Foundations of Law: The Polish Perspective

 “Foundations of Law: The Polish Perspective” covers a range of issues forming the core of academic legal education in Poland. It provides basic knowledge about Polish law and Polish legal culture, and constitutes an innovative introduction to the European approach to the concept of law, legal reasoning, recent challenges and the problems of legal development.

 The book contains nineteen chapters, the aim of each being to give an understandable presentation and discussion of a specific area of law. The early chapters present an overview of the historical foundations of Polish law and the Polish theory and philosophy of law. The following chapters address private, public, criminal and economic law as is applied in Poland. Diagrams have been included to increase clarity of the text and some contributions are supplemented with case studies. Further reading in other languages recommended by the authors of individual chapters will facilitate a more in-depth understanding of Polish law and Polish legal culture as a part of the tradition of civil law, which is currently also a reflection of the legislative activity of the European Union.

This publication is the joint work of members of the Faculty of Law and Administration, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań. The Faculty is one of the largest and best law schools in Poland and has been consistently rated as one of the best in the country. The Faculty was established in its original form in 1919, at the same time as the University itself. The Faculty meets the requirements of contemporary trends in higher education by conducting high level research. The academic staff recognize the demands of social processes and seek to create value for society, science, culture and the economy. Consequently, the results of the research conducted at the University at local, international and interdisciplinary level may be applied in practice.

Abbreviations ......................................................................................................................23
Preface ..................................................................................................................................27
Historical foundations of Polish law (Wojciech Dajczak, Piotr M. Pilarczyk) .........31
1. History of Polish public law (Piotr M. Pilarczyk) .....................................................32
1.1. Creation of the state. The First Polish Republic ...............................................32
1.1.1. Evolution of the system .............................................................................32
1.1.2. Pre-partition public law ............................................................................36
1.2. Partitions ................................................................................................................37
1.2.1. Forms of Polish statehood ........................................................................37
1.2.2. Public law of the partitions .......................................................................39
1.3. The Second Polish Republic ............................................................................... 40
1.3.1. Political system of the state ...................................................................... 40
1.3.2. Public law ....................................................................................................41
1.4. World War II and post-War Poland .................................................................. 43
1.4.1. World War II .............................................................................................. 43
1.4.2. People’s Poland .......................................................................................... 43
1.4.3. Public law of the totalitarian state .......................................................... 45
1.4.4. Public law of the transition period ......................................................... 46
1.5. Conclusions ...........................................................................................................47
2. Historical development of private law in Poland (Wojciech Dajczak) ................. 48
2.1. Sources of private law in Polish territories ...................................................... 48
2.1.1. Law in the feudal period .......................................................................... 48
2.1.2. Idea of codification of private law in Poland before 1795 ....................49
2.1.3. ALR, Code civil, ABGB and BGB in Polish territories in the 19th and 20th centuries ...........................................49
2.1.4. Polish codification of private law in 1919–1939 .................................... 50
2.1.5. Unification of private law in 1945–1946 .................................................51
2.1.6. Development of the law in 1946–1989 ....................................................52
2.1.7. Changes in Polish private law in 1990–2020 .........................................53
2.2. Impact of ius commune and civil tradition on private law in Poland .................................................... 54
2.3. Fundamental question of civil law in the light of the development of Polish law ..................................... 56
2.3.1. General part of civil law ........................................................................... 56
2.3.2. List of rights in rem ....................................................................................57
2.3.3. Concept of ownership ................................................................................59
2.3.4. Sources of obligations .............................................................................. 60
2.3.5. Freedom of contract ..................................................................................61
2.3.6. Model of delictual liability .......................................................................62
2.3.7. Model of statutory succession .................................................................63
2.3.8. Limits of freedom of testation ................................................................ 64
2.4. History and style of Polish private law .............................................................65
References .......................................................................................................................... 66
Polish theory and philosophy of law: An overview of the origins, ideas and people (Marek Smolak) ........................71
1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................71
2. General characteristics of the basic trends and subject of research of contemporary Polish theory and philosophy of law ...........................................72
2.1. Subjects of research in the years 1918–1989 ......................................................73
2.2. Research problems and development trends in the Polish theory and philosophy of law in the years 1989–2020 .................................................78
3. Leading figures in the Polish theory of law ............................................................. 80
4. Key achievements of the Polish theory of law ......................................................... 86
4.1. Poznań School of Legal Theory ......................................................................... 86
4.2. Wróblewski’s theory of legal interpretation .....................................................92
4.3. Woleński and Opałek’s concept of a non-linguistic legal norm ....................95
5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 96
References ...........................................................................................................................97
Polish constitutional law (Agata Hauser, Hanna Suchocka) .....................................101
1. Constitutional development (evolution) – constitutional heritage in Poland (Hanna Suchocka) ................... 102
