Poland

Article 18 

Marriage, being a union of a man and a woman, as well as the family, motherhood and parenthood, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland. 

Article 33 

1. Men and women shall have equal rights in family, political, social and economic life in the Republic of Poland.
2. Men and women shall have equal rights, in particular, regarding education, employment and promotion, and shall have the right to equal compensation for work of similar value, to social security, to hold offices, and to receive public honours and decorations.

Art. 41a. 

• 1. The court may prohibit contacting in certain environments or places with certain people, approaching certain people or leaving a certain whereabouts without the consent of a court, such as also an order to temporarily leave the premises shared with the victim in the event of a conviction for a crime against sexual freedom or decency to the detriment of a minor or any other crime against freedom and in the event of a conviction for an intentional violent crime, especially violence against a close relative. Prohibition or the warrant may be combined with the obligation to report to the Police or other designated authority in certain areas intervals, and the prohibition of approaching certain persons – also controlled in the electronic supervision system.
• 2  The court rules out a ban on staying in specific environments or places, or contacting certain ones people approaching specific people or leaving a specific whereabouts without the consent of the court as well an order to temporarily leave the premises shared with the aggrieved party, in the event of a sentence of imprisonment freedom without a conditional suspension of its execution for an offense against sexual freedom or decency damage to a minor. A prohibition or order may be combined with an obligation to report to the Police or another religion authority at specified intervals, and the prohibition of approaching certain persons – also controlled in the electronic supervision system.
• 3 The court may order a ban on staying in specific environments or places, and forbidding contact with certain people, approaching certain people or leaving a certain whereabouts without the consent of the court for life in the event of re-conviction of the perpetrator under the conditions specified in § 2.
• 3a In the event of an order to temporarily leave the premises jointly occupied with the victim offenses specified in chapters XXV and XXVI, the court adjudicates for the same period a ban on approaching the victim.
• 4. In ruling on the prohibition of approaching certain persons, the court shall indicate the distance from the protected persons, which the convicted person is obliged to keep.
• 5. When deciding to periodically leave the premises occupied jointly with the aggrieved party, the court shall specify the time limit its implementation.

Art. 60. 

• 1. The court may apply extraordinary leniency in the cases provided for in the Act and in relation to a juvenile, if it is justified by the reasons specified in art. 54 § 1.
• 2. The court may also apply extraordinary leniency in particularly justified cases, when even the lowest penalty provided for a crime would be disproportionately severe, in particular:

1) if the aggrieved party reconciled with the perpetrator, the damage was repaired or the aggrieved party and the perpetrator agreed the method of repairing the damage, 

2) due to the perpetrator’s attitude, especially when he made efforts to redress the damage or to prevent it, 

3) if the perpetrator of the unintentional offense or his / her closest person has suffered serious damage in connection with the committed a crime 

Poland Constitution-English-PDF.

Art. 10. 

• 1. A person under the age of 7 may not contract marriage eighteen. However, for important reasons, the guardianship court may permit to marry a woman who is sixteen years of age and under circumstances shows that entering into marriage will be in accordance with the good of the founded family.
• 2. Annulment of a marriage entered into by a man who has not completed eighteen years of age, and by a woman under the age of sixteen or not court permission, she entered into marriage after the age of sixteen, but before the age of eighteen may be requested by either spouse.
• 3. The marriage cannot be annulled due to the lack of the prescribed age, if the spouse has reached that age before the court is brought.
• 4. If a woman becomes pregnant, her husband may not request annulment marriage due to lack of prescribed age.

Art. 15 

• 1. A marriage may be annulled if the declaration on entering into marriage or the declaration provided for in art. 1 § 2 remained folded:

1) by a person who for whatever reason was in the state excluding conscious expression of will; 

2) under the influence of error as to the identity of the other party; 

3) under the influence of an unlawful threat from the other party or a third party, if it follows from the circumstances that the person making the declaration could have feared that he was you or someone else is in grave personal danger. 

• 2. Annulment of marriage due to the circumstances mentioned in § 1 may be requested by the spouse who made the defect declaration.
• 3. You cannot request the annulment of marriage after six months from cessation of the disabling state of conscious expression of will, from the detection of error or cessation fear caused by a threat – in any event three years after conclusion marriages.

Art. 23. 

The spouses have equal rights and obligations in a marriage. Are obligated to live together, to mutual help and faithfulness, and to cooperation for the good of the family they founded through their relationship. 

Art. 24. 

