Czasopismo obejmuje artykuły i rozprawy naukowe historyków prawa oraz historyków doktryn politycznych i prawnych z polskich i zagranicznych ośrodków naukowych. Zamierzeniem było umożliwienie publikacji rezultatów badań z zakresu szeroko pojętej historii prawa, historii państwa oraz historii doktryn politycznych i prawnych.
Czasopismo obejmuje artykuły i rozprawy naukowe historyków prawa oraz historyków doktryn politycznych i prawnych z polskich i zagranicznych ośrodków naukowych. Zamierzeniem redaktorów i pomysłodawców wydawnictwa było umożliwienie publikacji rezultatów badań z zakresu szeroko pojętej historii prawa, historii państwa oraz historii doktryn politycznych i prawnych. Czasopismo zawiera także dział recenzji oraz kronikę wydarzeń naukowych.
Redaktorzy zeszytu 2:
Maciej Mikuła, Kacper Górski
Redaktor naczelny:
Krystyna Chojnicka
Zastępca redaktora naczelnego:
Maciej Mikuła
Publikacja została sfinansowana ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego przyznanych w ramach POB Heritage programu „Inicjatywa Doskonałości – Uczelnia Badawcza” w Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
Czasopismo uzyskało wsparcie Ministra Edukacji i Nauki w ramach programu „Rozwój czasopism naukowych” na lata 2023–2024 (umowa nr RCN/SP/0307/2021/1).
Redaktorzy zeszytu 1:
Kacper Górski, Maciej Mikuła
Redaktor naczelny:
Krystyna Chojnicka
Publikacja została sfinansowana ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego przyznanych w ramach POB Heritage programu „Inicjatywa Doskonałości – Uczelnia Badawcza” w Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
Czasopismo uzyskało wsparcie Ministra Edukacji i Nauki w ramach programu „Rozwój czasopism naukowych” na lata 2023–2024 (umowa nr RCN/SP/0307/2021/1).
Redaktorzy zeszytu 4:
Maciej Mikuła, Anna Tarnowska, Kacper Górski
Redaktor tematyczny:
Dorota Malec
Redaktor naczelny:
Krystyna Chojnicka
Publikacja została sfinansowana ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego przyznanych w ramach POB Heritage programu „Inicjatywa Doskonałości – Uczelnia Badawcza” w Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
Czasopismo uzyskało wsparcie Ministra Edukacji i Nauki w ramach programu „Rozwój czasopism naukowych” na lata 2023–2024 (umowa nr RCN/SP/0307/2021/1).
Anna Tarnowska,
Dorota Wiśniewska,
Jan Halberda,
Michał Gałędek,
Iwona Barwicka-Tylek,
Maciej Mikuła,
Beata J. Kowalczyk,
Izabela Leraczyk,
Magdalena Wilczek-Karczewska,
Łukasz Jan Korporowicz
Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa,
Tom 17, Zeszyt 4,
Early Access
Anna Tarnowska,
Dorota Wiśniewska,
Jan Halberda,
Michał Gałędek,
Iwona Barwicka-Tylek,
Maciej Mikuła,
Beata J. Kowalczyk,
Izabela Leraczyk,
Magdalena Wilczek-Karczewska,
Łukasz Jan Korporowicz
Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa,
Tom 17, Zeszyt 4,
Early Access
Publikacja została sfinansowana ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego przyznanych w ramach POB Heritage programu „Inicjatywa Doskonałości – Uczelnia Badawcza” w Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
Czasopismo uzyskało wsparcie Ministra Edukacji i Nauki w ramach programu „Rozwój czasopism naukowych” na lata 2023–2024 (umowa nr RCN/SP/0307/2021/1).
Publikacja została sfinansowana ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego przyznanych w ramach POB Heritage programu „Inicjatywa Doskonałości – Uczelnia Badawcza” w Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
Czasopismo uzyskało wsparcie Ministra Edukacji i Nauki w ramach programu „Rozwój czasopism naukowych” na lata 2023–2024 (umowa nr RCN/SP/0307/2021/1).
Dofinansowano ze środków spółki Grupy Azoty Zakłady Azotowe ZAK S.A. w 2023 r.
The traditional punishment for parricidium under Roman law was the poena cullei (“the penalty of the sack”). Its continued use in late antiquity is confirmed by the constitution of Emperor Constantine the Great later adopted in the Theodosian Code of 438 (C. Th. 9, 15, 1). It is not clear, however, whether this punishment was also applied in practice to pars Occidentis in the period after the abdication of Emperor Romulus Augustulus (476). The official royal correspondence preserved in Cassiodorus’ Variae mentions the penalty of exile imposed for fratricide (Cass., Variae 1, 18). The aim of the study is an attempt to interpret the indicated letter of Theodoric the Great, as well as a number of other sources (the provisions of Edictum Theoderici regis and Breviarium Alarici) to reconstruct the penal policy of this ruler towards the perpetrators of parricidium and homicidium.
The propination rights provided for the exclusive right to produce and sell alcoholic beverages. In the 19th century, however, these rights, together with the serfdom, became a relic of a bygone era, having no place in the existing social and legal system, which ultimately led to its abolition. The article presents research problems related to the propination rights in Galicia. The first part of the article presents the definition and nature of propination in Poland, its connection to the feudal system and the phenomenon of forced propination. The second part of the article discusses the propination rights in Galicia during the first half of the 19th century, taking into account social, political and legal factors. It presents the issue of propination during the period of Galician autonomy in the second half of the 19th century as well. This part includes also issues of competent authorities and the ultimate abolition of these rights on the basis of the Act of December 30, 1875, and the Act of April 22, 1889.
Issues Concerning Legal Protection of Artistic Performances in Poland in the Years 1919–1994 (Part II)
The article presents the views of the legal doctrine and the discussion concerning the attempts to extend the legal regulation of artistic performances in Poland in the period after World War II, including the discussions in the Sejm of the first and second term in the early 1990s, accompanying the enactment of the currently binding Act on Copyright and Related Rights. During this period, many bills – the first ones from the 1960s and 1970s – failed to be translated into the language of the current legislation. In the period immediately after World War II, the doctrine took the position that the protection of performers could be derived from the provisions protecting the creators themselves. In practice, however, protection was implemented through the provisions of civil law and labour law. It was only after the change of the social and political system in Poland in 1989 that the work of the Sejm of successive terms of office led to the enactment of legislation protecting the rights of performers.
On the Activities of the Special Court in Ternopil (Sondergericht Tarnopol) 1941–1944
The article concerns the activities of the Special Court in Ternopil (Sondergericht Tarnopol), one of the German special courts operating in the territory of the General Government, in the Galicia district, in the years 1941–1944. Investigating this topic is justified by the lack of even fragmentary findings. Due to the state of preservation of the sources, I tried to answer the question about the nationality of the defendants; what punishments they received; if and in what cases the death penalty was imposed; who directed the work of the Sondergericht; what judges were its members and what prosecutors participated in the hearings before the Sondergericht; and where the lawyers involved in the work of the Sondergericht came from. The sources used in the research included archival materials (court and personal files), literature and the press. The research resulted in new, original findings regarding the Special Court in Ternopil.
* Artykuł został opracowany w ramach projektu badawczego finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki (2020/39/B/HS5/02111).
The Emperor’s New Clothes – Remarks on Krzysztof Burczak’s Book
The review essay of the book on quinque compilationes antiquae by Krzysztof Burczak offers a critique of the scope and method applied to the research on the sources of medieval canon law within this monograph. The two objectives or hypotheses of the book are too broad and were not properly justified. The research was based on limited and outdated methods. The approach to the sources of quinque compilationes did not take into account the complicated history of the transmission of canon law texts. The author overlooked the relevance of the science of canon law (e.g., glosses) and application of compilations in courts which were crucial for defending his claims. Unfortunately, the book proves that the state and quality of the history of universal canon law in Poland resembles the emperor’s new clothes.
* Praca powstała w wyniku realizacji projektu badawczego o nr 2020/36/C/HS5/00365 finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki.
Lost Minutes of the Sittings of the Sub-commission on the Law on Kinship and Care Relationships of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland in 1939 (Part IV)
When Poland regained independence in 1918, the different legal systems of the various partitioning states all remained in force on its territory. Drafts of uniform laws were to be drawn up by the Codification Commission established in 1919. One of its tasks was the preparation of a draft of the family and guardianship law. The sub-commission addressing this division of civil law worked until the outbreak of World War Two. The minutes of its sittings disappeared in September 1939 along with the total output of the Codification Commission. However, copies of minutes of the sittings of the subcommission held in 1939 were found in Kazimierz Przybyłowski’s collection of books donated to the Faculty of Law and Administration of University of Silesia in Katowice. These minutes shed new light on the final phase of the codification works. Publication of these documents will enable further detailed research on the history of family law in interwar Poland. The fourth part of the publication consists of minutes nos. 197–201, and includes the reconstruction of articles 1–16, 40–58, and the draft of articles 59–78a as well.
The traditional punishment for parricidium under Roman law was the poena cullei (“the penalty of the sack”). Its continued use in late antiquity is confirmed by the constitution of Emperor Constantine the Great later adopted in the Theodosian Code of 438 (C. Th. 9, 15, 1). It is not clear, however, whether this punishment was also applied in practice to pars Occidentis in the period after the abdication of Emperor Romulus Augustulus (476). The official royal correspondence preserved in Cassiodorus’ Variae mentions the penalty of exile imposed for fratricide (Cass., Variae 1, 18). The aim of the study is an attempt to interpret the indicated letter of Theodoric the Great, as well as a number of other sources (the provisions of Edictum Theoderici regis and Breviarium Alarici) to reconstruct the penal policy of this ruler towards the perpetrators of parricidium and homicidium.
The propination rights provided for the exclusive right to produce and sell alcoholic beverages. In the 19th century, however, these rights, together with the serfdom, became a relic of a bygone era, having no place in the existing social and legal system, which ultimately led to its abolition. The article presents research problems related to the propination rights in Galicia. The first part of the article presents the definition and nature of propination in Poland, its connection to the feudal system and the phenomenon of forced propination. The second part of the article discusses the propination rights in Galicia during the first half of the 19th century, taking into account social, political and legal factors. It presents the issue of propination during the period of Galician autonomy in the second half of the 19th century as well. This part includes also issues of competent authorities and the ultimate abolition of these rights on the basis of the Act of December 30, 1875, and the Act of April 22, 1889.
Issues Concerning Legal Protection of Artistic Performances in Poland in the Years 1919–1994 (Part II)
The article presents the views of the legal doctrine and the discussion concerning the attempts to extend the legal regulation of artistic performances in Poland in the period after World War II, including the discussions in the Sejm of the first and second term in the early 1990s, accompanying the enactment of the currently binding Act on Copyright and Related Rights. During this period, many bills – the first ones from the 1960s and 1970s – failed to be translated into the language of the current legislation. In the period immediately after World War II, the doctrine took the position that the protection of performers could be derived from the provisions protecting the creators themselves. In practice, however, protection was implemented through the provisions of civil law and labour law. It was only after the change of the social and political system in Poland in 1989 that the work of the Sejm of successive terms of office led to the enactment of legislation protecting the rights of performers.