2. The essence of the constitution (Hanna Suchocka) ...............................................105
3. Constitutional principles (Hanna Suchocka) .........................................................106
3.1. The principle of constitutional supremacy and constitutional justice .......107
3.2. The principle of national sovereignty ..............................................................109
3.3. The principle of independence and sovereignty of the state ........................110
3.4. The principle of the democratic state ruled by law ........................................111
3.5. The principle of the separation of powers .......................................................113
3.6. The principle of the recognition of a civic society .........................................114
3.7. The principle of inherent human dignity .......................................................115
3.8. The principle of the social market economy ..................................................115
3.9. The principle of decentralization (local government) ..................................116
4. Freedoms, rights and obligations (Agata Hauser) .................................................116
4.1. General principles ...............................................................................................116
4.2. Limitations ...........................................................................................................118
4.3. Limitations at times of extraordinary measures ............................................118
4.4. Guarantees of freedoms and rights ..................................................................119
5. Sources of law (Agata Hauser) ..................................................................................121
5.1. Universally binding law and acts of an internal nature ................................121
5.2. Hierarchy of domestic legal acts .......................................................................121
5.3. International law ................................................................................................ 123
5.4. EU law .................................................................................................................. 124
6. Electoral law and direct democracy (Agata Hauser) ............................................ 125
7. Legislature (Agata Hauser) ...................................................................................... 126
7.1. Structure, term of office, status of deputies and senators ............................ 126
7.2. Legislative process ..............................................................................................129
7.3. Other functions of the parliament .................................................................. 130
8. The Executive (Agata Hauser) ..................................................................................131
8.1. The President of Poland .....................................................................................131
8.2. The Council of Ministers ...................................................................................133
9. The Judiciary (Agata Hauser) ...................................................................................135
9.1. General remarks ..................................................................................................135
9.2. Courts ...................................................................................................................136
9.3. The Constitutional Tribunal .............................................................................138
9.4. The Tribunal of State ..........................................................................................140
10. Current developments and the EU rule of law procedures (Agata Hauser, Hanna Suchocka) ...............141
References .........................................................................................................................143
Civil law (Jędrzej Jerzmanowski, Jakub Kępiński, Marian Kępiński, Adam Olejniczak, Tomasz Sokołowski) ...................147
Part 1. General provisions of the Civil Code (Marian Kępiński, updated by Jakub Kępiński) .................... 150
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 150
2. Structure of the Civil Code .......................................................................................152
3. Relationship of the Civil Code to other branches of private law ........................153
4. Subjects of civil law relations .................................................................................. 154
4.1. Natural persons ................................................................................................. 154
4.2. Limited capacity ................................................................................................ 154
4.3. Identification of natural persons .................................................................... 156
4.4. Protection of personal rights ........................................................................... 156
4.5. Legal persons ......................................................................................................157
5. Legal transactions .....................................................................................................159
5.1. Formation of contracts ......................................................................................160
5.1.1. Offer and acceptance ..............................................................................160
5.1.2. Auction or tender ....................................................................................162
5.1.3. Negotiations .............................................................................................164
5.2. Form of legal transaction ..................................................................................164
5.3. Defective legal transactions ..............................................................................165
6. Representation ...........................................................................................................166
7. Prescription ................................................................................................................167
Part 2. Property law (Tomasz Sokołowski) ...................................................................169
1. The concept, nature and structure of property law ...............................................169
2. Sources of property law .............................................................................................170
3. Things and the division of things ............................................................................171
3.1. Things as autonomous objects .........................................................................171
3.2. Things as physical objects .................................................................................171
3.3. Benefits and fruits ...............................................................................................172
4. Ownership ...................................................................................................................172
4.1. Privatization ........................................................................................................173
4.2. Ownership of land ..............................................................................................174
4.3. Transfer and loss of ownership .........................................................................174
5. Co-ownership .............................................................................................................175
6. Autonomous ownership of an apartment ..............................................................176
7. Protection of ownership ............................................................................................177
8. Perpetual usufruct ......................................................................................................178
