Spatial planning law stands apart within the legal system. Unlike most branches of law, it cannot rely on legal reasoning alone. Planning law is shaped by architecture, geography, environmental constraints, and social conflict. This dependence on extra-legal actors is not a marginal complication but a defining feature that continually tests the coherence and authority of law in the planning domain. The lecture asks what law can realistically achieve when it is expected to organise space. It exposes the tensions between legal norms and planning practice, showing how national planning traditions shape interpretation and outcomes. It argues that persistent failures of planning law are not accidental, but structural. It then compares planning systems, revealing how different legal approaches enable or constrain the very possibility of planning space effectively.
Maciej J. Nowak, PhD, is Associate Professor at the West Pomeranian University of Technology, where he heads the Real Estate Department.
He is a member of the Presidium Committee for Spatial Economy and Regional Planning of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He has authored over 200 publications, including more than 30 monographs, and has participated in numerous research projects funded by the National Science Centre, Polish ministries, central institutions, and regional and local governments. He has contributed to government teams developing reforms in Poland's spatial planning system and is the author of widely recognised legal commentaries on planning regulations. As a legal advisor, he has participated in numerous court and administrative cases relating to spatial planning. His research and projects involve extensive international collaboration, including with colleagues in the
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Ghana, and Germany.