On the Activities of the Special Court in Ternopil (Sondergericht Tarnopol) 1941–1944
The article concerns the activities of the Special Court in Ternopil (Sondergericht Tarnopol), one of the German special courts operating in the territory of the General Government, in the Galicia district, in the years 1941–1944. Investigating this topic is justified by the lack of even fragmentary findings. Due to the state of preservation of the sources, I tried to answer the question about the nationality of the defendants; what punishments they received; if and in what cases the death penalty was imposed; who directed the work of the Sondergericht; what judges were its members and what prosecutors participated in the hearings before the Sondergericht; and where the lawyers involved in the work of the Sondergericht came from. The sources used in the research included archival materials (court and personal files), literature and the press. The research resulted in new, original findings regarding the Special Court in Ternopil.
* Artykuł został opracowany w ramach projektu badawczego finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki (2020/39/B/HS5/02111).
The Emperor’s New Clothes – Remarks on Krzysztof Burczak’s Book
The review essay of the book on quinque compilationes antiquae by Krzysztof Burczak offers a critique of the scope and method applied to the research on the sources of medieval canon law within this monograph. The two objectives or hypotheses of the book are too broad and were not properly justified. The research was based on limited and outdated methods. The approach to the sources of quinque compilationes did not take into account the complicated history of the transmission of canon law texts. The author overlooked the relevance of the science of canon law (e.g., glosses) and application of compilations in courts which were crucial for defending his claims. Unfortunately, the book proves that the state and quality of the history of universal canon law in Poland resembles the emperor’s new clothes.
* Praca powstała w wyniku realizacji projektu badawczego o nr 2020/36/C/HS5/00365 finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki.
Lost Minutes of the Sittings of the Sub-commission on the Law on Kinship and Care Relationships of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland in 1939 (Part IV)
When Poland regained independence in 1918, the different legal systems of the various partitioning states all remained in force on its territory. Drafts of uniform laws were to be drawn up by the Codification Commission established in 1919. One of its tasks was the preparation of a draft of the family and guardianship law. The sub-commission addressing this division of civil law worked until the outbreak of World War Two. The minutes of its sittings disappeared in September 1939 along with the total output of the Codification Commission. However, copies of minutes of the sittings of the subcommission held in 1939 were found in Kazimierz Przybyłowski’s collection of books donated to the Faculty of Law and Administration of University of Silesia in Katowice. These minutes shed new light on the final phase of the codification works. Publication of these documents will enable further detailed research on the history of family law in interwar Poland. The fourth part of the publication consists of minutes nos. 197–201, and includes the reconstruction of articles 1–16, 40–58, and the draft of articles 59–78a as well.
Publikacja została sfinansowana ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego przyznanych w ramach POB Heritage programu „Inicjatywa Doskonałości – Uczelnia Badawcza” w Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
Czasopismo uzyskało wsparcie Ministra Edukacji i Nauki w ramach programu „Rozwój czasopism naukowych” na lata 2023–2024 (umowa nr RCN/SP/0307/2021/1).
Dofinansowano ze środków spółki Grupy Azoty Zakłady Azotowe ZAK S.A. w 2023 r.
The article presents the image of an attorney as characterized in Old Polish literature from the 16th and 17th centuries. It reflected, to some extent, the attitude of the people of the time (primarily the nobility) towards the legal profession. There is no doubt that the perception of attorneys by Old Polish society was unequivocally negative. They were portrayed as greedy, dishonest men, liars with no respect for the law and even instigators of non-compliance with the law. Literary works and political writings broadly condemned such behaviors. However, this stereotype applied only to professional attorneys-at-law. By no means were non-professional agents (attorneys in fact) attacked, nor was the institution of the power of attorney itself criticized. It seems that this sort of critical attitude was not estate-based (many attorneys were noblemen), although it is possible that the low descent of lawyers influenced the virulence of the criticism. The paper attempts to answer the question as to what extent the literary image of an attorney corresponded to reality. It seems that the works comprised objective reflections on the legal profession and the emotional attitudes of individuals (including the authors themselves) or social groups. It is noteworthy that these pieces of literature often regarded the entire Polish legal system of the time as dysfunctional. Nevertheless, the recurrence of motifs such as greediness or dishonesty gives reason to believe that at least some of these allegations were not unfounded. At the same time, it should be noted that this image of a lawyer corresponded with the stereotype present in European and non-European culture from antiquity to contemporary times.
* This article is an English translation of the paper published in Polish in Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History in 2023. See Górski, “Wizerunek pełnomocnika procesowego”. The original article was prepared on the basis of materials collected and compiled during the implementation of the project “Starosta krakowski jako organ sądownictwa w pierwszej połowie XVII wieku” (The Captain of Kraków as a Judicial Body in the First Half of the 17th Century), financed by the Minister of Science and Higher Education under the “Diamond Grant” program, No. DI2013 000543.
The subject of the analysis concerns one of the administrative-legal aspects related to military requisitions in the period of the Duchy of Warsaw, namely, the claims of the population resulting from unsatisfied dues for war requisitions and material losses in households which occurred as a result of military operations conducted on Polish soil in the early 19th century. In light of the regulations adopted by the authorities of the Duchy of Warsaw, these claims were to be settled in the manner indicated, while future public burdens were to be settled on the basis of the principle of equity in the form of co-equation, i.e. the equalization of duties for the benefit of the army. The Central Liquidation Commission – the state body appointed to carry out the liquidation of claims – was established in 1808. Its main duty was to carry out activities such as the receipt, consideration and determination of claims against the State Treasury.
* This article is an English translation of the paper published in Polish in Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History in 2022. See: Konarski, “Komisja Centralna Likwidacyjna.”
The article focuses on the problem of using legal heritage based on the example of the Constitution of 3 May 1791. This issue is considered in relation to two selected moments in the history of the Congress Kingdom of Poland – 1814/1815 and 1831. What connects them and, at the same time, makes them unique periods in the political and constitutional history of Polish territories under the partitions is the relative freedom the Polish elites had in their right to decide on the constitutional foundations of their own statehood. In 1814/1815, Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski was granted the emperor’s consent to prepare a draft which, after corrections, became the basis of the Constitutional Act granted by Alexander I on November 27, 1815. Similarly, in 1831, after the dethronement of Tsar Nicholas I, the insurgent elites were free to embark on an unfettered constitutional debate on the systemic reform of the state. Both in 1814/1815 and in 1831, Polish political and intellectual elites faced a dilemma as to whether the Constitution of 3 May could serve mainly as a monument to and symbol of Polish history, or whether it still had the potential to be directly applied; and if so, then to what extent and under what conditions? The publication is devoted to exploring the answers to these questions.
* This article is an English translation of the paper published in Polish in Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History in 2022. See: Gałędek, “Czy Konstytucja 3 maja.” The publication was prepared as part of the project “Dispute over the interpretation of the constitution of Kingdom of Poland as a formative element of Polish political liberalism”, financed by the National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki) on the basis of agreements no. UMO-2018/29/B/HS5/01165.
The Springtime of Nations in Germany is mostly associated with the views of various moderate liberals who played leading roles during these revolutionary events. The case is different when it comes to the members of the most radical wing within the liberal movement, the so-called “democrats.” Their ideas are described far less frequently. The article presented analyzes the idea of human rights in the view of Gustav Struve – one of the most important figures in the German democratic movement. During the German Springtime of Nations, the notion of human rights was one of the most frequently discussed but also variably understood problems. G. Struve’s views regarding this question refer not only to the idea of human rights, they also form a kind of political manifesto including solutions for various problems encountered by average citizens along with suggestions concerning an equitable structure of the social order. These postulates were revolutionary and radical but often incoherent. Thus, they fit well into the characteristics of the whole German democratic movement in the first half of the 19th century, which was seen as an unpopular, unsystematic, eclectic and immature phenomenon. The article first describes G. Struve’s life in the context of various events of the German Springtime of Nations. Subsequently, it analyzes the notion of the human being, his functioning in the social community and the definition of his rights. The article ends with an analysis of the material content of the concept of human rights in the view of the described German radical.
* This article is an English translation of the paper published in Polish in Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History in 2022. See Lesiński, “«Wohlstand, Bildung und Freiheit für Alle.»Idea praw człowieka.”
The paper deals with two different political interpretations of presidential power under the Third and Fifth French Republics, which clearly changed the position of the head of state in relation to the letter of constitutional acts that were in force at the time. Both of these interpretations were imposed by the presidents in office in the first years after the proper structures of the system of government had been established. The former (commonly known as the “Grévy Constitution”) led to the weakening of presidential power, and the latter (described as the “de Gaulle Constitution”) to its strengthening. Particular attention is thus paid to the formation of such particular unwritten norms of constitutional law in rationalized and non-rationalized parliamentary systems. In both cases, their basic feature turned out to be the ability to significantly modify the parliamentary system of government. In the last part of the paper, the stability and durability of the above-mentioned political interpretations of the aforementioned Constitutions are discussed. It is indicated that, in both cases, there were attempts to challenge these non-codified standards. Although the causes of such actions were different from each other, neither brought any meaningful success.
This article is an English translation of the paper published in Polish in Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History in 2022. See: Jakubiak, “«Konstytucja Grévy’ego»i «konstytucja de Gaulle’a».”
In his monumental non-fiction book, The Gulag Archipelago, Nobel Prize-winning author Alexandr Solzhenitsyn illustrates real events in Soviet labor camps in literary form. The depiction of EVIL is shocking. The totalitarian Soviet regime subjected millions of people to a horrific fate. As is generally well-known, A. Solzhenitsyn spent eight years in a Soviet concentration camp. Mass terror was the essence of Soviet totalitarianism. A. Solzhenitsyn included a lecture on Soviet criminal law in his book, stressing the importance of Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union in authorizing this terrorism. Solzhenitsyn himself was not a lawyer. However, his conclusions were very accurate. Article 58 of the Criminal Code, which consisted of seventeen paragraphs, defined “counter-revolutionary offenses”. They were obviously punished most severely. Article 58 became a weapon of terror for the Soviet authorities, who used it to convict millions of innocent people.
This article is an English translation of the paper published in Polish in Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History in 2022. See: Lityński, “Sowieckie prawo karne”.
The article presents the image of an attorney as characterized in Old Polish literature from the 16th and 17th centuries. It reflected, to some extent, the attitude of the people of the time (primarily the nobility) towards the legal profession. There is no doubt that the perception of attorneys by Old Polish society was unequivocally negative. They were portrayed as greedy, dishonest men, liars with no respect for the law and even instigators of non-compliance with the law. Literary works and political writings broadly condemned such behaviors. However, this stereotype applied only to professional attorneys-at-law. By no means were non-professional agents (attorneys in fact) attacked, nor was the institution of the power of attorney itself criticized. It seems that this sort of critical attitude was not estate-based (many attorneys were noblemen), although it is possible that the low descent of lawyers influenced the virulence of the criticism. The paper attempts to answer the question as to what extent the literary image of an attorney corresponded to reality. It seems that the works comprised objective reflections on the legal profession and the emotional attitudes of individuals (including the authors themselves) or social groups. It is noteworthy that these pieces of literature often regarded the entire Polish legal system of the time as dysfunctional. Nevertheless, the recurrence of motifs such as greediness or dishonesty gives reason to believe that at least some of these allegations were not unfounded. At the same time, it should be noted that this image of a lawyer corresponded with the stereotype present in European and non-European culture from antiquity to contemporary times.