9. Limited property rights – general remarks ............................................................179
9.1. Usufruct ...............................................................................................................180
9.2. Servitudes .............................................................................................................181
9.2.1. Predial servitude ......................................................................................181
9.2.2. Servitude of transmission .......................................................................182
9.3. Cooperative member’s ownership right to an apartment .............................183
9.4. Pledge ....................................................................................................................184
9.5. Mortgage ..............................................................................................................185
9.5.1. Classification of mortgage types ............................................................186
9.5.2. Extinguishment of mortgages ................................................................186
10. Land and mortgage registers ....................................................................................187
10.1. Composition of the register .............................................................................187
10.2. Principles governing the registers ..................................................................188
11. Possession ....................................................................................................................188
11.1. Types of possession ............................................................................................189
11.2. Protection of the possessor’s rights .................................................................189
Part 3. Law of obligations (Adam Olejniczak, Jędrzej Jerzmanowski) .....................191
1. Sources of the law of obligations ..............................................................................191
2. Definition, structure, nature and types of obligations .........................................191
3. Emergence of obligations ..........................................................................................194
4. Due performance of obligations ...............................................................................195
5. Non-performance or improper performance of an obligation, breach of contract .........................198
5.1. General remarks ..................................................................................................198
5.2. General rules on liability for non-performance or improper performance of obligations .................198
5.3. Delay on the part of the debtor ........................................................................ 199
5.4. Impossibility of performance ............................................................................201
5.5. The creditor’s delay .............................................................................................201
6. Contractual obligations ............................................................................................ 202
6.1. The principle of contractual freedom ............................................................. 202
6.2. Standard forms ................................................................................................... 205
6.3. Preliminary contract ......................................................................................... 206
6.4. Contractual penalty ........................................................................................... 207
6.5. Down-payment .................................................................................................. 208
6.6. Consumer contracts .......................................................................................... 208
7. Unjust enrichment ..................................................................................................... 209
8. Law of delict ................................................................................................................210
9. Obligation to redress damage ...................................................................................213
10. Changing the creditor or the debtor ........................................................................217
11. The creditor’s protection in the case of the debtor’s insolvency (fraudulent action) .......................................219
12. Special contracts .........................................................................................................219
References .........................................................................................................................221
Part 4. Law of succession (Tomasz Sokołowski) .......................................................... 223
1. The concept, nature, structure and sources of the succession law ..................... 223
2. Concept and composition of the succession estate .............................................. 224
3. Concept and premises of succession ....................................................................... 226
4. Statutory succession .................................................................................................. 228
5. Will .............................................................................................................................. 230
6. Appointment of a successor ......................................................................................232
7. The situation of persons near the decedent ........................................................... 234
8. Accepting or disclaiming an estate ......................................................................... 234
9. The protection of succession .....................................................................................235
10. Legitim .........................................................................................................................235
11. Liability for succession debts ....................................................................................237
12. Succession estate, transfer and division of the estate ........................................... 238
Part 5. Family law (Tomasz Sokołowski) ...................................................................... 238
1. The concept, nature and structure of family law .................................................. 238
2. Sources of family law ................................................................................................ 241
2.1. Polish regulations .............................................................................................. 241
2.2. International law ................................................................................................ 242
2.3. Protection of the family and children’s rights ............................................... 243
3. Family and marriage ................................................................................................. 243
4. Regulation of proprietary matters .......................................................................... 245
4.1. Joint property rights .......................................................................................... 246
4.2. Personal property .............................................................................................. 247
4.3. Modification of the system and liability ........................................................ 248
5. Affiliation of the child .............................................................................................. 248
6. Relations between parents and children ................................................................ 249
7. Adoption ......................................................................................................................253