Certificate of civil status and same-sex marriages and civil partnerships

The paper describes a new type of certificate - a certificate of civil status - which was introduced by the new Polish Law on Civil Status Act of November 28, 2014. The main aim of a certificate of civil status is being a proof of civil status as a whole. Because of that it might be used by a person who wants to get married to certificate that he or she is single. Unlikely a certificate of marital capacity, certificate of civil status does not contain the data of a person with whom the marriage is to be contracted. That is the reason why it might be useful for people who want to enter into same‑sex marriage or same‑sex civil partnership abroad and who are unable to get a certificate of marital capacity for those purposes. The paper also shows that in many cases the proof of marital capacity under Polish law will not be required, as it will not be Polish law which will apply to the capacity to enter into same‑sex marriage or same‑sex civil partnership. The paper also contains the results of comparative studies on conflict of laws rules concerning same‑sex marriages and civil partnerships and also provides some solution on grounds of Polish Private International Law on finding the law applicable to same‑sex marriages and civil partnership.