Contract as a Means of Forming External of an Enterprise under Conditions of the Economic Reform

The main ideas of the forthcoming economic reform are characterized by the author at the beginning of the. article. Problems of self-contained enterprises, of a wider employment of market and of trade relations are in the focus of attention. A transition to indirect economic system of management and planning results increases the importance of Civil Law in legal regulations of a socialist economy. Full responsibility of the enterprises for their own autonomous plan generates an authentic demand for numerous direct external ties with other economic subjects. A Civil Law contract is the instrument forming those ties. . Next, the author characterizes functions of the economic contracts which are to become the fundamental source of obligations, and essentially, the exclusive instrument organizing and re-organizing a commercial intercourse within nationalized industries. The planning functions of contracts are a matter of special importance in the economic reform. The contracts have to form grounds for the production planning and adopt the part of administrative indicators, directions and planning elements of the centralistic system of management. By virtue of the new Act of the State Enterprises (the Polish Law Gazette — Dz. U. nr 24 of 1981) a contract of Civil Law can be the instrument shaping new organizational structures i.e. joint ventures, semi-public enterprises and economic associations of various types. The article is concluded with a discussion of freedom of contracts in the economic reform. In the opinion of the author, the scope of freedom of contracts in the socialized intercourse have to be widely expanded. Nevertheless it would be fallacious to eliminate entirely the State's capacity to shape the market processes by means of administrative channels, the strong market power of producers, contractors and suppliers is the reason of it.Digitalizacja i deponowanie archiwalnych zeszytów RPEiS sfinansowane przez MNiSW w ramach realizacji umowy nr 541/P-DUN/201