The Unification of Private Law in Europe from the Perspective of Polish Legal Culture

Abstract

The paper analyses the relationship between the possible future unification of private law in the European Union and Polish culture of private law understood as the abilityof Polish legal culture to adapt to a new unified European private law in the future. Based onthe assumption that Polish culture of private law does not have a ‘unique’ or ‘original’ character making it qualitatively distinct from e.g. German or French legal culture, the paper argues that Polish legal culture as such does not pose any obstacles to the unification of private law. The paper also analyses the possible impact of the unification of Polish privatelaw on the practices of Polish legal culture, i.e. legislation, adjudication, legal counselling, scholarship and education. It argues that the unification would be the most beneficial for Polish practitioners and scholars, making their professions much more internationalised thanat present and enhancing the possibility of their effective free movement across the Union. The same applies to legal education: the new unified European private law introduced intocurricula of law schools, law faculties and legal professional training would mean that Polish students and apprentices would study subjects of a pan-European, and not only national relevance. A benefit common to judges, practitioners and scholars would be the possibility of resorting to a much wider scope of case-law and scholarly writings in pleadings, court decisions and academic discussions de lege lata. However, it would also be important toensure that an input from Polish scholars is made into the new European doctrine of privatelaw, so that the movement of legal ideas is not only one-sided.

Keywords: private law, Polish law, unification, harmonization, legal culture