Legis Cortex is a map of a country’s entire body of law. It shows every rule, exception and dependency, so a country can see what a change will touch before it makes it.
Here is how it works, on one real rule. See one rule drawn
One sentence of Polish law, lifted from the Labour Code, cut into its parts, drawn with every connection it does not state, and set back into the whole.
Dz.U. 2025 poz. 277 · art. 41 · p. 19 · sha256 d6ae7369…
Who the employer Pracodawca
May not may not nie może
Do what give notice wypowiedzieć umowy o pracę
When during leave w czasie urlopu pracownika,
When other justified absence a także w czasie innej
usprawiedliwionej nieobecności
pracownika w pracy,
Until unless the period allowing dismissal without notice has passed jeżeli nie upłynął jeszcze okres uprawniający do rozwiązania umowy o pracę bez wypowiedzenia.
art. 41¹ § 1 · p. 19
„W razie ogłoszenia upadłości lub likwidacji pracodawcy, nie stosuje się przepisów art. 38, 39 i 41 (…)”
If the employer goes bankrupt or is liquidated, art. 38, 39 and 41 do not apply.
art. 53 § 1 · p. 21
„Pracodawca może rozwiązać umowę o pracę bez wypowiedzenia:
1) jeżeli niezdolność pracownika do pracy wskutek choroby trwa: (…)”
The employer may end the contract without notice once sickness absence lasts beyond set periods.
the rule
Art. 41 depends on art. 53 § 1
Art. 41 applies unless art. 41¹ § 1 applies
Justified absence is defined in another act
I the text
II its structure
III what it requires worked example
IV what its words mean worked example
V when it holds schematic
A prohibition. The employer · may not · give notice · during leave or other justified absence · until the period in art. 53 § 1 has passed · not in bankruptcy or liquidation (art. 41¹ § 1).
„umowa o pracę”: used as the Code uses it. „usprawiedliwiona nieobecność”: defined outside the Code, in a regulation.
in force
applies
takes effect
What you have just seen in one article holds for the whole law.
A state runs on its law. Every wage paid, every permit granted and every verdict given rests on sentences that someone wrote.
Those sentences arrive in pieces. Poland’s official journal publishes thousands of legal acts every year.1 Laws are amended many times over, by many hands.2
Each piece is written on its own. A rule sits in one article, the period that limits it in another, its exception in a third. An amendment to one can change the others without naming them.
Yet every citizen is presumed to know the law.3 No one can know it whole. The cost of that gap falls on courts, on firms and on people who did nothing wrong.
A bill changes the provisions it cites. It can also change provisions it never mentions. This is how such a change looks, and how it is caught.
Illustrative example A hypothetical bill. Figures marked † are invented for the demonstration.
art. 53 § 1 pkt 1 · in force today
Pracodawca może rozwiązać umowę o pracę bez wypowiedzenia:
1) jeżeli niezdolność pracownika do pracy wskutek choroby trwa:
a) dłużej niż 3 miesiące replaced by 2 miesiące† – gdy pracownik był zatrudniony u danego pracodawcy krócej niż 6 miesięcy,
b) dłużej niż łączny okres pobierania z tego tytułu wynagrodzenia i zasiłku (…)
Amended The bill shortens this period.
art. 41 · not cited by the bill
Pracodawca nie może wypowiedzieć umowy o pracę w czasie urlopu pracownika, a także w czasie innej usprawiedliwionej nieobecności pracownika w pracy, jeżeli nie upłynął jeszcze okres uprawniający do rozwiązania umowy o pracę bez wypowiedzenia.
Changed without being cited Its protection now ends sooner.
art. 41¹ § 1 · the exception
W razie ogłoszenia upadłości lub likwidacji pracodawcy, nie stosuje się przepisów art. 38, 39 i 41 (…)
Checked, unaffected Bankruptcy and liquidation are untouched.
Verdict
1† provision amended · 1† protection changed without being cited · review before the vote
See what a bill touches before the vote, including the provisions it never cites.
The check in Pl. V, run across the whole of the law.
Read the law as it stood on the day of the event, not as it reads today.
Three dates are kept apart: when a rule is in force, when it applies, when it takes effect.
Know which obligations a change reaches, and from which day.
Every obligation traced back to the sentence that creates it.
Law that holds together. A rule you can find and read whole, with its exceptions in plain sight.
In Pl. III, the exception that decides the answer never mentions sick leave.
A preface to the method, in plain words.
We start from the official journal. Every conclusion points back to the exact sentence it rests on, with its page and the file it was read from.
We read each act sentence by sentence and name what every sentence does: who must, who must not, who may, on what condition, with which exception.
We connect every piece to what it depends on: the definition it uses, the exception that limits it, the sanction that enforces it, the regulation that carries it out, wherever they live.
We keep time. A rule enters into force, applies and takes effect, and these are not always the same day. We keep all three.
Machines propose. Rules verify. People decide.
Uncertainty is shown, never hidden. Nothing is published that cannot be checked.
Dz.U. 2025 poz. 277 · art. 41 · p. 19 · sha256 d6ae7369…
Law is written by many people over many decades. It has gaps, overlaps and words that mean one thing in one act and another thing elsewhere. We do not smooth these over.
Every line on these plates says how sure it is. A link we have only detected in the text is drawn as detected. A layer worked out by hand for one rule is marked as a worked example. Where a reading is uncertain, the page says so, and says why.
Legis Cortex is at an early stage. We are starting with Poland and building for any country. If you make, apply or study a nation’s law, we would like to show you its anatomy.
Request a briefingcontact@legiscortex.com