* This article is an English translation of the paper published in Polish in Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History in 2023. See Górski, “Wizerunek pełnomocnika procesowego”. The original article was prepared on the basis of materials collected and compiled during the implementation of the project “Starosta krakowski jako organ sądownictwa w pierwszej połowie XVII wieku” (The Captain of Kraków as a Judicial Body in the First Half of the 17th Century), financed by the Minister of Science and Higher Education under the “Diamond Grant” program, No. DI2013 000543.
The subject of the analysis concerns one of the administrative-legal aspects related to military requisitions in the period of the Duchy of Warsaw, namely, the claims of the population resulting from unsatisfied dues for war requisitions and material losses in households which occurred as a result of military operations conducted on Polish soil in the early 19th century. In light of the regulations adopted by the authorities of the Duchy of Warsaw, these claims were to be settled in the manner indicated, while future public burdens were to be settled on the basis of the principle of equity in the form of co-equation, i.e. the equalization of duties for the benefit of the army. The Central Liquidation Commission – the state body appointed to carry out the liquidation of claims – was established in 1808. Its main duty was to carry out activities such as the receipt, consideration and determination of claims against the State Treasury.
* This article is an English translation of the paper published in Polish in Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History in 2022. See: Konarski, “Komisja Centralna Likwidacyjna.”
The article focuses on the problem of using legal heritage based on the example of the Constitution of 3 May 1791. This issue is considered in relation to two selected moments in the history of the Congress Kingdom of Poland – 1814/1815 and 1831. What connects them and, at the same time, makes them unique periods in the political and constitutional history of Polish territories under the partitions is the relative freedom the Polish elites had in their right to decide on the constitutional foundations of their own statehood. In 1814/1815, Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski was granted the emperor’s consent to prepare a draft which, after corrections, became the basis of the Constitutional Act granted by Alexander I on November 27, 1815. Similarly, in 1831, after the dethronement of Tsar Nicholas I, the insurgent elites were free to embark on an unfettered constitutional debate on the systemic reform of the state. Both in 1814/1815 and in 1831, Polish political and intellectual elites faced a dilemma as to whether the Constitution of 3 May could serve mainly as a monument to and symbol of Polish history, or whether it still had the potential to be directly applied; and if so, then to what extent and under what conditions? The publication is devoted to exploring the answers to these questions.
* This article is an English translation of the paper published in Polish in Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History in 2022. See: Gałędek, “Czy Konstytucja 3 maja.” The publication was prepared as part of the project “Dispute over the interpretation of the constitution of Kingdom of Poland as a formative element of Polish political liberalism”, financed by the National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki) on the basis of agreements no. UMO-2018/29/B/HS5/01165.
The Springtime of Nations in Germany is mostly associated with the views of various moderate liberals who played leading roles during these revolutionary events. The case is different when it comes to the members of the most radical wing within the liberal movement, the so-called “democrats.” Their ideas are described far less frequently. The article presented analyzes the idea of human rights in the view of Gustav Struve – one of the most important figures in the German democratic movement. During the German Springtime of Nations, the notion of human rights was one of the most frequently discussed but also variably understood problems. G. Struve’s views regarding this question refer not only to the idea of human rights, they also form a kind of political manifesto including solutions for various problems encountered by average citizens along with suggestions concerning an equitable structure of the social order. These postulates were revolutionary and radical but often incoherent. Thus, they fit well into the characteristics of the whole German democratic movement in the first half of the 19th century, which was seen as an unpopular, unsystematic, eclectic and immature phenomenon. The article first describes G. Struve’s life in the context of various events of the German Springtime of Nations. Subsequently, it analyzes the notion of the human being, his functioning in the social community and the definition of his rights. The article ends with an analysis of the material content of the concept of human rights in the view of the described German radical.
* This article is an English translation of the paper published in Polish in Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History in 2022. See Lesiński, “«Wohlstand, Bildung und Freiheit für Alle.»Idea praw człowieka.”
The paper deals with two different political interpretations of presidential power under the Third and Fifth French Republics, which clearly changed the position of the head of state in relation to the letter of constitutional acts that were in force at the time. Both of these interpretations were imposed by the presidents in office in the first years after the proper structures of the system of government had been established. The former (commonly known as the “Grévy Constitution”) led to the weakening of presidential power, and the latter (described as the “de Gaulle Constitution”) to its strengthening. Particular attention is thus paid to the formation of such particular unwritten norms of constitutional law in rationalized and non-rationalized parliamentary systems. In both cases, their basic feature turned out to be the ability to significantly modify the parliamentary system of government. In the last part of the paper, the stability and durability of the above-mentioned political interpretations of the aforementioned Constitutions are discussed. It is indicated that, in both cases, there were attempts to challenge these non-codified standards. Although the causes of such actions were different from each other, neither brought any meaningful success.
This article is an English translation of the paper published in Polish in Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History in 2022. See: Jakubiak, “«Konstytucja Grévy’ego»i «konstytucja de Gaulle’a».”
In his monumental non-fiction book, The Gulag Archipelago, Nobel Prize-winning author Alexandr Solzhenitsyn illustrates real events in Soviet labor camps in literary form. The depiction of EVIL is shocking. The totalitarian Soviet regime subjected millions of people to a horrific fate. As is generally well-known, A. Solzhenitsyn spent eight years in a Soviet concentration camp. Mass terror was the essence of Soviet totalitarianism. A. Solzhenitsyn included a lecture on Soviet criminal law in his book, stressing the importance of Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union in authorizing this terrorism. Solzhenitsyn himself was not a lawyer. However, his conclusions were very accurate. Article 58 of the Criminal Code, which consisted of seventeen paragraphs, defined “counter-revolutionary offenses”. They were obviously punished most severely. Article 58 became a weapon of terror for the Soviet authorities, who used it to convict millions of innocent people.
This article is an English translation of the paper published in Polish in Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History in 2022. See: Lityński, “Sowieckie prawo karne”.
Publikacja została sfinansowana ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego przyznanych w ramach POB Heritage programu „Inicjatywa Doskonałości – Uczelnia Badawcza” w Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
Czasopismo uzyskało wsparcie Ministra Edukacji i Nauki w ramach programu „Rozwój czasopism naukowych” na lata 2023–2024 (umowa nr RCN/SP/0307/2021/1).
Dofinansowano ze środków spółki Grupy Azoty Zakłady Azotowe ZAK S.A. w 2023 r.
When Ronald Dworkin used the metaphor of Hercules as a judge, he referred to the centuries-old heritage of European thought and its sources in Greek culture. The reference to the figure of a well-known, archetypal hero brought Dworkin’s concept of a judge-interpreter closer to modern readers. It also proved that ancient models, affecting the imagination, still play an important educational role. In this text, however, Dworkin’s choice of hero is questioned. Dworkin seems to see Heracles through post-Platonic and Stoic lenses, quite differently than the hero was presented in myths. This paper aims to present the broader educational value of heroes and myths. Following Dworkin’s example, an alternative is proposed: Theseus of Athens, most widely known for his victory over the Minotaur. However, the article draws attention to the lesser-known part of his biography, which is his qualities as a leader and king of Athens. The analysis of the character of Theseus based on available literary sources will make it possible to observe the desired characteristics of a leader and his relationship with the society within a state considered democratic. It aims to demonstrate that power, authority, and democracy are not set in an antagonistic triangle but rather complement each other. At the same time, it also points to the constant relevance of the myth, which, thanks to its continuous impact on the imagination, can serve as an important educational tool also in modern times – just as it was used by Dworkin.
* This research was funded in whole or in part by „National Science Centre, Poland”, MINIATURA-5, grant no. 2021/05/X/HS5/00293.
This paper examines certain history-making and memory-making practices that allow us to see how the past may be animated. These practices are: first, the Ancient Greek sophistic arts, as exemplified by Gorgias’s Encomium of Helen, and as revived, in dialogue form, in Renaissance humanism; and second, Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman, and medieval memory arts, with particular attention to the composite generative imagery of those arts. Animating the past – as these practices of history-making and memory-making do – is of great epistemic and political value to communities: it enables acts of argument and judgement, and, more generally, it is vital for vibrant democracies. The paper signals, albeit only briefly, how these practices are also intertwined with legal history, and in particular the history of legal reasoning, suggesting some ways forward, in future work, for investigating the entangled histories of history-making, memory-making, and law-making.
Christology at a Crossroads – Heterodox Motives of the Imperial Political Theology in the 10th and 11th Centuries
The aim of this article is to present how heterodox, Christological constructions, arising from the controversies surrounding Chalcedonian dogma, existed in the 10th and 11th centuries in Western political thought. These constructions are described from two perspectives that were especially important for shaping the political doctrine of German emperors. Firstly, the illustration of the Aachen Gospels is mentioned because it symbolically contains the principles of the political theology of the Ottonian Empire. Secondly, the views of the Norman Anonymous, who wrote during times of intensified Caesarean propaganda in connection with the dispute with the papacy that took place in the 11th century, are analysed
Legal-political Ideas as Elements of Argumentation in Court Speeches – Remarks on the Communists’ Trials in Lwów (1922–1923)
The legacy of legal-political ideologists is seldom used as an element of argumentation in court. The situation is different in proceedings focussing on political crimes, in particular, the trials taking place in disruptive moments of history. One of such moments was the period after Poland regained independence, when the Soviet Union posed not only a military threat, but also one of doctrinal influence. The objective of the paper was to verify the hypothesis that the trial of communists which took place in Lwów in late 1922 / early 1923 (known as the St. Jura trial) was significant not only in terms of its legal-criminal aspects, but was also important from a historical and doctrinal perspective. The verification of the hypothesis was based on the analysis of court speeches, especially their elements including references to the legacy of legal-political ideas. Additionally, the paper presents legal-political ideas as highly argumentative material that may be, and perhaps should be, used in legal practice today.
Ideological and Legal Conditions of Communists’ Housing Policy in the Early People’s Poland
The end of World War II entailed numerous social problems, one of which was the shortage of housing to meet the basic living needs of Polish society. The communists, who were then taking over political power in Poland, faced a challenge of finding a quick solution to the problem. They were hampered in this regard since they could only use methods which were consistent with Marxism-Leninism ideology. The article presents the legal and ideological basis of the Polish Communists’ housing policy in the early existence of the People’s Poland.
War in the Teaching of Pope Francis: Is the Teaching of the Catholic Church Changing?
The issues of “war” and “peace” are a constant aspect of Pope Francis’ teaching. The aim of this paper is to determine whether Francis’ stance on war is a continuation of the hitherto realistic view of this phenomenon found in the teaching of the Catholic Church or whether it has come closer to idealistic notions. The research focuses mainly on an exegesis of the statements of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) and to a lesser extent an interpretation of his actions and omissions. We conclude that, in the case of the current pope’s teaching, we are dealing with a modification of the approach to war and peace adopted in the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, consisting in the formal acceptance of the idea of a „just war” combined, however, with the imposition of important limitations on it. Similarly to apologists of pacifist humanism, Francis demonstrates an optimistic belief in the possibility of building a world order without violence. Significantly, he attempts to combine the promotion of pacifist ideals with an appeal to Christian moral principles. This rather intellectually daring ideological juxtaposition, freely treating both historical circumstances and contemporary events, provides Francis with a starting point for analysing and assessing the current destabilisation of the world order in international relations. In our view, Francis assumes that the main contemporary sources of war lead to human exclusion (in various aspects of existence) and the degradation of nature. For Francis, therefore, the vindication of a state of peace and thus the unconditional abandonment of war depends directly on the quality of life of the human race and the connected capacity of the ecosphere. At the same time, Francis avoids recognising Russia as a state that has attacked another state (Ukraine). This, and the avoidance of drawing consequences from the assumption of man’s original sin-contaminated nature, makes Francis’ teaching on war internally incoherent.