The spouses jointly decide on important family matters; in the event of a disagreement, each of them may apply to the court for the decision. 

Art. 27. 

Both spouses are obliged, each according to his strength and his own income and financial opportunities, contribute to the satisfaction of needs the family they founded through their relationship. Compensation for this obligation it may also consist, in whole or in part, in personal efforts to educate children and working in a shared household. 

Art. 28. 

• 1. If one of the spouses living together does not fulfills his obligation to contribute to the satisfaction of his needs family, the court may order remuneration for work or other charges attributable to that spouse were wholly or partially paid out in hands the other spouse.
• 2. The order referred to in the preceding paragraph remains in force despite termination of the joint life of the spouses after its release. However, the court may upon request each of the spouses this order may be changed or revoked.

Art. 28 

If one spouse is entitled to housing, the other spouse the spouse is entitled to use this apartment for satisfaction family needs. This provision applies accordingly to the items of the device home. 

Art. 31. 

• 1. As soon as the marriage is concluded, it arises between the spouses pursuant to the act, joint property (statutory joint ownership) covering objects property acquired during its term by both spouses or by one of them (joint property). Property items not covered by the statutory community they belong to the personal property of each spouse.
• 2. The joint property includes in particular:

1) collected remuneration for work and income from other gainful activities each of the spouses; 

2) income from joint property, as well as from personal property of each from spouses; 

3) funds accumulated on the account of an open or employee fund each spouse’s pension; 

4) the amount of contributions recorded on the sub-account referred to in art. 40a the Act of 13 October 1998 on the social insurance system (Journal of Laws of 2020, items 266, 321, 568, 695 and 875) 

Art. 47. 

• 1. The spouses may, by an agreement concluded in the form of an act notary public to extend or limit or establish a statutory community property separation or property separation with equalization of achievements (property contract). Such an agreement may be prior to marriage.
• 2. The marriage contract may be changed or terminated. In the event of its dissolution during the marriage, it arises between the spouses statutory commonality, unless the parties have agreed otherwise.

Art. 52 

•  1 For important reasons, each spouse may request establishing separation of property by the court.
• 1a. Establishing the separation of property by the court may also require a creditor of one of the spouses, if it is probable that the satisfaction a claim established by an enforcement title requires a division joint property of the spouses.
• 2. Separation of property arises on the date specified in the judgment which it is establishes. In exceptional cases, the court may establish property separation on a day earlier than the day on which the action is brought, in particular if the spouses lived in separation.
• 3. Establishing separation of property by the court at the request of one the spouses are not excluded from the conclusion of a property contract by the spouses marriage. If the separation of property has been established upon request the creditor, the spouses may conclude a marriage contract after the execution division of the joint property or after the creditor has obtained security, or satisfaction of claims, or three years after the establishment of separation.

Art. 55. 

• 1. If one of the spouses is deemed deceased, it is presumed it is concluded that the marriage has ended at the time specified in the decision on recognition of the spouse as the deceased person was marked as the time of his death.
• 2. If, after recognizing one of the spouses as deceased, the other spouse concluded a new marriage, this union cannot be annulled for the reason that the spouse declared dead is alive or that his death occurred at a different time than the moment marked in the decision declaring dead. This provision does not apply, if the parties knew at the time of their new marriage that the spouse declared dead remains alive.

Art. 56. 

• 1. If there was a complete and permanent breakdown between the spouses life, each of the spouses may demand that the court dissolve the marriage by divorce.
• 2. However, despite the complete and permanent breakdown of the marriage, divorce is not admissible if the welfare of the minors would suffer as a result the children of the spouses or if for other reasons a divorce decree contrary to the principles of social coexistence.
• 3. Divorce is also not admissible if it is requested by the spouse only guilty of the breakdown of the marriage, unless the other spouse agrees to the divorce or that it is against the rules to refuse his consent to divorce under the circumstances social coexistence.

Art. 58. 

