The systematics of the specific part of the law of obligations, and the place of agency contracts sensu largo : (a voice in the discussion)

The quarterly The Transformation of Private Law (Transformacje Prawa Prywatnego) (issue 1/2012) recently published an analysis of the systematics of the specific part of the law of obligations that is very important in the light of the new draft of the Civil Code prepared by the Civil Law Codification Commission (Komisja Kodyfikacyjna Prawa Cywilnego). The existing scheme of the Civil Code in this regard has already met with criticism that seems to be growing. The discussion takes place during the preparation of the new draft of the Civil Code by the Civil Law Codification Commission at the Minister of Justice. The search for new solutions in such circumstances is a natural phenomenon, though the development of a new formula for the systematics of the specific part of the law of obligations is undoubtedly a difficult task. This is because neither the method of comparative law covering, in particular, new codifications of national laws enacted in the past 20 years and the European soft law regulations, nor the historical method lead to clear conclusions regarding the most favorable solutions when it comes to a detailed systematic of the specific obligations part in the draft of the Polish Civil Code. In this article, the author refers to the proposals made by Z. Radwański, J. Pisuliński, and M. Pecyna, together with F. Zoll and R. Szostak, and formulates her own ideas. She firmly advocates for grouping together contracts that are similar to each other, with a small general part in each group covering common regulations applicable to all contracts in a given group. According to the author, the systematics in the new codification should above all be functional and facilitate the adoption by the judiciary of a rational methodology for the interpretation and application of laws, for instance named contracts gathered into groups, as well as facilitate the search for a legal regime of unnamed contracts (or mixed, given the need to distinguish them).