Modern Polish legal history has seen the introduction of three penal codes: in 1932; in 1969, during the communist era; and in 1997.
One of the most important tasks of the new government was to unify the law inherited from the three partitioners' different legal systems.
Article 1 of the code defined the penal responsibility, stating that a person is a subject to punishment only when its conduct constituted a criminal offence at the time when it took place.
[3] This fundamental rule of the modern criminal law made the code a very up-to-date document.
Professor Juliusz Bardach observed[4] that the Codification Commission, having followed three basic concepts, was able to create a fair example of penal legislation.
The introduction of preventive measures, criticized by many lawyers, meant that mentally ill people and recidivists could be separated from the society.
The Nazi occupation was very harsh for Polish society, and all its Jewish members were put into ghettoes.
Later, when Die Endlösung policy was carried out, any help to the Jewish people was scourged, by and large to death.
Although the new government upheld the Penal Code of 1932, it was not an obstacle for putting political enemies to jails.
Special national security acts issued in the late 1940s and early 1950s, allowed communist judges to sentence many people to death without a fair trial.
Chaired by Jerzy Sawicki and Władysław Wolter, the Codification Commission put forward a project in 1963.
In the late 1980s, when the régime was losing its powers, the Penal Law Reform Commission was formed.
The Commission, influenced by its two most prominent figures, prof. Kazimierz Buchała and prof. Andrzej Zoll, proposed a very liberal draft, which constituted an anathema to the code of 1969.
These are: Article 135 states that anyone who publicly insults (Polish: kto publicznie znieważa) the President of Poland is punishable by up to three years of imprisonment.
Sections 2 and 3 introduce a more strict sentencing in cases of particular cruelty, using firearms or explosives, taking hostages, raping, robbery, multiple victims or relapse.