Komentarze do kodeksu cywilnego. Ewolucja – tożsamość – perspektywy

The article provides an in-depth portray of a commentary as a genre of legal scholarship in the Polish private law. Its main focus are the Polish-language commentaries to civil codes, including the 1932 Code of Obligations. This key part of the analysis is put against a broader backdrop of commentaries in Polish private law, with particular regard to commentaries in the family law. The text attempts to identify the form and role that commentaries have had for the identity of the Polish private law in its development since the beginning of the 20th century through various stages of its evolution (in the inter-war period, in the changing realities of the communist state in Poland and after the democratic transformation of the late 1980s and 1990s). Looking at the commentaries from these vantage points, the article identifies the long-lasting patterns and inspirations in creating commentaries in the Polish private law scholarship, and positions them against the comparative context of German commentaries (which undoubtedly have been the main stimuli for development of the Polish tradition of commentaries). The text also grapples with a number of more profound questions about the role of commentaries as a bridge between the scholarship and legal practice. In this regard it provides insights not only into the historical role of commentaries, but also into their future in the world where – due to unprecedented availability of digital sources – the access to information about law and its interpretation is open wider than ever.