The regulations governing the use of motor cars in the Second Republic of Poland

Abstract

The paper is an attempt to present the first Polish legal regulations that were directly applicable to the motor industry. Such regulations were drafted and implemented as a binding law in Poland only in 1921. The period of twenty years that followed its implementation was a time of a continuous development of motor car law that had gradually taken the form of more detailed and specific legal provisions. It is worthy a note that by 1937 a uniform regulation covering all types of motor car as well as the motor traffic rules had been adopted. Obviously, the regulations had to develop, and they did, to reflect the technical developments and the progress and advancements in technology in particular, and the motor industry in general. And yet, the motor car law was not reduced to invoking the legal provisions only. Together with the development of legislation as such, it also addressed current matters and formulated other specific solutions, pertaining, for instance, to fiscal and revenue regulations, or to the obligation of motor car owners to make their vehicles to the military forces in the peace time, or to the state for defence purposes.