The Draft Act on the Unification of Law in Poland against the Background of Post-War Unification Concepts

Abstract

Post-war Poland as a result of border changes and the resettlement of millions of citizens from the so-called Eastern Borderlands found itself in a complicated legal situation. The new reality forced the communist authorities to take urgent measures to standardize the various legal systems functioning in the interwar period and resulting from the partitions. As part of the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland of 12 June 1945, activities aimed at the unification of the law were initiated. Complex issues, post-war difficulties 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 by the Ministry of Justice assigned to this task. In the course of the work, other concepts of unifying the law in post-war Poland also appeared. An interesting, and at the same time little-known, alternative proposal in this regard was the Draft Act on the Unification of Law by the Ministry of Administration, aimed at a rapid general unification of the block method. The ministry’s postulates were the subject of arrangements and inter-ministerial conference as well as discussions in the contemporary literature. The final content of the draft as a result of a vote was not adopted by the other ministries. The project was deemed inadequate to the stage of work at that time and it was decided to maintain the current method of detailed unification. As a result, the civil law was unified on the basis of a dozen or so decrees. The Ministry of Justice also adopted decrees unifying court proceedings in civil cases, decrees partly in the field of administrative law and additional decrees. On the occasion of the success of the completion of unification works, on 13 December 1946, a nationwide academy was held with the participation of the highest state authorities. From 1 January 1947, uniform civil law was in force throughout Poland.