Circumvention of law is inherent to all legal systems. It is possible - by undertaking certain transactions - to exclude the application of statutory provisions that prevent the accomplishment of certain results and, to instead, take advantage of provisions that allow the achievement of these results. What differs between legal systems is the significance that each legal system attaches to the concept of circumvention of law. Dorota Miler answers the question of whether there is a theoretical and practical justification for distinguishing circumvention of law from other causes of defects in legal transactions and its explicit legal regulation based on the comparison of Polish, German and European law, jurisprudence, and legal literature. The author concludes that circumvention of law is an independent legal institution in Polish private law.