EN
According to Polish law, acts of civil status issued abroad possess the status of official documents in all kind of proceedings before Polish authorities. Nevertheless such foreign acts of civil status can be transcribed into Polish registers of civil status whereupon a Polish act of birth, marriage or death is created. The article strives to explain the nature of transcription, which generally should be seen as a purely technical operation, and analyses the conditions under which the transcription may take place. Special emphasis is put on the limited scope of the substantive control of foreign acts of civil status, which can be exercised only by means of the 'ordre public' clause.