Abstract

The article focuses on the period after 1918 when after Poland had regained independence efforts were immediately started to unify Polish law, including commercial law. Following over a century long period of partitions in 1918 there were as many as 5 different legal systems functioning within the boundaries of the Polish state. That is why the unification of law was crucial from the viewpoint of the reconstruction of the country after considerable war destructions and creating a modern economy and society. The first proposals for a new regulation concerning joint-stock companies were developed already in 1917. They were used as a basis for further work of the Codification Commission established in 1919. Meanwhile, in the year 1919--1924 the state authorities issued a number of normative acts based on solutions referring to the concession system with respect to establishment of joint-stock companies. After 1924, however, there was a growing pressure of the industrial community demanding liberalization of the system. Ultimately, in the 1928 joint-stock companies regulations that were uniform for the entire country a compromise solution was adopted, i.e. a mixed concession-normative system. The 1928 joint-stock companies regulations were later on used as a basis for the section of the 1934 Commercial Code dedicated to joint-stock companies. The regulations adopted in 1934 survived not only World War II, but also the systemic and political transformations and continued to be applied until 31 December 2000.