Foreign Law Guide

FOREIGN LAW GUIDE

Researching the Law of Poland

At a glance

Legal system family
Civil law. Article 2 of the act on the announcement of normative acts makes announcement of a normative act in an official journal compulsory, and a separate statute is needed to lift that duty even for an act containing no universally binding provisions. 1
Official gazette
Dziennik Ustaw for statutes and the Monitor Polski for other instruments, both issued electronically, with the day of announcement defined as the day of electronic announcement on the issuing organ's website. 1
Constitution in force
Konstytucja Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej of 2 April 1997, passed by the National Assembly, accepted by referendum on 25 May 1997, signed on 16 July 1997, and announced the same day at Dziennik Ustaw 1997 number 78 item 483. 2
Language of the authoritative text
not established The Ustawa o jezyku polskim, in a copy served by a host that answers an automated request, or a provision of the announcement statute naming the language of the official journals. The Sejm legal information system at isap.sejm.gov.pl, where a Polish statute text is normally read, answers here with a bot interstitial. The announcement statute used on this page names Polish twice and neither place is about the Polish journals: article 17 on correcting errors in the Polish translation of an international agreement, and article 29b on making the European Union journal available in Polish.

Polish law makes publication compulsory in one line and then spends a statute on what publication actually is. Article 2 of the act on the announcement of normative acts says that announcement of a normative act in an official journal is obligatory. Nothing about it is left to discretion, and it takes a separate statute even to lift the duty for an act that contains no universally binding provisions at all.

Since the electronic turn, what gets announced is a file. Acts subject to announcement are announced in the form of an electronic document, the official journals are issued in electronic form unless a statute says otherwise, and for each journal issued electronically the issuing organ runs a website of its own.

The signature is where the weight sits, and this is the part worth carrying away from the Polish arrangement. The basis for announcing a normative act is the act itself, as an electronic document, bearing the qualified electronic signature of the organ empowered to issue it. For a judgment the basis is an electronically signed copy certified as conforming to the original, together with a paper copy, and the certification has to name the court and the judges who gave and signed the judgment, and to note any dissenting opinion that was recorded. Polish publication runs on signatures rather than on a printing house.

The day of announcement is defined as precisely as the document. It is the day the act is announced electronically on the website of the organ issuing the journal, and that date is printed inside the header of the page itself, so a downloaded item carries its own publication date rather than borrowing one from the site it came from. Fourteen days after that day an act containing universally binding provisions enters into force, unless the act sets a longer period for itself.

And then the statute keeps paper, for a reason that has nothing to do with anybody reading it. The organ issuing the Dziennik Ustaw and the Monitor Polski keeps one copy of each in the form of printouts certified as conforming to the original, and sends one printed copy of each to the President of the Republic, to the Marshal of the Sejm and to the National Library, for safekeeping. Three institutions, one copy each, of a gazette that exists as a signed file. Austria arrived at a similar arrangement from a different direction and this guide's page on it is the natural comparison.

One provision reads like trademark law and is easy to skip. The names Dziennik Ustaw and Monitor Polski, and the graphic designs of the mastheads of those journals, may be used only by the organ that issues them. A Polish site showing that masthead is either the issuing organ or in breach of the publication statute, which is a quicker test of a source than reading its about page.

The Constitution's gazette record is a compressed history of how it was made. The item at year 1997, issue 78, position 483 carries a title that reads in full: the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 2 April 1997, passed by the National Assembly on 2 April 1997, accepted by the Nation in a constitutional referendum on 25 May 1997, signed by the President of the Republic of Poland on 16 July 1997. The date of announcement recorded beside it is 16 July 1997, the same day as the signature.

Polish consolidation works in a way that surprises people expecting a government database to do it. A uniform text is not published by a ministry or by a service. It is announced by the Marshal of the Sejm in an obwieszczenie, and that announcement is itself an item in the Dziennik Ustaw with a year and a position number of its own. The consolidated text of the publication statute used on this page is Dziennik Ustaw 2019 position 1461, announced on 19 July 2019. Citing a Polish consolidated text means citing the announcement that carried it, and a consolidated text is out of date the moment the next amendment is announced.

Two access notes, because they decided what this page could rest on. The Sejm's legal information system at isap.sejm.gov.pl answered a plain request with a page titled Pardon Our Interruption, and sejm.gov.pl itself with one titled Human Verification, so the service most guides send readers to could not be used here at all. The Chancellery of the Sejm also runs an identifier service whose addresses are built from the journal, the year and the position number, and which serves the same acts as plain HTML with none of that in the way. The two gazette sites answer normally and link the signed PDF of every item they carry.

There is no entry for language in the block above, and the honest cause is the interstitial rather than any doubt about what Poland publishes in. The announcement statute quoted throughout this page names the Polish language exactly twice, and neither place is about the Polish journals. Article 17 makes a minister responsible for correcting errors in the Polish translation of an international agreement. Article 29b requires local organs of government administration to make the collections of the European Union journal available in Polish, electronically and free of charge. Writing Polish into that field on the strength of either would have been a guess dressed as a citation.

Primary sources online

SOURCES

  1. Ustawa o ogloszaniu aktow normatywnych i niektorych innych aktow prawnych, consolidated text of 19 July 2019. Kancelaria Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, ELI service. https://api.sejm.gov.pl/eli/acts/DU/2019/1461/text.html. Accessed 2026-08-30. The Polish publication statute, served as HTML by the Chancellery of the Sejm's ELI service. Announcement of a normative act in an official journal is compulsory. Acts subject to announcement are announced as an electronic document and the journals are issued in electronic form, each journal having a website of its own. Acts containing universally binding provisions enter into force fourteen days after announcement unless the act sets a longer period. The basis for announcement is the act as an electronic document bearing the qualified electronic signature of the organ empowered to issue it; for a judgment it is an electronically signed certified copy together with a paper copy. The day of announcement is the day of electronic announcement on the issuing organ's website, and that date is printed in the page header. The issuing organ keeps a certified printout of each journal and sends one printed copy of each to the President of the Republic, the Marshal of the Sejm and the National Library. The names Dziennik Ustaw and Monitor Polski and the designs of their mastheads may be used only by the organ that issues them.
  2. Dziennik Ustaw 1997 nr 78 poz. 483, the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. Rzadowe Centrum Legislacji, publisher of the Dziennik Ustaw. https://dziennikustaw.gov.pl/DU/1997/s/78/483. Accessed 2026-08-30. The gazette record of the Polish Constitution, at year 1997, issue 78, item 483. The title itself is the history: passed by the National Assembly on 2 April 1997, accepted by the Nation in a constitutional referendum on 25 May 1997, signed by the President on 16 July 1997. The date of announcement given on the record is 16 July 1997, the same day as the signature. The page links the scanned issue as a PDF.
  3. Dziennik Ustaw 2019 poz. 1461, the consolidated text of the publication statute. Rzadowe Centrum Legislacji, publisher of the Dziennik Ustaw. https://dziennikustaw.gov.pl/DU/2019/1461. Accessed 2026-08-30. The gazette item behind the consolidated text used on this page, and a specimen of how Polish consolidation works: a uniform text is not issued by the government but announced by the Marshal of the Sejm in an obwieszczenie, which is itself an item in the Dziennik Ustaw with a year and a position number of its own.

Reviewed 2026-08-30. 3 sources cited on this page.