Poland’s top administrative court has started forcing officials to register same-sex marriages performed abroad—even though the country’s constitution defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
The rulings by the Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) stop short of formally changing the law, but in practice they are doing just that.
They follow a 2025 judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which warned that refusing to recognise such marriages could breach EU rules on free movement and discrimination.
Polish judges are now ordering civil registries to enter these unions into official records, even though no Polish law provides for them.
Article 18 of the Polish Constitution is explicit: marriage is between a man and a woman. Yet the NSA has ruled that, in these cases, EU law must take priority in administrative practice.
The result is a shift driven not by parliament, but by court rulings. What politicians have not approved is being introduced anyway, case by case, entry by entry.
Legal group Ordo Iuris says the line has been crossed, calling the rulings “an unconstitutional capitulation to EU ideologues” and warning that judges are “rewriting the law from the bench” rather than leaving the issue to elected lawmakers.
Once these marriages are entered into the civil registry, they trigger real legal effects—granting residence rights, changing civil status, and giving official recognition that Polish law itself does not provide.
The government of Donald Tusk and its liberal allies take the opposite view, arguing that Poland is simply complying with EU law. The equality minister has suggested no new legislation is needed, as long as registries apply the court’s rulings.
The outcome is a three-way standoff: courts enforcing EU-based decisions, a government willing to accept them, and an opposition preparing to challenge the rulings before the Constitutional Tribunal.
For now, Poland has not legalised same-sex marriage. But as more foreign unions are entered into the registry, they begin to produce the same legal effects as marriages the country has never voted to recognise.
