Civil Procedure Code, which came into effect in 1965, was preceded by a particular preparation of new legal system and accompanying changes in political system. It was supposed and as such declared at that time to be an example of avant-garde socialist law. In fact, the content of the code was a compromise between the solutions developed by Polish jurisprudence and the assumptions of Soviet law. Traditional lawsuit rules, including contradictoriness, availability and formal equality of parties were significantly limited by the rule of objective truth and inquisitional approach. It was the result of shifting the borders between private and public law in favour of the public one. Literal meaning of law was as important as its interpretation. Authorities demanded purposive law interpretation which was supposed to lead to its strong instrumentalisation. In practice, it wasn’t the case on a large scale due to the attitude of judges and the representatives of law who respected universal standards of civil procedure. As a result, Polish civil procedure remained in strong relation with European legal tradition. After 50 years of being in force the civil procedure code is still used, though, it was necessary to reform some of its rules and adjusting it to the standards of civic society and market economy. The history of code development and its implementation may constitute a significant experience for the development of future changes in civil procedures.
Artykuł prezentuje podstawowe zmiany w postępowaniu przygotowawczym, wprowadzone gruntowną nowelizacją kodeksu postępowania karnego z 27 września 2013 r. Chociaż podstawowym celem nowych uregulowań, uznanych w piśmiennictwie za przełom w filozofii procedury karnej w Polsce było ukształtowanie na nowo etapu sądowego procesu, tak by był sporem równych stron a nie wyrażał dominujący wpływ prokuratora, to zmiany dotknęły także etap przedsądowy. W tekście podjęto próbę zebrania najważniejszych, zdaniem autora, modyfikacji przebiegu postępowania przygotowawczego, które od 1 lipca 2015 r. wpłyną na praktykę działania nieprokuratorskich organów ścigania oraz zaprezentowano ogólne kierunki obecnych zmian procedury rzutujące na perspektywę dalszych jej reform.
EN
The article presents basic changes in the preparatory proceedings intriduced by a thorough amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code of 27th September 2013. Although the primary objective of the new regulations, recognized in the literature as a breakthrough in the philosophy of the Polish criminal procedure was re-shaping of the judicial phase of a trial, so that it should be a legal tussle of equal parties and not the dominant prosecutor’s position, the changes also affected the pre-trial stage. In the article an attempt was made, to gather the most important, according to the author, modifications of the pre-trial proceedings, which from the 1st July 2015 will affect the practice of law enforcement proceedings and to present the main current proceedings changes affecting the perspective of further reforms.
The principle of legalism places upon the public prosecutor the obligation o pressing charges to a court of law and then to support this claim in the course of the lawsuit. It seems obvious that in order to execute this duty in an appropriate manner, the public prosecutor should attend the trial and actively participate in it. However, in regulation Art. 46 §2 k.p.k., which was introduced by way of an amendment issued on 11 March 2016, the legislator stipulated a regulation which permits the public prosecutor not to appear during the trial, if the preliminary legal proceedings concluded in the form of investigation. Obviously, the task of this regulation is to accelerate the proceedings in cases of lesser calibre, which are cases in which an investigation is conducted. However, it is necessary to consider the aforementioned regulation in the context of the basic principles of a criminal lawsuit and the analysis of the consequences of such regulations. Therefore, in the first instance one made reference to the most important regulations contained in the basis acts of international law, i.e. the European Convention of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which emphasise above all the significance of independence and impartiality, as well as the principle of a quick and efficient operation of the procedure. It was also necessary to refer the substantive regulation to the principle of the contradictoriness of the criminal lawsuit, which stipulates inter alia the separation of lawsuit-related roles and the passivity of the court in reference to the initiative of the parties who argue their cases.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.