Consequences of the 1944 Decree to Landowners and the Modern Notion of the State of Law
The article continues to analyze present constitutional and civil law consequences of communist decrees 1944–45 for landowners. The author suggests that the landowners and their heirs should use civil procedure for seeking restitution as they should vindicate movables and real estates. The practice of the agrarian reform in Poland after World War II often violated the law binding at that time, especially when seizing mansions and parks, and the property placed there. The author is convinced there is no important reason not to control constitutionality of the regulations today, i.e. not according to ‘constitutional standards’ of the after-war communist period, but under the democratic rule of 70 years later. There is, however, no doubt that the acquisition of land by peasants was legal at the time of the reform. Now, their ownership cannot be questioned and it has to be considered legitimate.