General information
Dobrochna Maria Bach-Golecka (born 26 July 1972 in Gdańsk) – Polish lawyer, doctor habilitata of legal sciences, since 2020 university professor at the University of Warsaw, doctor of theological sciences. Deputy Dean for Scientific Research and International Cooperation of the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Warsaw (2018-2020); since 2019 Head of the Centre for Canon Law, Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw.
Ad hoc judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (2016-2018). In November 2023, she received a recommendation from the Council of Ministers for the position of judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union (term 2021-2027). In December 2023, the recommendation was withdrawn.
Education and academic activity
In 1986, she graduated from the Stanisław Moniuszko Primary State Music School in Sopot (class with transverse flute and piano). A graduate of the Polish Navy III High School in Gdynia (mathematics and physics profile, with English as the language of instruction). In 1996, she graduated with second place in law studies at the University of Gdańsk, and also completed theological studies at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin.
A graduate of the School of Social Sciences at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. She studied at Maastricht University within the Tempus programme (1994), at the University of Oxford (Wolfson College) within the Open Society Institute & Foreign and Commonwealth Office Chevening Scholarship programme (1998-1999). She completed research internships at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna within the Robert Bosch Junior Visiting Fellowship (2001), at the University of Cambridge at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law (2002, and again in 2008-2009).
In 2003, she defended her doctoral thesis entitled Prawo do demokratycznych rządów w świetle prawa międzynarodowego (The Right to Democratic Governance in Light of International Law) in the field of legal sciences (her supervisor was Prof. Władysław Czapliński), and in 2008 she obtained a doctorate in theological sciences for her thesis entitled Solidarność jako zasada społeczna w nauczaniu Kościoła po Soborze Watykańskim II (Solidarity as a Social Principle in the Teaching of the Church after the Second Vatican Council) (her supervisor was Bishop Prof. Andrzej F. Dziuba). In 2016, she obtained the academic degree of doctor habilitata of legal sciences based on her academic achievements and a work entitled Mobilny pacjent. Korzystanie z transgranicznej opieki zdrowotnej w prawie Unii Europejskiej (The Mobile Patient. The Use of Cross-Border Healthcare in European Union Law).
She lectured at national universities (Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Wyższa Szkoła Biznesu in Nowy Sącz, Koźmiński University) and foreign universities (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv). Since 2005, she has been working at the Department of European Law at the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw.
She served as vice-chairperson of the Student Parliament of the University of Gdańsk (1994-1995). She is a member of national and international academic organisations; including the Polish Group of the International Law Association, the European Association of Health Law – as part of the advisory panel, the ReNEUAL (Research Network on European Administrative Law) Association, the Polish Bioethical Society, and the Association of Polish Canonists.
Activity in public administration
She completed internships at the British Home Office in London (1995). In the years 1997-2005, she worked as a civil servant in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, cooperating with the Secretary of State, Government Plenipotentiary for State System Reforms, Professor Michał Kulesza, on the introduction of the second stage of decentralisation reform (districts, provinces), as deputy director of the Secretariat of the Political Cabinet of Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, and cooperating with the Secretary of State, Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Status of Women and Men, Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka.
She participated in the work of the Appeal Bioethical Committee at the Minister of Health (since 2016), and was a member of the Advisory Team for the Protection of Human Rights in the Context of the Development of Biological and Medical Sciences at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (2016-2019). She worked as an expert in the Office of International Affairs and the European Union of the Chancellery of the Senate of the Republic of Poland (2016-2018).
She served as disciplinary ombudsman for students and doctoral candidates at the University of Warsaw (2017-2018), and then as disciplinary ombudsman at the Minister of Education and Science (term 2023-2026).
Awards and distinctions
Source content authored in Polish; reproduced verbatim from the Faculty's directory.