Status zainteresowanego w postępowaniu o zmianę oznaczenia płci osoby transseksualnej

Abstrakt

This article addresses the issue of who qualifies as an interested party in proceedings concerning
the change of a gender marker. The author notes that a resolution of the full bench of the Civil Chamber
of the Polish Supreme Court, issued on 4 March 2025, altered the established practice by designating
the non-contentious procedure – applied by analogy to Article 36 of the Act on Civil Status Records
– the appropriate mode of proceeding. Th is marked a departure from the previous approach, which
treated such cases as contentious proceedings under Article 189 of the Code of Civil Procedure. As a result
of this change, a question arose regarding the identifi cation of participants in the proceedings. In the
aforementioned resolution, the Supreme Court held that in proceedings for changing a gender marker,
the only participant – aside from the applicant (a transsexual person) – may be the applicant’s spouse.
Consequently, other family members, including parents (who under the previous practice were sued
pursuant to Article 189 of the Code of Civil Procedure) and the applicant’s children, were excluded from
the category of interested parties. Th is article is critical of this limitation, and argues that the concept of
an ‘interested party’ under Article 510 of the Code of Civil Procedure has been interpreted broadly in
judicial practice concerning non-contentious proceedings. It encompasses not only direct interests but
also indirect ones that relate to the nature and consequences of the judgment. Emotional or sentimental interests are also relevant. Additionally, the legislature has recognized family ties as a personal interest
protected by law, and changing a person’s gender marker may infringe upon this interest. Therefore, I
contend that the concept of an ‘interested party’ should also include family members other than the applicant’s
spouse.