Introduction to Polish Law

The course pertains to present foreign students with basic information on Polish law. The participants will obtain information on specific features of Polish legal system, the sources of law, organization of courts (general part – 8 h), civil law (8 h), as well as criminal law (4 h)

I. Constitutional law and Polish legal system (8 hrs)

1. Historical Polish constitutions

2. The new Constitution of the Republic of Poland 1997

a) structure of the Constitution

b) sovereignty

c) republican mode of government

d) unitary state

e) subsidiarity

f) direct democracy and representativenessv

g) political pluralism

3. Constitutional system of sources of law

a) constitution

b) statutes

c) ratified international agreements

d) regulations

e) acts of local law

f) referendum and local referendum

4. Legal professions in Poland

I. Introduction to Polish civil law (8 hrs)

2. Law of persons and legal acts

a) natural and legal persons

b) personal interests protection

c) Form of legal acts

d) Defects of legal acts

e) contract formation under PCC

f) Limitation of claims

g) representation

3. Property law

a) Ownership and co-ownership

c) acquisition and protection of ownership

d) perpetual usufruct

e) limited proprietary rights

4. Law of Obligations

a) Sources, creditor and debtor

b) Joint and several laibility

c) freedom of contracts

d) law of damages (damage, casual link, contractual liability regime, tort liability regime, compensation)

III. Criminal Law (4 hrs)

1. rules of criminal responsibility

2. penalties

3. most important institutions of criminal law

Basic: “Handbook of Polish Law”, ed. Wojciech Dajczak, Andrzej

Szwarc, Paweł Wiliński, Warszawa, Bielsko-Biała 2011;

Additional: “A Synthesis of Polish Law”, ed. Tadeusz Guz, Maria

R Palubska, Jan Gluchowski, part. 1 & 2, Frankfurt am Main 2009

“Introduction to Polish law” ed. Anna Wyrozumska, Łodź 2005

Students will be graded on basis of their results at the compulsory test

(single choice test, i.e. with one correct answer): W1, W2, W3, U1, U2, K1, K2.

Scale of grading:

fail- 20 pts or less (50% or less)

satisfactory- 11 pts (55%)

satisfactory plus- 13 pts (65%)

good - 15 pts (75%)

good plus- 17 pts (85%)

very good- 19 pts (95%)

not applicable