The transcription form this debate was prepared by Dr. Anna Ceglarska (Department of the History of Political and Legal Doctrines), and published in Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History 15, issue 4 (2022): 625–43.
When Ronald Dworkin used the metaphor of Hercules as a judge, he referred to the centuries-old heritage of European thought and its sources in Greek culture. The reference to the figure of a well-known, archetypal hero brought Dworkin’s concept of a judge-interpreter closer to modern readers. It also proved that ancient models, affecting the imagination, still play an important educational role. In this text, however, Dworkin’s choice of hero is questioned. Dworkin seems to see Heracles through post-Platonic and Stoic lenses, quite differently than the hero was presented in myths. This paper aims to present the broader educational value of heroes and myths. Following Dworkin’s example, an alternative is proposed: Theseus of Athens, most widely known for his victory over the Minotaur. However, the article draws attention to the lesser-known part of his biography, which is his qualities as a leader and king of Athens. The analysis of the character of Theseus based on available literary sources will make it possible to observe the desired characteristics of a leader and his relationship with the society within a state considered democratic. It aims to demonstrate that power, authority, and democracy are not set in an antagonistic triangle but rather complement each other. At the same time, it also points to the constant relevance of the myth, which, thanks to its continuous impact on the imagination, can serve as an important educational tool also in modern times – just as it was used by Dworkin.
* This research was funded in whole or in part by „National Science Centre, Poland”, MINIATURA-5, grant no. 2021/05/X/HS5/00293.
This paper examines certain history-making and memory-making practices that allow us to see how the past may be animated. These practices are: first, the Ancient Greek sophistic arts, as exemplified by Gorgias’s Encomium of Helen, and as revived, in dialogue form, in Renaissance humanism; and second, Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman, and medieval memory arts, with particular attention to the composite generative imagery of those arts. Animating the past – as these practices of history-making and memory-making do – is of great epistemic and political value to communities: it enables acts of argument and judgement, and, more generally, it is vital for vibrant democracies. The paper signals, albeit only briefly, how these practices are also intertwined with legal history, and in particular the history of legal reasoning, suggesting some ways forward, in future work, for investigating the entangled histories of history-making, memory-making, and law-making.
Christology at a Crossroads – Heterodox Motives of the Imperial Political Theology in the 10th and 11th Centuries
The aim of this article is to present how heterodox, Christological constructions, arising from the controversies surrounding Chalcedonian dogma, existed in the 10th and 11th centuries in Western political thought. These constructions are described from two perspectives that were especially important for shaping the political doctrine of German emperors. Firstly, the illustration of the Aachen Gospels is mentioned because it symbolically contains the principles of the political theology of the Ottonian Empire. Secondly, the views of the Norman Anonymous, who wrote during times of intensified Caesarean propaganda in connection with the dispute with the papacy that took place in the 11th century, are analysed
Legal-political Ideas as Elements of Argumentation in Court Speeches – Remarks on the Communists’ Trials in Lwów (1922–1923)
The legacy of legal-political ideologists is seldom used as an element of argumentation in court. The situation is different in proceedings focussing on political crimes, in particular, the trials taking place in disruptive moments of history. One of such moments was the period after Poland regained independence, when the Soviet Union posed not only a military threat, but also one of doctrinal influence. The objective of the paper was to verify the hypothesis that the trial of communists which took place in Lwów in late 1922 / early 1923 (known as the St. Jura trial) was significant not only in terms of its legal-criminal aspects, but was also important from a historical and doctrinal perspective. The verification of the hypothesis was based on the analysis of court speeches, especially their elements including references to the legacy of legal-political ideas. Additionally, the paper presents legal-political ideas as highly argumentative material that may be, and perhaps should be, used in legal practice today.
Ideological and Legal Conditions of Communists’ Housing Policy in the Early People’s Poland
The end of World War II entailed numerous social problems, one of which was the shortage of housing to meet the basic living needs of Polish society. The communists, who were then taking over political power in Poland, faced a challenge of finding a quick solution to the problem. They were hampered in this regard since they could only use methods which were consistent with Marxism-Leninism ideology. The article presents the legal and ideological basis of the Polish Communists’ housing policy in the early existence of the People’s Poland.
War in the Teaching of Pope Francis: Is the Teaching of the Catholic Church Changing?
The issues of “war” and “peace” are a constant aspect of Pope Francis’ teaching. The aim of this paper is to determine whether Francis’ stance on war is a continuation of the hitherto realistic view of this phenomenon found in the teaching of the Catholic Church or whether it has come closer to idealistic notions. The research focuses mainly on an exegesis of the statements of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) and to a lesser extent an interpretation of his actions and omissions. We conclude that, in the case of the current pope’s teaching, we are dealing with a modification of the approach to war and peace adopted in the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, consisting in the formal acceptance of the idea of a „just war” combined, however, with the imposition of important limitations on it. Similarly to apologists of pacifist humanism, Francis demonstrates an optimistic belief in the possibility of building a world order without violence. Significantly, he attempts to combine the promotion of pacifist ideals with an appeal to Christian moral principles. This rather intellectually daring ideological juxtaposition, freely treating both historical circumstances and contemporary events, provides Francis with a starting point for analysing and assessing the current destabilisation of the world order in international relations. In our view, Francis assumes that the main contemporary sources of war lead to human exclusion (in various aspects of existence) and the degradation of nature. For Francis, therefore, the vindication of a state of peace and thus the unconditional abandonment of war depends directly on the quality of life of the human race and the connected capacity of the ecosphere. At the same time, Francis avoids recognising Russia as a state that has attacked another state (Ukraine). This, and the avoidance of drawing consequences from the assumption of man’s original sin-contaminated nature, makes Francis’ teaching on war internally incoherent.
The transcription form this debate was prepared by Dr. Anna Ceglarska (Department of the History of Political and Legal Doctrines), and published in Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History 15, issue 4 (2022): 625–43.
Publikacja została sfinansowana ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego przyznanych w ramach POB Heritage programu „Inicjatywa Doskonałości – Uczelnia Badawcza” w Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
Czasopismo uzyskało wsparcie Ministra Edukacji i Nauki w ramach programu „Rozwój czasopism naukowych” na lata 2023–2024 (umowa nr RCN/SP/0307/2021/1).
Dofinansowano ze środków spółki Grupy Azoty Zakłady Azotowe ZAK S.A. w 2023 r.
French jurists have thought that their Civil Code expresses an individualism characteristic of the ideals of the French Revolution and the principles of liberalism. Property was regarded as a right of the owner that was unlimited in principle. Contract was defined in terms of the will of the parties to contract on whatever terms they chose. The drafters of the Code, however, were among the last adherents of an older natural law tradition in which the rights of an owner were limited by the purposes for which property rights were created, and the terms of a contract must be just. This article describes the drafter’s debt to that tradition and how it was ignored by jurists in the 19th century.
Jan Kanty Rzesiński – Cracovian Roman Law and Legal History Scholar of 19th Century
The article is the second part of the work devoted to the academic profile and views of Jan Kanty Rzesiński – a Cracovian lawyer who was vigorously engaged in research on Roman law, Polish legal history, and legal philosophy in the first half of the 19th century. Despite his academic interests, J.K. Rzesiński was not working at the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University for most of the time. In the first part of the article, the author discussed J.K. Rzesiński’s curriculum vitae and his works on Roman law. The objective of this the second part of the article, is to examine those of remaining literary works that dealt with law (the translation of Processus iuris civilis Cracoviensis, articles on obstagium in lieu of securing creditors rights in the old Polish law, articles on language and jurisprudence, and articles on the relations between legal history and philosophy of law) as well as his views against the epoch and the Cracovian academic milieu.
Implementation of the Provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 17 March 1921 Concerning the Administration of Justice
The article – divided into four sections – is centered around the implementation of the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 17 March 1921 in the area of the administration of justice. The first section discusses the work on a draft constitution carried out between 1917 and 1921, with particular focus on the judiciary. The second analyses the content of the provisions of the Constitution referring to the administration of justice. The third deals with the judicature. In this section, the author discusses the organisation and work of, among others: the State Tribunal, the Supreme Administrative Tribunal, the Competence Tribunal, and courts of common pleas, paying particular attention to the unimplemented norms of the Constitution – mainly the failure to establish administrative courts of different instances with the participation of citizens, and the absence of citizens serving as justices of the peace or jurors. Two issues played important roles in the implementation of constitutional norms regarding the administration of justice. The first was the political situation in Poland after the 1926 May Coup. The second was the amendments to the Constitution introduced in connection with the entry into force of the 1926 “August Amendment”, that gave the President of the Republic of Poland the power to promulgate ordinances having the legal effect of legislative acts. This allowed the Polish government of that time to carry out, to a great extent, a standardisation of the courts of common pleas, which was accomplished by promulgation of the Ordinance of the President of the Republic of Poland of 6 February 1928 – the Act on the Organisation of Courts of Common Pleas. Additionally, between 1929 and 1932 the government embarked on an extensive program of dismissing existing judges and appointing new ones. Importantly, this was accompanied by a change in the line of jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Tribunal, according to which courts lost their authority to examine the constitutionality of ordinances promulgated by the President of the Republic of Poland. In the final section of the article – the summary – the author notes that the implementation of the norms of the Constitution concerning the administration of justice was, to a great extent, non-existent, given the political situation after the May Coup. It further points out that the same was also true in the period between 1944 and 1952, during which the basic principles of the Constitution of 17 March 1921 applied.
* Artykuł stanowi rozszerzoną wersję wystąpienia autora na konferencji pt. „Tradycje ustrojowe II Rzeczypospolitej. W stulecie Konstytucji marcowej”, która odbyła się w dniach 5–6 października 2021 r. Konferencję zorganizował Wydział Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego w Krakowie.
Issues Concerning Legal Protection of Artistic Performances in Poland in the Years 1919–1994 (Part I)
The article presents the views of the legal doctrine and the discussions related to attempts to bring artistic performances under legal regulation, from 1918 to 1945. Between 1918 and 1945 an artistic performance draft law was created. However, the bill never became law due to a lack of support from the legal community. The actual protection of rights in regard to artistic performances was provided by the provisions of copyright law.
Be Careful with Marxism! Notes on the Margins of Tomasz Banach’s Work Catyline and Tabulae Novae. The Problem of Universal Indebtedness and Utilitas Rei Publicae in Cicero’s Speeches (Warszawa: C.H. Beck, 2022, pp. 87, ISBN 978-83-8291-242-5)
In Tomasz Banach’s interesting and useful monograph on the promises of debt relief (tabulae novae) with which Catiline tried to win the favour of Roman society, the reader can find statements in which the author expresses powerful opposition to some „Marxist” and „neoliberal” tendencies. Unfortunately, the author does not explain what he understands by the term “Marxism”, nor does he cite academic literature to define the characteristics of a „Marxist Catiline”. This is a mistake, because the views of Polish representatives of Marxist doctrine regarding the figure and achievements of Catiline, are analogous to those of Tomasz Banach.
