The legal system applicable to the legal assessment of divorces is governed by Art. 54 of the Act of February 4, 2011, Private International Law (i.e. Journal of Laws of 2015, item 1792). Pursuant to paragraph 1 of the commented provision, the rule is that dissolution of a marriage, i.e. its termination during the life of both spouses , is subject to the common national law of the spouses upon request for marriage. This regulation is an expression of the principle of equal rights of spouses (A. Mączyński, Divorce in private international law, p. 19). In the case of Polish citizens, dissolution of marriage is subject to Polish law, even if they both have If the spouses are citizens of a foreign country, their common national law shall apply accordingly, and if they have more than one nationality, the law of the country with which they are most closely connected shall apply. if it would have consequences contrary to the fundamental principles of the Polish legal order, it would, for example, lead to discrimination against women. Such a position was already expressed in the decision of February 21, 1975 by the provincial court in Zielona Góra, stating that „the application of foreign law that does not allow a request for divorce by a woman is excluded pursuant to Art. 6 of private international law, because the discrimination against women introduced by them is contrary to the fundamental principles of the Constitution of the Polish People’s Republic. ” (Decision of S.WOJEW of February 21, 1975, II Cr 109/75, LEX No. 1726675._
The applicable law is determined in accordance with the moment of submitting the request to terminate the marriage, in particular, it may be the moment of submitting the request to the competent authority or submitting a declaration of will with appropriate content.
If it is impossible to establish the common national law of the spouses, the applicable law is the law of the state in which the spouses have their joint residence at the time of the request for divorce, and if such a place cannot be established – the law of the state in which the spouses had their last common habitual residence, provided that that one of them is still habitually resident there. The legal situation is similarly regulated when a marriage is dissolved between persons whose citizenship cannot be established or who do not have the citizenship of any country. (K. Pietrzykowski [in:] International private law. Commentary, edited by J. Poczobut, Warsaw 2017, art. 54.)
Article 54 (1) 3 p.p.m. provides that in the absence of circumstances determining the jurisdiction of the law, pursuant to para. 1 or 2, Polish law shall apply. Sometimes, the application of Polish law may be provided for directly by the provisions of foreign law, if the spouses are domiciled or habitually resident in Poland. It should be borne in mind Art. 365 and 435 of the Civil Code – for whom the decision of the Polish court dissolving the marriage through divorce becomes effective as soon as it becomes final.