The Act Amending the Civil Code and Several Other Acts of 18 March 2011 (Dz.U. No 85, item 458) introduced the construction of a specific bequest to Polish law. This institution – based on the Roman law concept of legatum per vindicationem – was not regulated in the Civil Code of the Republic of Poland of 23 April 1964 (the Polish Civil Code, CC) nor in the Decree of 8 October 1946 – the Law of Succession (Dz.U. No 60, item 328 as amended), due to the fact that the Polish Codification Commission decided to give stronger protection to creditors of the deceased than to legatees. The Polish legislator, when deciding to introduce the construction of a specific bequest into the Civil Code, also passed on the opportunity to explicitly regulate deathbed donations (donatio mortis causa) or the testamentary division of the inheritance.