The article is a review of the monograph entitled Bildung und Demokratie in der Weimarer Republik, published by Franz Steiner Verlag in 2022. This monograph is an effect of the academic conference “Bildung und Demokratie”, that took place in 2020 and was organized by the Weimar Republic Research Institution of the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena and Weimarer Republik e. V. The editors of the reviewed monograph, namely Andreas Braune, Sebastian Elsbach, and Ronny Noak, are renowned scholars specializing in problematics of the Weimar Republic. This review article contains a short de- scription and evaluation of all sixteen chapters published together as a monograph. As a whole, they refer to a wide spectrum of subjects. However, their common ground is the question of the education of both youth and adults on the subjects of democracy and republicanism during the period of the Weimar Republic. All issues raised in the monograph are also analysed in the context of the very complex political reality of Weimar Germany. The article ends with general remarks on the problematics discussed in the monograph.
* Tekst przygotowany w ramach projektu „Uregulowania prawne relacji pomiędzy dziedzicami a chłopami na centralnych ziemiach polskich w okresie od zniesienia poddaństwa do uwłaszczenia”, finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki (UMO-2018/31/B/HS5/00315).
French jurists have thought that their Civil Code expresses an individualism characteristic of the ideals of the French Revolution and the principles of liberalism. Property was regarded as a right of the owner that was unlimited in principle. Contract was defined in terms of the will of the parties to contract on whatever terms they chose. The drafters of the Code, however, were among the last adherents of an older natural law tradition in which the rights of an owner were limited by the purposes for which property rights were created, and the terms of a contract must be just. This article describes the drafter’s debt to that tradition and how it was ignored by jurists in the 19th century.
Jan Kanty Rzesiński – Cracovian Roman Law and Legal History Scholar of 19th Century
The article is the second part of the work devoted to the academic profile and views of Jan Kanty Rzesiński – a Cracovian lawyer who was vigorously engaged in research on Roman law, Polish legal history, and legal philosophy in the first half of the 19th century. Despite his academic interests, J.K. Rzesiński was not working at the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University for most of the time. In the first part of the article, the author discussed J.K. Rzesiński’s curriculum vitae and his works on Roman law. The objective of this the second part of the article, is to examine those of remaining literary works that dealt with law (the translation of Processus iuris civilis Cracoviensis, articles on obstagium in lieu of securing creditors rights in the old Polish law, articles on language and jurisprudence, and articles on the relations between legal history and philosophy of law) as well as his views against the epoch and the Cracovian academic milieu.
Implementation of the Provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 17 March 1921 Concerning the Administration of Justice
The article – divided into four sections – is centered around the implementation of the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 17 March 1921 in the area of the administration of justice. The first section discusses the work on a draft constitution carried out between 1917 and 1921, with particular focus on the judiciary. The second analyses the content of the provisions of the Constitution referring to the administration of justice. The third deals with the judicature. In this section, the author discusses the organisation and work of, among others: the State Tribunal, the Supreme Administrative Tribunal, the Competence Tribunal, and courts of common pleas, paying particular attention to the unimplemented norms of the Constitution – mainly the failure to establish administrative courts of different instances with the participation of citizens, and the absence of citizens serving as justices of the peace or jurors. Two issues played important roles in the implementation of constitutional norms regarding the administration of justice. The first was the political situation in Poland after the 1926 May Coup. The second was the amendments to the Constitution introduced in connection with the entry into force of the 1926 “August Amendment”, that gave the President of the Republic of Poland the power to promulgate ordinances having the legal effect of legislative acts. This allowed the Polish government of that time to carry out, to a great extent, a standardisation of the courts of common pleas, which was accomplished by promulgation of the Ordinance of the President of the Republic of Poland of 6 February 1928 – the Act on the Organisation of Courts of Common Pleas. Additionally, between 1929 and 1932 the government embarked on an extensive program of dismissing existing judges and appointing new ones. Importantly, this was accompanied by a change in the line of jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Tribunal, according to which courts lost their authority to examine the constitutionality of ordinances promulgated by the President of the Republic of Poland. In the final section of the article – the summary – the author notes that the implementation of the norms of the Constitution concerning the administration of justice was, to a great extent, non-existent, given the political situation after the May Coup. It further points out that the same was also true in the period between 1944 and 1952, during which the basic principles of the Constitution of 17 March 1921 applied.
* Artykuł stanowi rozszerzoną wersję wystąpienia autora na konferencji pt. „Tradycje ustrojowe II Rzeczypospolitej. W stulecie Konstytucji marcowej”, która odbyła się w dniach 5–6 października 2021 r. Konferencję zorganizował Wydział Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego w Krakowie.
Issues Concerning Legal Protection of Artistic Performances in Poland in the Years 1919–1994 (Part I)
The article presents the views of the legal doctrine and the discussions related to attempts to bring artistic performances under legal regulation, from 1918 to 1945. Between 1918 and 1945 an artistic performance draft law was created. However, the bill never became law due to a lack of support from the legal community. The actual protection of rights in regard to artistic performances was provided by the provisions of copyright law.
Be Careful with Marxism! Notes on the Margins of Tomasz Banach’s Work Catyline and Tabulae Novae. The Problem of Universal Indebtedness and Utilitas Rei Publicae in Cicero’s Speeches (Warszawa: C.H. Beck, 2022, pp. 87, ISBN 978-83-8291-242-5)
In Tomasz Banach’s interesting and useful monograph on the promises of debt relief (tabulae novae) with which Catiline tried to win the favour of Roman society, the reader can find statements in which the author expresses powerful opposition to some „Marxist” and „neoliberal” tendencies. Unfortunately, the author does not explain what he understands by the term “Marxism”, nor does he cite academic literature to define the characteristics of a „Marxist Catiline”. This is a mistake, because the views of Polish representatives of Marxist doctrine regarding the figure and achievements of Catiline, are analogous to those of Tomasz Banach.
The article is a review of the monograph entitled Bildung und Demokratie in der Weimarer Republik, published by Franz Steiner Verlag in 2022. This monograph is an effect of the academic conference “Bildung und Demokratie”, that took place in 2020 and was organized by the Weimar Republic Research Institution of the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena and Weimarer Republik e. V. The editors of the reviewed monograph, namely Andreas Braune, Sebastian Elsbach, and Ronny Noak, are renowned scholars specializing in problematics of the Weimar Republic. This review article contains a short de- scription and evaluation of all sixteen chapters published together as a monograph. As a whole, they refer to a wide spectrum of subjects. However, their common ground is the question of the education of both youth and adults on the subjects of democracy and republicanism during the period of the Weimar Republic. All issues raised in the monograph are also analysed in the context of the very complex political reality of Weimar Germany. The article ends with general remarks on the problematics discussed in the monograph.
* Tekst przygotowany w ramach projektu „Uregulowania prawne relacji pomiędzy dziedzicami a chłopami na centralnych ziemiach polskich w okresie od zniesienia poddaństwa do uwłaszczenia”, finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki (UMO-2018/31/B/HS5/00315).
Publikacja została sfinansowana ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego przyznanych w ramach POB Heritage Programu Strategicznego „Inicjatywa Doskonałości” w Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
Czasopismo uzyskało wsparcie Ministra Edukacji i Nauki w ramach programu „Rozwój czasopism naukowych" na lata 2023-2024 (umowa nr RCN/SP/0307/2021/1).
W 2023 roku czasopismo uzyskało wsparcie od Grupy Azoty ZAK S.A.
The Image of an Attorney as Illustrated in Works of Polish Poets and Political Writers in the 16th–17th Centuries
The article presents the image of an attorney as characterized in Old Polish literature of the 16th and 17th centuries. It reflected, to some extent, the attitude of the people of the time (primarily the nobility) towards the legal profession. There is no doubt that Old Polish society’s perception of attorneys was unequivocally negative. They were portrayed as greedy, dishonest men, liars with no respect for the law, and even instigators of non-compliance with the law. Literary works and political writings broadly condemned such behaviors. However, this stereotype applied only to professional attorneys-at-law. By no means were non-professional agents (attorneys-in-fact) attacked, nor was the institution of the power of attorney itself criticized. It seems that this sort of critical attitude was not estate-based (lots of attorneys were noblemen), although it is possible that the low descent of lawyers influenced the virulence of the criticism. The paper attempts to answer the question as to what extent the literary image of an attorney corresponded to reality. It seems that the works comprised objective reflections on the legal profession and the emotional attitudes of individuals (including authors themselves) or social groups. It is noteworthy that these pieces of literature often regarded the entire Polish legal system of the time as dysfunctional. Nevertheless, the recurrence of motifs such as greediness or dishonesty gives reason to believe that at least some of these allegations were not unfounded. At the same time, it should be noted er corresponded with the stereotype present in European and non-European culture from antiquity to contemporary times.
* Artykuł został przygotowany na podstawie materiałów zgromadzonych i opracowanych podczas realizacji projektu „Starosta krakowski jako organ sądownictwa w pierwszej połowie XVII wieku” sfinansowanego przez Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego (obecnie Ministra Edukacji i Nauki) w ramach programu „Diamentowy Grant”, nr DI2013 000543.
The Central Liquidation Commission in the Duchy of Warsaw between 1808 and 1812
The subject of the analysis concerns one of the administrative-legal aspects related to military requisitions in the period of the Duchy of Warsaw, namely, the claims of the population resulting from unsatisfied dues for war requisitions and material losses in households which occurred as a result of military operations conducted on Polish soil in the early 19th century. In light of the regulations adopted by the authorities of the Duchy of Warsaw, these claims were to be settled in the manner indicated, while future public burdens were to be settled on the basis of the principle of equity in the form of co-equation, i.e. the equalisation of duties for the benefit of the army. The Central Liquidation Commission – the state body appointed to carry out the liquidation of claims – was established in 1808. Its main duty was to carry out activities such as the receipt, consideration, and determination of claims against the State Treasury.
Jan Kanty Rzesiński – Scholar of 19th Century Cracovian Roman Law and Legal History (Part I)
Jan Kanty Rzesiński was an active member of the Cracovian intellectual elite of the first half of the 19th century. However, his research activities, as well as his literary works, are mostly forgotten today. It is primarily a consequence of the fact that although Rzesiński many times sought employment at Jagiellonian University, he was finally hired as a professor there only in the last years of his life. Rzesiński’s academic career at first covered Roman law studies, but in its later stages he focused on the problems of Polish legal history, as well as the philosophy of law. In terms of the views presented, he can be labeled as one of the first Polish propagators of the Historical School of Jurisprudence. He was not, however, an uncritical apologist of the school, rather he was engaged in the discussion of its goals and methods of legal research. The article is divided into two parts. The first one covers Rzesiński’s academic curriculum vitae, as well as an analysis of his works related to Roman law: his doctoral the- sis regarding the calculation of interest in Roman law, his translation into Polish of Edward Gibbon’s Chapter 44 presenting the history of Roman law, as well as the translation of Eduard Gans’ work about Gaius’ Institutions. The second part of the article that will be published in the next issue of Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History (2023) concerns Rzesiński’s remaining literary activity, which was related to both law (the translation of Processus iuris civilis Cracoviensis, articles on the law of quartering in lieu of securing the creditors rights in the old Polish law, articles on language and jurisprudence, and articles on the relations between legal history and philosophy of law) and his views against the contemporary society and the Cracovian academic milieu.
