Notes on the Invalidity of a Legal Transaction Contrary to the Principles of Community Life in Polish Civil Law – Against the Background of Court Jurisprudence

The purpose of this article is to analyze the judicial application of civil law in assessing the content of legal transactions from the point of view of the general clause of principles of community life. The starting point for detailed consideration is to determine the system of extra-legal values on which Polish civil law is based. The importance of equity and justice in civil law relations becomes apparent through judicial review of the content of legal transactions. The consequence of the contradiction of the content or purpose of a legal transaction with the fundamental values referred to in the clause of principles of community life is the invalidity of such a transaction. The main conclusion of the article is that when the need to protect the social interest falls away and the legal transaction – which is an expression of the subject’s private law autonomy – is in accordance with positive law, it is in principle not subject to review from the point of view of compliance with the principles of community life. The conclusions also emphasize that the role of the court is to perceive and articulate in a given case the fundamental social values of truth, goodness and justice, the realization of which civil law is also supposed to serve.