Status zainteresowanego w postępowaniu o zmianę oznaczenia płci osoby transseksualnej

Abstract

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. This 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 identification 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. This 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.