Edmund Krzymuski’s Final Paper in the Work of the Section of Substantive Criminal Law of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland – Selected Issues
The paper presents the course of the discussion of Edmund Krzymuski’s essay on crimes against life and health, which took place as part of the Section of Substantive Criminal Law of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland in June 24–27, 1920. The article focuses on the main threads of the referent’s questionnaire and is devoted i.a., to the crimes of murder, bodily harm, incitement to suicide, or the killing of a fetus. The work highlights both Krzymuski’s proposals, as well as different concepts supported by other members of the Section, which were included in the draft criminal code of 1932. That discussion was significant because most of these solutions are still in force today in the Polish legal system. The article also attempts to answer whether the circumstances related to the referent’s proposals could have influenced his decision to resign from further work within the Substantive Criminal Law Section of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland.
Rules of Criminal Court Record Archival Appraisal in the Provisions on the Court Records Storage and Disposal from 1937. On the Genesis and Results of Interwar Regulation on Determining the Value of the Polish Common Court Documentation
An article is devoted to what is a crucial problem for every historian of the 19th and 20th centuries – historical rules of archival appraisal, that is, the determination as to which records that were created for practical reasons and current activities of state institutions in the past, should be protected permanently because of their historical value. The author focuses on criminal court records in light of the Polish interwar rules enacted by the Justice Minister in 1937. The mentioned regulation was the first on an analyzed matter in Polish legal tradition. It set the essential criteria and mechanisms for court records archival appraisal, also adopted in later rules on this topic from 1975, 1989, and 2004 (the latest remains in force to the present). Beyond this the author tries to explain why, in 1937, the Polish Ministry established rules that intended to permanently protect only a few groups of criminal court records as being historically valuable. He mainly analyzes the primary regulation draft from January of 1937, which intended to cover more groups of criminal court records for permanent archival protection. The paper tries to establish the reasons as to why those propositions were rejected. In the end, the author purposes to set in motion a discussion of the consequences that resulted from rules adopted in 1937 for current legal-historical or historical-criminological research.
Lost Minutes of the Sittings of the Sub-commission on the Law on Kinship and Care Relationships of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland in 1939 (Part III)
When Poland regained independence in 1918, the different legal systems of the various partitioning states all remained in force on its territory. Drafts of uniform laws were to be drawn up by the Codification Commission established in 1919. One of its tasks was the preparation of a draft of the family and guardianship law. The sub-commission addressing this division of civil law worked until the outbreak of World War Two. The minutes of its sittings disappeared in September 1939 along with the total output of the Codification Commission. However, copies of minutes of the sittings of the subcommission held in 1939 were found in Kazimierz Przybyłowski’s collection of books donated to the Faculty of Law and Administration of University of Silesia in Katowice. These minutes shed new light on the final phase of the codification works. Publication of these documents will enable further detailed research on the history of family law in interwar Poland. The third part of the publication consists of minutes nos. 190–196.
The research is supported by a grant from the Faculty of Law and Administration under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at Jagiellonian University.
* Artykuł został przygotowany w ramach projektu badawczego „Prawo własności w orzecznictwie sądów Wolnego Miasta Krakowa. Z dziejów stosowania Kodeksu Napoleona”, sfinansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki, nr umowy 2017/27/B/HS5/01308.
The Image of an Attorney as Illustrated in Works of Polish Poets and Political Writers in the 16th–17th Centuries
The article presents the image of an attorney as characterized in Old Polish literature of the 16th and 17th centuries. It reflected, to some extent, the attitude of the people of the time (primarily the nobility) towards the legal profession. There is no doubt that Old Polish society’s perception of attorneys was unequivocally negative. They were portrayed as greedy, dishonest men, liars with no respect for the law, and even instigators of non-compliance with the law. Literary works and political writings broadly condemned such behaviors. However, this stereotype applied only to professional attorneys-at-law. By no means were non-professional agents (attorneys-in-fact) attacked, nor was the institution of the power of attorney itself criticized. It seems that this sort of critical attitude was not estate-based (lots of attorneys were noblemen), although it is possible that the low descent of lawyers influenced the virulence of the criticism. The paper attempts to answer the question as to what extent the literary image of an attorney corresponded to reality. It seems that the works comprised objective reflections on the legal profession and the emotional attitudes of individuals (including authors themselves) or social groups. It is noteworthy that these pieces of literature often regarded the entire Polish legal system of the time as dysfunctional. Nevertheless, the recurrence of motifs such as greediness or dishonesty gives reason to believe that at least some of these allegations were not unfounded. At the same time, it should be noted er corresponded with the stereotype present in European and non-European culture from antiquity to contemporary times.
* Artykuł został przygotowany na podstawie materiałów zgromadzonych i opracowanych podczas realizacji projektu „Starosta krakowski jako organ sądownictwa w pierwszej połowie XVII wieku” sfinansowanego przez Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego (obecnie Ministra Edukacji i Nauki) w ramach programu „Diamentowy Grant”, nr DI2013 000543.
The Central Liquidation Commission in the Duchy of Warsaw between 1808 and 1812
The subject of the analysis concerns one of the administrative-legal aspects related to military requisitions in the period of the Duchy of Warsaw, namely, the claims of the population resulting from unsatisfied dues for war requisitions and material losses in households which occurred as a result of military operations conducted on Polish soil in the early 19th century. In light of the regulations adopted by the authorities of the Duchy of Warsaw, these claims were to be settled in the manner indicated, while future public burdens were to be settled on the basis of the principle of equity in the form of co-equation, i.e. the equalisation of duties for the benefit of the army. The Central Liquidation Commission – the state body appointed to carry out the liquidation of claims – was established in 1808. Its main duty was to carry out activities such as the receipt, consideration, and determination of claims against the State Treasury.
Jan Kanty Rzesiński – Scholar of 19th Century Cracovian Roman Law and Legal History (Part I)
Jan Kanty Rzesiński was an active member of the Cracovian intellectual elite of the first half of the 19th century. However, his research activities, as well as his literary works, are mostly forgotten today. It is primarily a consequence of the fact that although Rzesiński many times sought employment at Jagiellonian University, he was finally hired as a professor there only in the last years of his life. Rzesiński’s academic career at first covered Roman law studies, but in its later stages he focused on the problems of Polish legal history, as well as the philosophy of law. In terms of the views presented, he can be labeled as one of the first Polish propagators of the Historical School of Jurisprudence. He was not, however, an uncritical apologist of the school, rather he was engaged in the discussion of its goals and methods of legal research. The article is divided into two parts. The first one covers Rzesiński’s academic curriculum vitae, as well as an analysis of his works related to Roman law: his doctoral the- sis regarding the calculation of interest in Roman law, his translation into Polish of Edward Gibbon’s Chapter 44 presenting the history of Roman law, as well as the translation of Eduard Gans’ work about Gaius’ Institutions. The second part of the article that will be published in the next issue of Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History (2023) concerns Rzesiński’s remaining literary activity, which was related to both law (the translation of Processus iuris civilis Cracoviensis, articles on the law of quartering in lieu of securing the creditors rights in the old Polish law, articles on language and jurisprudence, and articles on the relations between legal history and philosophy of law) and his views against the contemporary society and the Cracovian academic milieu.
Edmund Krzymuski’s Final Paper in the Work of the Section of Substantive Criminal Law of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland – Selected Issues
The paper presents the course of the discussion of Edmund Krzymuski’s essay on crimes against life and health, which took place as part of the Section of Substantive Criminal Law of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland in June 24–27, 1920. The article focuses on the main threads of the referent’s questionnaire and is devoted i.a., to the crimes of murder, bodily harm, incitement to suicide, or the killing of a fetus. The work highlights both Krzymuski’s proposals, as well as different concepts supported by other members of the Section, which were included in the draft criminal code of 1932. That discussion was significant because most of these solutions are still in force today in the Polish legal system. The article also attempts to answer whether the circumstances related to the referent’s proposals could have influenced his decision to resign from further work within the Substantive Criminal Law Section of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland.
Rules of Criminal Court Record Archival Appraisal in the Provisions on the Court Records Storage and Disposal from 1937. On the Genesis and Results of Interwar Regulation on Determining the Value of the Polish Common Court Documentation
An article is devoted to what is a crucial problem for every historian of the 19th and 20th centuries – historical rules of archival appraisal, that is, the determination as to which records that were created for practical reasons and current activities of state institutions in the past, should be protected permanently because of their historical value. The author focuses on criminal court records in light of the Polish interwar rules enacted by the Justice Minister in 1937. The mentioned regulation was the first on an analyzed matter in Polish legal tradition. It set the essential criteria and mechanisms for court records archival appraisal, also adopted in later rules on this topic from 1975, 1989, and 2004 (the latest remains in force to the present). Beyond this the author tries to explain why, in 1937, the Polish Ministry established rules that intended to permanently protect only a few groups of criminal court records as being historically valuable. He mainly analyzes the primary regulation draft from January of 1937, which intended to cover more groups of criminal court records for permanent archival protection. The paper tries to establish the reasons as to why those propositions were rejected. In the end, the author purposes to set in motion a discussion of the consequences that resulted from rules adopted in 1937 for current legal-historical or historical-criminological research.
Lost Minutes of the Sittings of the Sub-commission on the Law on Kinship and Care Relationships of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland in 1939 (Part III)
When Poland regained independence in 1918, the different legal systems of the various partitioning states all remained in force on its territory. Drafts of uniform laws were to be drawn up by the Codification Commission established in 1919. One of its tasks was the preparation of a draft of the family and guardianship law. The sub-commission addressing this division of civil law worked until the outbreak of World War Two. The minutes of its sittings disappeared in September 1939 along with the total output of the Codification Commission. However, copies of minutes of the sittings of the subcommission held in 1939 were found in Kazimierz Przybyłowski’s collection of books donated to the Faculty of Law and Administration of University of Silesia in Katowice. These minutes shed new light on the final phase of the codification works. Publication of these documents will enable further detailed research on the history of family law in interwar Poland. The third part of the publication consists of minutes nos. 190–196.
The research is supported by a grant from the Faculty of Law and Administration under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at Jagiellonian University.
* Artykuł został przygotowany w ramach projektu badawczego „Prawo własności w orzecznictwie sądów Wolnego Miasta Krakowa. Z dziejów stosowania Kodeksu Napoleona”, sfinansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki, nr umowy 2017/27/B/HS5/01308.
Was the Constitution of May Third of 1791 a Source of Inspiration for 19th Century Polish Constitutional Drafts? The Problem of Using Polish Constitutional Heritage in the Congress Kingdom of Poland in 1815 and 1831
The article focuses on the problem of using the legal heritage based on the example of the May Third Constitution. This issue is considered in relation to two selected moments in the history of the Congress Kingdom of Poland – 1814/1815 and 1831. What connects them, and at the same time makes them unique periods in the political and constitutional history of Polish territories under the partitions, is the relative freedom the Polish elites had in their right to decide on the constitutional foundations of their own statehood. In 1814/1815, Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski was granted the emperor’s consent to prepare a draft which, after corrections, became the basis of the Constitutional Act granted by Alexander I. Similarly in 1831, after the dethronement of Tsar Nicholas I, the insurgent elites were free to embark on an unfettered constitutional debate on the systemic reform of the state. Both in 1814/1815 and in 1831, Polish political and intellectual elites faced a dilemma as to whether the May Third Constitution could serve mainly as a monument and symbol of Polish history, or whether it still had the potential to be directly applied; and if so, then to what extent and under what conditions. The publication is devoted to exploring answers to these questions.
