The Beginning of the Debate on the Codification of Polish Law after the World War I: The Issue of the Codification Commission Autonomy in the Light of Political Declarations

The purpose of this article is to analyze the ideological basis of concepts that underpinned the establishment of the Codification Commission by virtue of the Act of 3 June 1919 and to assess its position within the system of authorities of the Second Republic of Poland. The author has found that the issues around shaping the relations of the Codification Commission with the Government and the Sejm have been covered in literature of the subject in a one-sided manner. Authors who have devoted their attention to the issue of autonomy of the Codification Commission formulated their evaluations based on the interpretation of the regulations in the drafts of the Act that established the Commission, as well as on their subsequent application that enabled the restriction of this autonomy. They did not, however, sufficiently account for the ideological declarations, thus in fact rejecting the deputies’ assertions of their striving to ensure “complete autonomy and self-sufficiency” of the Codification Commission, and the Government’s affirmations that it did not aim to “subject” the Commission to its control. Meanwhile, the author’s intention is to show that there was a widespread consensus at the time, especially at the Sejm, which sovereignly decided on the wording of the Act on the Codification Commission, that deputies had adopted a law that sufficiently protected the autonomous status of the Commission and its apolitical nature.