The Polish Code of Obligations of 1933

The 1933 Polish Code of Obligations was the only comprehensive private-law codification enacted in East Central Europe during the interwar period, with the sole exception of the Latvian Civil Code of 1937. The present volume compares the Polish achievement with the Austrian, German, French, and Russian codes that remained at that time in force in Poland, as well as with the Swiss Code of Obligations of 1911 and the Franco-Italian Draft Code of 1927. The central question addressed is whether the Polish codifiers, under the leadership of Roman Longchamps de Berier, merely borrowed Western solutions or succeeded also in developing original contributions of their own.
As a short-lived piece of legislation, entering into force in July 1934 and effectively becoming a dead letter five years later with the outbreak of the Second World War, the Polish Code of Obligations has remained largely unknown among comparative legal scholars. In the post-war period, Soviet communism profoundly reshaped Polish civil law. Despite its practical obsolescence, the Code of Obligations formally remained in force until the entry into force of the Polish Civil Code of 1964 - the codification of "actually existing" state socialism.
The volume is divided into three parts: Inspirations, Institutions, and Receptions. The first examines the influence of foreign legal systems on the codification process. The second analyses the distinctive legal institutions introduced by the 1933 Code of Obligations. The third traces the influence of the Polish Code in East Central Europe during the interwar period. The book concludes with a General Outlook which explores the broader significance of the Code of Obligations within the history of Polish private law.