adwokat dr Piotr Sobański - Zielona Góra

THE COMMUNICATIVE ASPECTS OF THE SETTLEMENTS OF THE PARENT — CHILD CONTACTS AFTER THE DIVORCE (POLISH CASE-LAW AND THE INDICATION TO ECHR CASE-LAW) adwokat dr Piotr Sobański LL.M., dr hab. Izabela Gawłowicz

The divorce judgement fundamentally shapes the legal situation of the parties in the future. In the Polish legal system, divorce proceedings fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the civil court; there is no legal basis for resolving a marriage through the agreement of the spouses or through administrative procedures. Article 56 of the Polish Family and Guardianship Code outlines the circumstances under which a marriage can be terminated legally. In the current state of law, the absolute and positive prerequisite for divorce is a complete and lasting breakdown of the marital relationship.

The only condition for dissolution of a marriage through divorce, according to Article 56 § 1 of the Family and Guardianship Code, is a complete and lasting breakdown of marital life. This condition is absolute because the law does not provide any exceptions to it. The breakdown of marital life belongs to the category of legal concepts for which it must be assumed from the outset that a strict statutory definition is not possible. The task of defining this concept falls to case law and legal literature. All attempts to define this concept start with defining the concept of shared marital life. Shared life, as understood in Article 23 of the Family and Guardianship Code, consists of the spiritual, physical, and economic bond between spouses, which is the purpose of marriage and enables the fulfillment of its basic tasks. The positive condition for divorce is fulfilled when the breakdown of marital relations is permanent and complete. The breakdown is complete if there are no longer any physical, emotional, and economic ties between the spouses. If at least one tie, such as an economic one, is maintained, then a positive condition for divorce cannot be established, and the divorce claim should be dismissed.