This file is a copy of a dissertation conducted on LGBT rights at the European level and in Poland. It provides a brief outline of the development of LGBT rights in Europe (ch. 2) and Poland (ch. 3), and then explores the influence of European levels of goverance on LGBT rights in Poland (main section: ch. 4). It finds that any meaningful, positive developments cannot be forced on Poland via European laws or courts. Instead, softer approaches aimed at changing societal attitudes have been, and should continue to be, more successful at inducing change.

It should be noted that there is a somewhat similar piece of work by O'Dwyer and Schwartz, which was published after this dissertation was written. Although I received a copy of this work and made some attempt to incorporate it in, I feel, due to severe time constraints, I did not do this adequetely. My apologies to the authors.