The aim of the paper is to present legal issues concerning ritual slaughter in Poland in the interwar period (1918–1939) against a broad background of journalistic writing and parliamentary debates. Herein, arguments of both supporters and opponents of ritual slaughter are presented in detail. It is pointed out that the proponents of the ban on ritual slaughter most often referred to economic arguments regarding the need to regulate the meat market, while their opponents (mainly Judaism followers) argued that it would undermine constitutional guarantees of religious freedom. The authors analyze the legislative work leading to the adoption of the Act of 17 April 1936 on slaughter of farm animals in slaughterhouses (Journal of Laws No. 29, item 237), which restricted admissibility of ritual slaughter, as well as parliamentary work on introducing a complete prohibition of ritual slaughter in March 1938 and March 1939.
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