Przeżytki ustawodawstwa wyznaniowego w polskim systemie prawnym
Pre-War Religious Legislation in Contemporary Polish Legal System

Summary/Abstract: Nowadays there are a few regulations and acts which are still formally in force in the legal system in Poland: the Regulation of the President of the Republic of Poland of 22 March 1928 on the Relation of the State to the Eastern Orthodox Church of the Old- Believers, having no ecclesiastical hierarchy, the Act of 17 March 1932 on the Contributions to the Catholic Church, the Act of 21 April 1936 on the Relation of the State to the Muslim Religious Union in the Republic of Poland, the Act of 21 April 1936 on the Relation of the State to the Karaim Religious Association in the Republic of Poland and the Act of 25 March 1938 on the Manufacture and Trade of Devotional Articles and the Objects of Worship. The compliance of these acts with the Constitution of 1997 raises a number of concerns, what is more, they contain a number of anachronisms. Currently, those acts represent signs of isolated phenomena in their home jurisdiction. They exist in isolation from their original historical context, axiological and constitutional grounds, especially in the relations between the state and religious denominations. Their ratio legis is at present in the vast majority out of date. It can be assumed that the standards resulting from the enlisted above acts and regulations have already expired either totally or partially due to desuetudo. In behavioural terms the acts of 1932 and of 1938 currently no longer exist and the legislative acts of 1928 and of 1936 do not exist in a substantial extent. The reference to the pre-war religious legislation in the current legal system is very limited. It is not used in practice except from certain regulations of an organizational nature, concerning the legal personality of the right of religious denominations and their organizational units. It is urgently necessary either to repeal these acts or implement necessary amendments to them. Their validity interferes with the principle of the citizens’ trust in the state. Moreover, it does not serve properly the development of proper confessional communities and even undermines the authority of the state.

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