MARRIAGE REGULATIONS IN CANON AND CIVIL LAW

The purpose o f this paper is to present the difference between the meaning of the term “marriage” in the civil and canon law and to examine the relation between those two systems of law. It should be conceded that the current regulation of marriage in civil law is consistent with the rule of autonomy and independence o f the Roman Catholic Church and the state as laid down in article 1 of the Concordat. The jurisdiction divisibility rule of civil law courts and church courts laid down in art. 10 § 3Ł 4 o f the Concordat makes reciprocal recognition of judgments rendered by those courts impossible. However, it is not completely clear i f the civil law courts could render judicial assistance to church courts or i f the agreement negotiated in the church court could be recognized and upheld by a civil law court. Both those questions remain open. The fact that the institution o f legal separation has been recently established in the Polish civil law system should be regarded as a positive development. A question remains, though, whether the existing provisions of the binding family law do not contain, by any chance, solutions that might be found inconsistent with the binding principle in Polish law of marriage durability