A Civil Code Outside of Reality—The Polish Codification of the Year 1964, Its Origin, Development and Future

Abstract

Compared with the major European codification, the Polish civil code in force from the year 1964 has just passed the line of 50 years. However, the Polish civil code has been adopted in a quite specific time, during which the country was ruled by a communist regime. As the change of the political environment and the improvement of the new technology, the civil codes of the communist countries were facing a fundamental challenge with the reintroduction of the free market economy. With the unique codification history, the Polish civil code from the year 1964 is still in force and albeit the new codification is also envisaged. In this paper, the author wants to discuss how this is possible and where the limits of the innovation of this code are.