• 1. In the divorce decree, the court shall decide on power parental over the joint minor child of both spouses and contacts parents with a child and decides in what amount each spouse is obliged to bear the costs of maintaining and bringing up the child. Court takes into account the spouses’ written agreement on the manner of exercising power parenting and maintaining contact with the child after divorce, if there is one consistent with the best interests of the child. Siblings should be brought up together, unless the best interests of the child require a different decision.
• 1a. In the absence of the agreement referred to in § 1, the court, taking into account the law a child to be brought up by both parents decides about the way they are jointly exercising parental authority and maintaining contact with the child after divorce. The court may entrust the exercise of parental responsibility to one of the parents, limiting the parental responsibility of the other to specific duties and rights in relation to the person of the child, if the best interests of the child speak for it.
• 1b. At the joint request of the parties, the court does not decide to maintain contacts with baby.
• 2. If the spouses live together, the court in the judgment divorce also decides how to use the apartment over time the common residence of divorced spouses. In accidents exceptional, when one of the spouses with grossly reprehensible conduct prevents living together, the court may order his eviction on request the other spouse. At the joint request of the parties, the court may in the adjudication the divorce will also rule on the division of a shared flat or on granting housing for one of the spouses, if the other spouse agrees to his leave without providing replacement premises and replacement room, as long as division or its awarding to one of the spouses is possible.
• 3. At the request of one of the spouses, the court may in a divorce decree divide the joint property, if the division is not carried out will result in undue delay in the proceedings.
• 4. When deciding on the joint flat of the spouses, the court takes into account primarily all the needs of the children and of the spouse entrusted with the exercise of power parental

Art. 60. 

• 1. A divorced spouse who has not been recognized as exclusively who is guilty of breaking down his life and who is in need, he can claim from another a divorced spouse providing livelihoods corresponding to the justified needs of the entitled person and the possibilities economic and property liability.
• 2. If one of the spouses has been found solely guilty of decay marriage, and the divorce entails a significant deterioration of the spouse’s financial situation not guilty, the court, at the request of the innocent spouse, may decide that the spouse only the guilty party is obliged to contribute to the satisfaction of an appropriate extent the justified needs of the innocent spouse, even if he is not present in need.
• 3. The obligation to provide the divorced spouse with maintenance it expires in the event of a new marriage by that spouse. However, when the party liable is a divorced spouse who has not been found guilty breakdown of the marriage, this obligation also expires five years after the decision divorce, unless due to exceptional circumstances a court, if requested of the entitled person, will extend the said five-year period

Art. 61  

• 1. If there is a complete breakdown of the marriage between the spouses, everyone the spouses may request the court to order the separation.
• 2. However, despite the complete breakdown of the marriage, the separation is not admissible, if it would damage the common interests of minors the children of the spouses or if for other reasons the order of separation would be contrary to the principles of social coexistence.
• 3. If the spouses do not have minor children in common, the court may decide separation based on the unanimous request of the spouses.

Art. 61  

• 1. The legal separation has the same effects as the dissolution of a marriage by divorce, unless the law provides otherwise.
• 2. A separated spouse may not contract a marriage.
• 3. If it is necessary to do so, the remaining spouses when separated, they are obliged to help each other.
• 4. For the obligation of one to provide means of subsistence of the separated spouses, the provisions shall apply accordingly art. 60, with the exception of § 3.
• 5. The provision of Art. 59 does not apply

Art. 93. 

• 1. Both parents have parental responsibility.
• 2. If required by the best interests of the child, the court in the judgment establishing the origin the child may order the suspension, limitation or deprivation of power parental status of one or both parents. The provisions of Art. 107 and art. 109-111 shall apply respectively.

Art. 94. 

• 1. If one of the parents is dead or does not have full capacity to legal transactions, parental responsibility is vested in the other parent. Same applies to a case where one of the parents has been deprived of parental authority or when his parental responsibility has been suspended.
• 2. (repealed)
• 3. If neither of the parents has parental responsibility or if parents are unknown, custody is established for the child

Art. 97. 

• 1. If both parents have parental responsibility, each of them is obliged and entitled to exercise it.
• 2. However, the parents decide together on the essential matters of the child; in the event of a disagreement between them, the guardianship court decides.

Art. 113 

•  1 Regardless of parental authority, parents and their child have the right and duty to maintain contact with each other.
• 2. Contacts with the child include in particular being with the child (visits, meetings, taking the child away from his / her place of permanent residence) and direct communication, correspondence, use from other means of distance communication, including means of communication electronic.

Art. 113 1 . 

• 1. If the child is permanently staying with one of the parents, the manner maintaining contact with the child by the other parent is specified by the parents together, guided by the best interests of the child and his reasonable wishes; in the event of disagreement, the guardianship court decides.
• 2. The provisions of § 1 shall apply mutatis mutandis if the child is not staying with any of them from the parents and is cared for by the guardian or when he has been placed in custody replacement.

Art. 130. 

Duty of one spouse to provide means of subsistence to the other spouse after dissolution or annulment of marriage or after the separation judgment precedes the maintenance obligation for the spouse’s relatives.