* Publikacja przygotowana w ramach projektu „Spór o wykładnię konstytucji Królestwa Polskiego jako formatyw polskiego liberalizmu politycznego” finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki na podstawie umowy nr UMO-2018/29/B/HS5/01165
Concerning the Purpose of Detention Arrests in the Law and Practice of the Kingdom of Poland
The idea of granting the Simple Police Courts the authority to arrest dates back to the times of the Duchy of Warsaw, when in response to the postulates published in penitentiary journals, an attempt was made to create a more extensive system of detention centers. Precise definition of the role of these units in the penitentiary system of the Kingdom of Poland is not easy, due to terminological and practical problems, in contrast with detention and police arrests. Initially, these centers were intended for detainees under an elementary investigation. Although this was their basic role throughout the existence of the Kingdom of Poland, over the years, either by decisions of governmental bodies, or as a result of developed practice, they began to perform additional functions. First of all, people sentenced to short-term imprisonment were allowed to be placed in detention facilities, which was mainly due to the need to reduce both costs and the overcrowding of domestic prisons. From 1837, people arrested or sentenced during transport were placed in detention centers, due to the lack of suitable premises for organizing separate transport stations. The difficult reality faced by lower-level administrative authorities meant that, despite the lack of appropriate regulations, persons subject to extradition or hiding from the military census, and even insolvent debtors, were placed in detention.
„Wohlstand, Bildung und Freiheit für Alle”. The Idea of Human Rights in the Views of Gustav Struve as an Example of Radical German Political and Legal Thought during the Springtime of Nations
The Springtime of Nations in Germany is mostly associated with the views of various moderate liber- als, who played leading roles during these revolutionary events. The case is different when it comes to the members of the most radical wing within the liberal movement, the so called “democrats”. Their ideas are described far less frequently. The article presented analyzes the idea of human rights in the views of Gustav Struve – one of the most important figures in the German democratic movement. During the German Springtime of Nations, the notion of human rights was one of the most frequently discussed but also variably understood problems. Struve’s views regarding this question refer not only to the idea of human rights, they also form a kind of political manifesto including solutions for various problems encountered by average citizens along with suggestions concerning an equitable structure of thesocial order. These postulates were revolutionary and radical, but often incoherent. Hence they fit well into the characteristics of the whole German democratic movement in the first half of the 19th century, which was seen as an unpopular, unsystematic, eclectic, and immature phenomenon. The ar- ticle first describes Struve’s life in the context of various events of the German Springtime of Nations. Subsequently, it analyzes the notion of the human being, his functioning in the social community, and the definition of his rights. The article ends with an analysis of the material content of the concept of human rights in the views of the described German radical.
The “Grévy Constitution” and the “de Gaulle Constitution”: Two Directions for the Relocation of Presidential Power in the Constitutional History of France
The paper deals with two different political interpretations of presidential power under the Third and Fifth French Republics, which clearly changed the position of the head of state in relation to the letter of constitutional acts that were in force at the time. Both of these interpretations were im- posed by the presidents in office in the first years after the proper structures of the system of gov- ernment had been established. The former (commonly known as the “Grévy constitution”) led to the weakening of presidential power, and the latter (described as the “de Gaulle constitution”) to its strengthening. Particular attention is thus paid to the formation of such particular unwritten norms of constitutional law in rationalized and non-rationalized parliamentary systems. In both cases, their basic feature turned out to be the ability to significantly modify the parliamentary system of gov- ernment. In the last part of the paper, the stability and durability of the above-mentioned political interpretations of the aforementioned constitutions are discussed. It is indicated that in both cases there were attempts to challenge these non-codified standards. Although the causes of such actions were different from each other, neither brought any meaningful success.
Soviet Criminal Law in the Eyes of a Gulag Prisoner: Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s Lecture on Criminal Law in Light of The Gulag Archipelago
In his monumental non-fiction book, The Gulag Archipelago, Nobel Prize winning author Alexandr Solzhenitsyn illustrates real events in Soviet labor camps in literary form. The depiction of EVIL is shocking. The totalitarian Soviet regime subjected millions of people to a horrific fate. As is gener- ally well-known, Solzhenitsyn spent eight years in a Soviet concentration camp. Mass terror was the essence of Soviet totalitarianism. Solzhenitsyn included a lecture on Soviet criminal law in his book, stressing the importance of Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union in authorizing this terrorism. Solzhenitsyn himself was not a lawyer. However, his conclusions were very accurate. Article 58 of the Criminal Code, which consisted of seventeen paragraphs, defined “counter-revolutionary offenses”. They were obviously punished most rticle 58 became a weapon of terror for the Soviet authorities, who used it convict millions of innocent people.
Unknown Draft of the Matrimonial Property Law that Was Adopted on its Second Reading by the Sub-commission on Matrimonial Property Law of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland in 1938–1939: Historical Source Edition
One of the most important tasks facing the Codification Commission established in 1919 was to regulate the issue of matrimonial property law. The work of the Commission on that issue, which in essence started with its inauguration, was terminated abruptly in 1920. After a thirteen-year hiatus, the debate resumed and resulted in the draft matrimonial property law of 1937, which was adopted on its first reading by the sub-commission on matrimonial property law. The second reading started on 1 April 1938, however, the effects of the work of the sub-commission were previously unknown. This historical source edition sheds a completely new light on that issue. It contains yet unknown draft regulations (from Art. 1 to Art. 99 of the draft) adopted on second reading of the matrimonial property law in 1938–1939. The publication of this source will therefore be of great importance in the context of further research on the history of family law in interwar Poland.
* Artykuł został przygotowany w ramach projektu badawczego „Prawo własności w orzecznictwie sądów Wolnego Miasta Krakowa. Z dziejów stosowania Kodeksu Napoleona”, sfinansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki, nr umowy 2017/27/B/HS5/01308.
Was the Constitution of May Third of 1791 a Source of Inspiration for 19th Century Polish Constitutional Drafts? The Problem of Using Polish Constitutional Heritage in the Congress Kingdom of Poland in 1815 and 1831
The article focuses on the problem of using the legal heritage based on the example of the May Third Constitution. This issue is considered in relation to two selected moments in the history of the Congress Kingdom of Poland – 1814/1815 and 1831. What connects them, and at the same time makes them unique periods in the political and constitutional history of Polish territories under the partitions, is the relative freedom the Polish elites had in their right to decide on the constitutional foundations of their own statehood. In 1814/1815, Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski was granted the emperor’s consent to prepare a draft which, after corrections, became the basis of the Constitutional Act granted by Alexander I. Similarly in 1831, after the dethronement of Tsar Nicholas I, the insurgent elites were free to embark on an unfettered constitutional debate on the systemic reform of the state. Both in 1814/1815 and in 1831, Polish political and intellectual elites faced a dilemma as to whether the May Third Constitution could serve mainly as a monument and symbol of Polish history, or whether it still had the potential to be directly applied; and if so, then to what extent and under what conditions. The publication is devoted to exploring answers to these questions.
* Publikacja przygotowana w ramach projektu „Spór o wykładnię konstytucji Królestwa Polskiego jako formatyw polskiego liberalizmu politycznego” finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki na podstawie umowy nr UMO-2018/29/B/HS5/01165
Concerning the Purpose of Detention Arrests in the Law and Practice of the Kingdom of Poland
The idea of granting the Simple Police Courts the authority to arrest dates back to the times of the Duchy of Warsaw, when in response to the postulates published in penitentiary journals, an attempt was made to create a more extensive system of detention centers. Precise definition of the role of these units in the penitentiary system of the Kingdom of Poland is not easy, due to terminological and practical problems, in contrast with detention and police arrests. Initially, these centers were intended for detainees under an elementary investigation. Although this was their basic role throughout the existence of the Kingdom of Poland, over the years, either by decisions of governmental bodies, or as a result of developed practice, they began to perform additional functions. First of all, people sentenced to short-term imprisonment were allowed to be placed in detention facilities, which was mainly due to the need to reduce both costs and the overcrowding of domestic prisons. From 1837, people arrested or sentenced during transport were placed in detention centers, due to the lack of suitable premises for organizing separate transport stations. The difficult reality faced by lower-level administrative authorities meant that, despite the lack of appropriate regulations, persons subject to extradition or hiding from the military census, and even insolvent debtors, were placed in detention.
„Wohlstand, Bildung und Freiheit für Alle”. The Idea of Human Rights in the Views of Gustav Struve as an Example of Radical German Political and Legal Thought during the Springtime of Nations
The Springtime of Nations in Germany is mostly associated with the views of various moderate liber- als, who played leading roles during these revolutionary events. The case is different when it comes to the members of the most radical wing within the liberal movement, the so called “democrats”. Their ideas are described far less frequently. The article presented analyzes the idea of human rights in the views of Gustav Struve – one of the most important figures in the German democratic movement. During the German Springtime of Nations, the notion of human rights was one of the most frequently discussed but also variably understood problems. Struve’s views regarding this question refer not only to the idea of human rights, they also form a kind of political manifesto including solutions for various problems encountered by average citizens along with suggestions concerning an equitable structure of thesocial order. These postulates were revolutionary and radical, but often incoherent. Hence they fit well into the characteristics of the whole German democratic movement in the first half of the 19th century, which was seen as an unpopular, unsystematic, eclectic, and immature phenomenon. The ar- ticle first describes Struve’s life in the context of various events of the German Springtime of Nations. Subsequently, it analyzes the notion of the human being, his functioning in the social community, and the definition of his rights. The article ends with an analysis of the material content of the concept of human rights in the views of the described German radical.
The “Grévy Constitution” and the “de Gaulle Constitution”: Two Directions for the Relocation of Presidential Power in the Constitutional History of France
The paper deals with two different political interpretations of presidential power under the Third and Fifth French Republics, which clearly changed the position of the head of state in relation to the letter of constitutional acts that were in force at the time. Both of these interpretations were im- posed by the presidents in office in the first years after the proper structures of the system of gov- ernment had been established. The former (commonly known as the “Grévy constitution”) led to the weakening of presidential power, and the latter (described as the “de Gaulle constitution”) to its strengthening. Particular attention is thus paid to the formation of such particular unwritten norms of constitutional law in rationalized and non-rationalized parliamentary systems. In both cases, their basic feature turned out to be the ability to significantly modify the parliamentary system of gov- ernment. In the last part of the paper, the stability and durability of the above-mentioned political interpretations of the aforementioned constitutions are discussed. It is indicated that in both cases there were attempts to challenge these non-codified standards. Although the causes of such actions were different from each other, neither brought any meaningful success.
Soviet Criminal Law in the Eyes of a Gulag Prisoner: Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s Lecture on Criminal Law in Light of The Gulag Archipelago
In his monumental non-fiction book, The Gulag Archipelago, Nobel Prize winning author Alexandr Solzhenitsyn illustrates real events in Soviet labor camps in literary form. The depiction of EVIL is shocking. The totalitarian Soviet regime subjected millions of people to a horrific fate. As is gener- ally well-known, Solzhenitsyn spent eight years in a Soviet concentration camp. Mass terror was the essence of Soviet totalitarianism. Solzhenitsyn included a lecture on Soviet criminal law in his book, stressing the importance of Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union in authorizing this terrorism. Solzhenitsyn himself was not a lawyer. However, his conclusions were very accurate. Article 58 of the Criminal Code, which consisted of seventeen paragraphs, defined “counter-revolutionary offenses”. They were obviously punished most rticle 58 became a weapon of terror for the Soviet authorities, who used it convict millions of innocent people.
