworks

Trading in weapons is also highly regulated. To begin with, you also need a concession from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Once in business, you may only sell to certain authorized persons, such as people holding gun permits or authorized police or armed services representatives. In any case, sales must be documented and reported to the proper authorities.

Despite all of this, a couple of exceptions exist for sales of pyrotechnic materials (such as fireworks). No, all of those little kiosks did not need to obtain a concession to sell fireworks. However, an importer of fireworks needs a concession. Sellers of fireworks, however, should be checking identification cards to make sure that they only sell to adults.

Foreign customers

Given the regulations described so far, it should not come as a surprise to hear that yet another permit is required to export weapons from Poland.

This one comes from the Ministry of Economy. The application requires not only information about the producer and the weapons proposed for export, but also the importer and the planned use of the weapons.

The exporter is required to ensure that the weapons will not be used for any illegal or inhumane purposes, such as human rights violations, threatening peace or stabilization in a region, terrorism, or in general any use other than for the defense and safety of the importer's nation.

As with the concessions for production and sales of weapons, the law lists numerous reasons for denying or revoking a permit, including for reasons of Poland's security or a risk that the weapons may be put to non-declared uses or re-exported to black-listed countries.

Judith Gliniecki is the managing partner of Rymar and Partners