The Application of the Law of Succession of the Code civil by the Judiciary of the Free City of Kraków – the Sawiczewscy Case

The aim of this paper is to present the in-depth study of the only one piece of the adjudication activity of the judiciary in the Free City of Cracow (1815–1846) – the Sawiczewscy case. Named after its subject, the division of the estate of well-known Cracow’s pharmacist and university professor Józef Sawiczewski, the case is the example of rich source of material for the researcher in the field of the application of the French law of succession in the Republic of Cracow. In its first part the article describes the case proceedings including written pleadings lodged by the parties, rulings of the Cracow’s courts: the Tribunal of First Instance, the Court of Appeal, the Court of Third Instance and also the opinion of the Professors and Doctors of the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University. Due to that detailed analysis, the process of the interpretation of the Code civil regulations by the Cracow’s lawyers can be fully understood and properly evaluated. The comparative base for that evaluation is presented in the second part of the paper, which outlined the nineteenth century French interpretation of institutions of the law of succession applied in the case, i.e. the restitutions (rapports) and the disposable proportion (quotité disponible). As regards this base the outcomes are unsatisfactory since the members of the judiciary of the Free City of Kraków failed to meet not only the original intent but also the contemporary French understanding of the law of succession of the Code civil.

* Artykuł został przygotowany w ramach projektu badawczego Narodowego Centrum Nauki nr 2017/27/B/HS5/01308.

The aim of this paper is to present the in-depth study of the only one piece of the adjudication activity of the judiciary in the Free City of Cracow (1815–1846) – the Sawiczewscy case. Named after its subject, the division of the estate of well-known Cracow’s pharmacist and university professor Józef Sawiczewski, the case is the example of rich source of material for the researcher in the field of the application of the French law of succession in the Republic of Cracow. In its first part the article describes the case proceedings including written pleadings lodged by the parties, rulings of the Cracow’s courts: the Tribunal of First Instance, the Court of Appeal, the Court of Third Instance and also the opinion of the Professors and Doctors of the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University. Due to that detailed analysis, the process of the interpretation of the Code civil regulations by the Cracow’s lawyers can be fully understood and properly evaluated. The comparative base for that evaluation is presented in the second part of the paper, which outlined the nineteenth century French interpretation of institutions of the law of succession applied in the case, i.e. the restitutions (rapports) and the disposable proportion (quotité disponible). As regards this base the outcomes are unsatisfactory since the members of the judiciary of the Free City of Kraków failed to meet not only the original intent but also the contemporary French understanding of the law of succession of the Code civil.

* Artykuł został przygotowany w ramach projektu badawczego Narodowego Centrum Nauki nr 2017/27/B/HS5/01308.