Family Law in the Academic Research Output and Judicial Decisions of Professor Jerzy Ignatowicz

Abstract

Over several dozen years, Profesor Jerzy Ignatowicz combined his academic work and his
work as a Supreme Court judge. In his academic work, he mainly dealt with the issues of family law
(including the issues concerning the protection of the marital status rights), property law and cooperative
law. He dealt with similar issues in the majority of cases he tried as a Supreme Court judge.
The present article discusses the output of Professor J. Ignatowicz’s work both as a scholar
and a judge, his contribution to the development of family law, influence on the interpretation and
application of family law, as well as a permanent contribution to the development of the science of
family law.
Jerzy Ignatowicz’s academic research output includes over 180 publications. In the area of
family law, he is the author of considerable passages in collective works, including e.g. System of
family and guardianship law and commentaries to the Code of Family and Guardianship Law, and
treatises, articles, judicial glosses, reviews and the academic handbook Prawo rodzinne (Family
Law). This handbook, which after Professor’s death has been supplemented and updated by his student
and coworker, has been published since 1987 (last edition in 2012). J. Ignatowicz’s academic
works mainly deal with the issues of parental authority, foster care, custody, guardianship, protection
of the marital status, and personal and property relations between spouses. Such issues were also
involved in the cases Jerzy Ignatowicz tried as a Supreme Court judge. Some of his rulings became
legal doctrines.