Gender Recognition in Poland – Problems and Propositions of Legislative Changes

Abstract

The aim of the article is to showcase the problems caused by the way Polish legal system handles gender recognition procedure. It contains a short summary of the history of the gender recognition procedure in Poland, as well as the analysis of the rulings of the Supreme Court regarding the matter. The author criticizes the current state of the law, in which there is no legal act regulating the issue and the procedure is purely based on the action for establishment along with remedies for the protection of personal rights. By presenting the inconsistencies within this solution, as well as pointing out the issues that arise from using the action for establishment for gender in practice, the author shows the need to regulate the situation of not only transgender, but also intersex people and gives her own proposition for legislative changes, while also referring to the regulations proposed by the bill on the matter of gender recognition proposed in 2013. She mainly advocates for gender recognition to take place by an administrative procedure, not a judicial one, while also proposing a possible solution for the issue of requiring the termination of marriage from people applying for gender recognition.