Search results

Socialisation of private law in the second half of the 19th century brought about a new approach to a civil process and its purpose. The main characteristics of the evolution of the civil procedure in the 19th and 20th centuries was limited autonomy of the parties to a process. This limitation was introduced to ensure fair, expedient and cost-effective judgment. A tendency to replace the principle of an adversarial trial with elements of an inquisitorial trial was observed in civil law as well as common law systems. Relevant changes were fi rst made in the Franz Klein Austrian code of civil procedure, followed by departures from the formal truth in the civil process implemented in the system in Germany, Hungary, the Swiss cantons of Zurich and Bern, in Poland, and later, in the second half of the 20th century, also in France. In the common law system, the reform of 1999 ascertained judges a number of discretionary powers to help them establish the facts in a civil proceeding. Those changes added the public element in the civil procedure, but the very idea of a private process and the protection of private interests has been maintained. The totalitarian regimes which emerged in some European states considerably distorted the process of shaping the relationship between the state and the individual. In the socialist civil proceeding, the principle ne eat iudex ultra petita partium was replaced with ex offi cio ultra petita, which was a novelty characteristic of the civil procedure of totalitarian states. The departure from an adversarial principle in the socialist civil process was not much different from the general tendencies observed in the civil procedure in West European states. After the political transformations and change of the regime, former states of the Eastern Bloc sought to signifi cantly increase the autonomy of the parties in a civil process. However, as experience of the Western European states shows, certain public elements must be taken into account in a civil procedure if the European Convention on Human Rights is to be observed.

Basic novelties in the civil proceeding in the Polish People's Republic of a socialist nature appeared in the act from 20 July 1950 changing the code of the civil proceeding from 1932. Changes of the pre-war code of the civil proceeding (1932) concerned four areas of issues: the system of appeal means, the rule of the material truth and the rule of prosecutor's availability and participation in the civil proceeding. In justification to the amendment of the regulations on the civil proceeding (1950) the Russian models were directly referred to. The works on a new code of the civil proceeding started at the end of 1951. Regulations of the future code of the civil proceeding were to be based on socialist rules while a direct model was to be a Czech-Slovak code of the civil proceeding from 1950. It was until September 1952, namely the time allotted to the submission of a new socialist code of the civil proceeding to the Presidium of the Government that just its general part was designed. The first project of a new code of the civil proceeding was finally prepared in 1955. In fact, it thwarted the achievements of the Polish science within the scope of the civil proceeding. The project solutions underwent criticism and codification of the civil procedure, above all, its assumptions, revived again after a political turn in 1956.

Socialisation of private law in the second half of the 19th century brought about a new approach to a civil process and its purpose. The main characteristics of the evolution of the civil procedure in the 19th and 20th centuries was limited autonomy of the parties to a process. This limitation was introduced to ensure fair, expedient and cost-effective judgment. A tendency to replace the principle of an adversarial trial with elements of an inquisitorial trial was observed in civil law as well as common law systems. Relevant changes were fi rst made in the Franz Klein Austrian code of civil procedure, followed by departures from the formal truth in the civil process implemented in the system in Germany, Hungary, the Swiss cantons of Zurich and Bern, in Poland, and later, in the second half of the 20th century, also in France. In the common law system, the reform of 1999 ascertained judges a number of discretionary powers to help them establish the facts in a civil proceeding. Those changes added the public element in the civil procedure, but the very idea of a private process and the protection of private interests has been maintained. The totalitarian regimes which emerged in some European states considerably distorted the process of shaping the relationship between the state and the individual. In the socialist civil proceeding, the principle ne eat iudex ultra petita partium was replaced with ex offi cio ultra petita, which was a novelty characteristic of the civil procedure of totalitarian states. The departure from an adversarial principle in the socialist civil process was not much different from the general tendencies observed in the civil procedure in West European states. After the political transformations and change of the regime, former states of the Eastern Bloc sought to signifi cantly increase the autonomy of the parties in a civil process. However, as experience of the Western European states shows, certain public elements must be taken into account in a civil procedure if the European Convention on Human Rights is to be observed.

Three fundamental state system and legal transformations, which took place in Poland in the 20th century, make the history of the Polish law of civil procedure an important and intriguing research thread, especially in a comparative perspective. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the problem of the principles of civil procedure in codification works which were in progress before the regaining of independence in 1918. They were continued in the Second Republic of Poland and developed further after the Second World War until the second Polish Code of Civil Procedure was adopted in 1964. Codification works in the Second Republic of Poland and the People's Republic of Poland were quite different regarding their determinants and also conditions. However both presented the phenomenon of a deviation from the original assumptions and concepts, which were postulated by the authors of the original drafts. Such deviation was usually adverse. The changing fate of Polish civil procedure did not threaten the heritage of Polish jurisprudence. The adversarial and dispositive principles, as well as the principle of oral proceedings and the principle of the free appraisal of evidence were constantly present in the Polish legal system. Nevertheless, after World War II some significant modifications were imposed that limited the autonomy of the parties and the independence of the court owing to the political subordination to the Soviet Union. However, the attitude of the majority of Polish lawyers enabled many standards of the classic judicial proceedings to be maintained, and thereby also the relations with the European doctrine of procedural law.

Three fundamental state system and legal transformations, which took place in Poland in the 20th century, make the history of the Polish law of civil procedure an important and intriguing research thread, especially in a comparative perspective. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the problem of the principles of civil procedure in codification works which were in progress before the regaining of independence in 1918. They were continued in the Second Republic of Poland and developed further after the Second World War until the second Polish Code of Civil Procedure was adopted in 1964. Codification works in the Second Republic of Poland and the People's Republic of Poland were quite different regarding their determinants and also conditions. However both presented the phenomenon of a deviation from the original assumptions and concepts, which were postulated by the authors of the original drafts. Such deviation was usually adverse. The changing fate of Polish civil procedure did not threaten the heritage of Polish jurisprudence. The adversarial and dispositive principles, as well as the principle of oral proceedings and the principle of the free appraisal of evidence were constantly present in the Polish legal system. Nevertheless, after World War II some significant modifications were imposed that limited the autonomy of the parties and the independence of the court owing to the political subordination to the Soviet Union. However, the attitude of the majority of Polish lawyers enabled many standards of the classic judicial proceedings to be maintained, and thereby also the relations with the European doctrine of procedural law.

Three fundamental state system and legal transformations, which took place in Poland in the 20th century, make the history of the Polish law of civil procedure an important and intriguing research thread, especially in a comparative perspective. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the problem of the principles of civil procedure in codification works which were in progress before the regaining of independence in 1918. They were continued in the Second Republic of Poland and developed further after the Second World War until the second Polish Code of Civil Procedure was adopted in 1964. Codification works in the Second Republic of Poland and the People's Republic of Poland were quite different regarding their determinants and also conditions. However both presented the phenomenon of a deviation from the original assumptions and concepts, which were postulated by the authors of the original drafts. Such deviation was usually adverse. The changing fate of Polish civil procedure did not threaten the heritage of Polish jurisprudence. The adversarial and dispositive principles, as well as the principle of oral proceedings and the principle of the free appraisal of evidence were constantly present in the Polish legal system. Nevertheless, after World War II some significant modifications were imposed that limited the autonomy of the parties and the independence of the court owing to the political subordination to the Soviet Union. However, the attitude of the majority of Polish lawyers enabled many standards of the classic judicial proceedings to be maintained, and thereby also the relations with the European doctrine of procedural law.