Udział organizacji społecznych ludu pracującego w postępowaniu cywilnym jako sposób umożliwiający pośredni wpływ przez władzę państwową na przebieg postępowania cywilnego oraz realizację autorytarnej formy władzy w okresie PRL
The Participation of Working People's Social Organizations in Civil Proceedings as a Means of Indirect State Influence and Authoritarian Rule in the Polish People's Republic

Summary/Abstract: The study describes the participation of workers’ associations in civil proceedings, a legal regulation from the Polish People’s Republic period that allowed for the indirect influence of state authorities on the course of civil proceedings and the implementation of an authoritarian form of government. The scope of powers of associations in civil proceedings, which were regulated in the Act of 16 November 1964, the Code of Civil Procedure—adopted during the period of the authoritarian rule of the dominant political party of the Polish United Workers’ Party—is outlined. The provisions of procedural law from this time were to provide the state with means of control over the conduct of civil proceedings. Due to the possibility of participation in civil proceedings by these organizations, the state indirectly secured its influence on the course of the proceedings concerning relations between the state and the citizens, and even between citizens. The procedural legitimacy that was granted to these organizations allowed for ensuring proper legal and procedural protection, especially in cases when the party or participant of the proceedings was a unit of the socialized economy. Civil proceedings, in which the state, through actions undertaken by associations, could interfere in the legal sphere of entities participating in these proceedings, constituted another tool and legal instrument allowing the state to influence private legal relations. It was also a manifestation of the authoritarian characteristics of the state.

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