Precedential and the law-making character of the Supreme Court’s rulings (some remarks on the Supreme Court’s resolution as of 14 September 2007)
The article deals with the case of a sanction provided for a defective legal act of a legal person (society) which serves as a background for discussion on a problem of precedential and law-making decisions of the Polish Supreme Court. As a matter of principle, courts in Poland are not empowered to create law. However, on closer examination of the case-law it appears that the abovementioned clause is false in many cases and often the fi nal result of judicial proceedings is in fact in the court’s hands. It seems that the main diff erence between the common law and the civil law is not precedential and the law-making character of rulings per se but the way in which they are reasoned. The case under discussion does not only neatly illustrate that it is high time to recognize the lawmaking character of judicial exposition of the existing law but also may be an instructive example of the current judicial approach to the separation of powers.