Projekt ustawy o unifikacji prawa w Polsce na tle powojennych koncepcji unifikacyjnych
The Draft Act on the Unification of Law in Poland against the Background of Post-War Unification Concepts

Summary/Abstract: Post-war Poland as a result of border changes and the resettlement of millions of citizensfrom the so-called Eastern Borderlands found itself in a complicated legal situation. The new real-ity forced the communist authorities to take urgent measures to standardize the various legal sys-tems functioning in the interwar period and resulting from the partitions. As part of the resolutionof the Council of Ministers of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland of 12 June1945, activities aimed at the unification of the law were initiated. Complex issues, post-war difficul-ties and the imposition of very short deadlines were associated with organizational difficulties and,consequently, the necessity to extend the time for the implementation of the unification process bythe Ministry of Justice assigned to this task. In the course of the work, other concepts of unifyingthe law in post-war Poland also appeared. An interesting, and at the same time little-known, alterna-tive proposal in this regard was the Draft Act on the Unification of Law by the Ministry of Admin-istration, aimed at a rapid general unification of the block method. The ministry’s postulates werethe subject of arrangements and inter-ministerial conference as well as discussions in the contem-porary literature. The final content of the draft as a result of a vote was not adopted by the otherministries. The project was deemed inadequate to the stage of work at that time and it was decided tomaintain the current method of detailed unification. As a result, the civil law was unified on the basisof a dozen or so decrees. The Ministry of Justice also adopted decrees unifying court proceedings incivil cases, decrees partly in the field of administrative law and additional decrees. On the occasionof the success of the completion of unification works, on 13 December 1946, a nationwide academywas held with the participation of the highest state authorities. From 1 January 1947, uniform civillaw was in force throughout Poland.

• Details
• Contents