Revindication of religious organizations’ properties in Poland: Thirty years’ experience of building a democratic state ruled by law
Revindication of religious organizations’ properties in Poland: Thirty years’ experience of building a democratic state ruled by law

Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes the provisions under which the property of legal entities of religious organizations in Poland nationalized during the Polish People’s Republic is revindicated after the year 1989. The paper discusses models and methods of regulating the property matters of church legal entities, taking into account numerous changes in the legal status due to subsequent amendments to the provisions as well as the evolution of their interpretation by the judicature and doctrine. Special attention is paid to debatable legal issues, including the unauthorized differentiation of the legal situations of individual religious organizations. It can be concluded that the legislator has consistently enfranchised all church legal entities by applying the status quo principle. The only provisions that raise objections are those of Art. 60 para. 6 of the Act on the relationship between the State and the Catholic Church and Art. 35 para. 3 of the Act on the relationship between the State and the Evangelical Methodist Church, according to which a complaint to a voivode on the failure to issue a decision can be submitted after a period of two years from the date of initiation of administrative proceedings. The regulatory proceedings introduced into the Polish legal system by the provisions of the Act of 1989 on the relationship between the State and the Catholic Church, duplicated in the provisions of the Acts on the relationship between the State and the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, and Jewish Religious Communities, as well as in the Act on guarantees of freedom of conscience and religion were original and innovative in many respects. Based on the proceedings, it was possible to pursue claims out-of-court with the participation of the interested parties, that is, church legal entities and the State. In retrospect, the regulatory proceedings can be considered an instrument of transitional justice. Over the years, however, as a result of the negligence of the legislator, that instrument has become increasingly inconsistent with the 1997 Constitution of the Republic of Poland and the standards set by it. With regard to the possibility of transferring agricultural property located in the Western and Northern Territories of Poland to legal entities of religious organizations, no ad quem deadline to submit applications has been established for legal entities of the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, additional restrictive criteria have been introduced and the list of entities authorized to transfer the property narrowed down. Allowing legal entities of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Evangelical Reformed Church, and Baptist Church to file new revindication requests in 2004 in the course of transforming the administrative proceedings into regulatory proceedings should be assessed negatively. The objections raised are mainly the result of the lack of a post-transition systemic solution to the issue of revindication not only of the property of religious organizations but, most of all, other entities. Even though 30 years have passed since the change in the political system in Poland, regulating property relations, including compensation for losses resulting from the activities of the communist authorities, remains an unsolved issue.

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