Unknown Draft of the Matrimonial Property Law that Was Adopted on its Second Reading by the Sub-commission on Matrimonial Property Law of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland in 1938–1939: Historical Source Edition
One of the most important tasks facing the Codification Commission established in 1919 was to regulate the issue of matrimonial property law. The work of the Commission on that issue, which in essence started with its inauguration, was terminated abruptly in 1920. After a thirteen-year hiatus, the debate resumed and resulted in the draft matrimonial property law of 1937, which was adopted on its first reading by the sub-commission on matrimonial property law. The second reading started on 1 April 1938, however, the effects of the work of the sub-commission were previously unknown. This historical source edition sheds a completely new light on that issue. It contains yet unknown draft regulations (from Art. 1 to Art. 99 of the draft) adopted on second reading of the matrimonial property law in 1938–1939. The publication of this source will therefore be of great importance in the context of further research on the history of family law in interwar Poland.
* Artykuł został przygotowany w ramach projektu badawczego „Prawo własności w orzecznictwie sądów Wolnego Miasta Krakowa. Z dziejów stosowania Kodeksu Napoleona”, sfinansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki, nr umowy 2017/27/B/HS5/01308.
The author endeavored to enliven the universal discourse on the perfect system of government applicable to human society, which to many luminaries constitutes a certain paradigm of the science on the state and the law. While adopting a classical, chronological convention of the narrative herein commenced, the author made the time of Antiquity the point of departure, selected the Enlightenment as a form of a modern counterpoint thereto, and then finalized the deliberations carried out here against the reality of contemporary times. The intent of the exploration here was to place the research subject within the interdisciplinary framework, which was undoubtedly supported by the multifaceted nature of the problem at issue and by subsidiary utilization of the advantages of the comparative approach. The intention to present the issue through a broad perspective, transcending the boundaries of academic discourse, was naturally convergent therewith. As a result, the author did not shy from controversy, seeking the purpose of the actions undertaken, thereby in the formation of conclusions on what the applicable law should be. That allowed for the presentation of numerous remarks, assessments, and opinions, among which at least some may be deemed disputatious or plainly speaking, highly debatable. The investigator did not attempt to evade those; on the contrary – sought it in complete premeditation.
In Hungarian history, the Crown of St. Stephen was an important relic symbolizing the unity of the Hungarian state. It was not merely a coronation jewel or symbol of royal prerogatives, but a respected element of the country’s historic “millennial”constitution. Although the doctrine associated with it was a unique Hungarian constitutional theory, symbolizing national independence, it was flexible enough to serve various political ideas and ambitions. The Crown has always embodied the monarchical form of the Hungarian State, and its sacred character symbolized the strong alliance of the monarchy with the Catholic Church. Is this historical doctrine compatible with the values and requirements of modern Europe and the requirements of present-day Hungarian constitutionalism?
When in the 16th century in many European states, the monarchal power began to drift toward absolutism, the Polish-Lithuanian state evolved in its constitutionalism along the Republican lines. Its monarch could be brought to accountability for the violation of the law. Likewise, he was freely elected by the nobles and held his position for life. The nation of nobles that, by the standards of the time, made up a remarkable section of the entire population of the country was protected against the monarch’s attempts against their liberties by a series of remarkable privileges. And indeed, a noble’s property was prevented from being unreasonably confiscated. Likewise, an individual of nobiliary status could not be arbitrarily imprisoned. The representatives of nobles, while sitting in the benches of the Seym, had a considerable share in exercising the state power, particularly in the area of the law-creating process and when the imposing of tax liabilities was debated. In addition, the clauses of the Henrician Articles (1573), which were a kind of Fundamental Law of the Nobiliary Republic, guaranteed the mass of the nobles’religious toleration within the Christian denominations. The spirit of this toleration in practice also applied to the non-Christians (Jews and Muslim Tartars who inhabited the Republic).
The republican slogans that were responsible for forming a specific frame of mind of the nobles assumed a new dimension when the culture of Latinitas type began to be promoted. The latter started to develop on the occasion of the acceptance by the authorities of the Nobiliary Republic of the principles of the Council of Trent, which happened in the 1570s. The Republic remained within the Catholic Camp. From that time on, the young nobles used to be educated in numerous Jesuit colleges and had not only a fluent command of Latin but also a profound knowledge of the history and culture of antiquity. Hence, they looked at their state, the Respublica Polonorum as a successor of the late Respublica Romanorum with the virtues of the latter. These virtues, when filtered through the system of Christian values –pushed to the foreground the concern for the welfare of the motherland, support for the democratic ethos and egalitarian spirit within the nobiliary milieu, and also the willingness to defend the Christian world against the invasion of the barbarians (the concept of Antemurale).
The republican spirit survived the era of constitutional deterioration in the country that started in the mid-17th century. With the era of reforms which began in the 1760s, the constitutional improvement reached its climax in the Constitution of 3rd May 1791. Like in the British system, king was located at the position of the monarch who could do no wrong since all his executive acts required the endorsement made by the right minister. The separation of powers was emphasized. The ministers could be brought both to their political responsibility to parliament if they lost the support of the majority in the houses and also to constitutional responsibility for their contra legem acts.
Hungary introduced provisions on cartels with the enactment of Act XX of 1931. To protect good morals and public interests, the Act regulated the tools of state intervention and supervision. This legal field was the summarization of the proceedings of cartel supervisory authorities, in which not only executive state bodies but also judiciary organs took part. The paper focuses on the development of the Hungarian cartel law, with special attention to the practice of the courts and the aims of the State related to the supervisory power over the cartels before the codification of the Hungarian cartel law. The main aim of the study is to put an emphasis on the tasks of the responsible Minister and the legal director, mainly by analyzing the related primary sources. The purpose of this study is also to explain the tasks of the responsible Minister after the Cartel Act came into force, and the demonstration of the practice related to the proceedings. The main question is what the functions of the supervisory authorities related to the cartels were. In connection with the legal director, I would like to illustrate his task as a representative of state interests in the mainly cartel-related lawsuits.
The article presents an overview of the problem of fundamental rights during the First Czechoslovak Republic and focuses especially on the role played by the fundamental rights catalogue of the 1920 Czechoslovak Constitutional Charter. Section 2 presents the 1920 catalogue itself, methods of specification and of limitations of rights (usually by particular laws) and postulates continuity with pre-1918 Austrian and Hungarian law. Section 3 is dedicated to opinions of Czechoslovak legal doctrine (mainly Czech authors) on the role of the 1920 catalogue. Section 4 examines the case-law of the Supreme Administrative Court protecting fundamental rights and tries to show that some fundamental rights were applied directly by this Court and that direct application sometimes leads also to a limited form of constitutional review of pre-1918 law.
Lost Minutes of the Sittings of the Sub-commission on the Law on Kinship and Care Relationships of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland in 1939 (part II)
When Poland regained independence in 1918, the different legal systems of the various partitioning states all remained in force on its territory. Drafts of uniform laws were to be drawn up by the Codification Commission established in 1919. One of its tasks was the preparation of a draft of the family and guardianship law. The sub-commission addressing this division of civil law worked until the outbreak of World War Two. The minutes of its sittings disappeared in September 1939 along with the total output of the Codification Commission. However, copies of minutes of the sittings of the sub-commission held in 1939 were found in Kazimierz Przybyłowski’s collection of books donated to the Faculty of Law and Administration of University of Silesia in Katowice. These minutes shed new light on the final phase of the codification works. Publication of these documents will enable further detailed research on the history of family law in interwar Poland. The second part of the publication consists of minutes nos. 183–189.
The author endeavored to enliven the universal discourse on the perfect system of government applicable to human society, which to many luminaries constitutes a certain paradigm of the science on the state and the law. While adopting a classical, chronological convention of the narrative herein commenced, the author made the time of Antiquity the point of departure, selected the Enlightenment as a form of a modern counterpoint thereto, and then finalized the deliberations carried out here against the reality of contemporary times. The intent of the exploration here was to place the research subject within the interdisciplinary framework, which was undoubtedly supported by the multifaceted nature of the problem at issue and by subsidiary utilization of the advantages of the comparative approach. The intention to present the issue through a broad perspective, transcending the boundaries of academic discourse, was naturally convergent therewith. As a result, the author did not shy from controversy, seeking the purpose of the actions undertaken, thereby in the formation of conclusions on what the applicable law should be. That allowed for the presentation of numerous remarks, assessments, and opinions, among which at least some may be deemed disputatious or plainly speaking, highly debatable. The investigator did not attempt to evade those; on the contrary – sought it in complete premeditation.
In Hungarian history, the Crown of St. Stephen was an important relic symbolizing the unity of the Hungarian state. It was not merely a coronation jewel or symbol of royal prerogatives, but a respected element of the country’s historic “millennial”constitution. Although the doctrine associated with it was a unique Hungarian constitutional theory, symbolizing national independence, it was flexible enough to serve various political ideas and ambitions. The Crown has always embodied the monarchical form of the Hungarian State, and its sacred character symbolized the strong alliance of the monarchy with the Catholic Church. Is this historical doctrine compatible with the values and requirements of modern Europe and the requirements of present-day Hungarian constitutionalism?
When in the 16th century in many European states, the monarchal power began to drift toward absolutism, the Polish-Lithuanian state evolved in its constitutionalism along the Republican lines. Its monarch could be brought to accountability for the violation of the law. Likewise, he was freely elected by the nobles and held his position for life. The nation of nobles that, by the standards of the time, made up a remarkable section of the entire population of the country was protected against the monarch’s attempts against their liberties by a series of remarkable privileges. And indeed, a noble’s property was prevented from being unreasonably confiscated. Likewise, an individual of nobiliary status could not be arbitrarily imprisoned. The representatives of nobles, while sitting in the benches of the Seym, had a considerable share in exercising the state power, particularly in the area of the law-creating process and when the imposing of tax liabilities was debated. In addition, the clauses of the Henrician Articles (1573), which were a kind of Fundamental Law of the Nobiliary Republic, guaranteed the mass of the nobles’religious toleration within the Christian denominations. The spirit of this toleration in practice also applied to the non-Christians (Jews and Muslim Tartars who inhabited the Republic).
The republican slogans that were responsible for forming a specific frame of mind of the nobles assumed a new dimension when the culture of Latinitas type began to be promoted. The latter started to develop on the occasion of the acceptance by the authorities of the Nobiliary Republic of the principles of the Council of Trent, which happened in the 1570s. The Republic remained within the Catholic Camp. From that time on, the young nobles used to be educated in numerous Jesuit colleges and had not only a fluent command of Latin but also a profound knowledge of the history and culture of antiquity. Hence, they looked at their state, the Respublica Polonorum as a successor of the late Respublica Romanorum with the virtues of the latter. These virtues, when filtered through the system of Christian values –pushed to the foreground the concern for the welfare of the motherland, support for the democratic ethos and egalitarian spirit within the nobiliary milieu, and also the willingness to defend the Christian world against the invasion of the barbarians (the concept of Antemurale).
The republican spirit survived the era of constitutional deterioration in the country that started in the mid-17th century. With the era of reforms which began in the 1760s, the constitutional improvement reached its climax in the Constitution of 3rd May 1791. Like in the British system, king was located at the position of the monarch who could do no wrong since all his executive acts required the endorsement made by the right minister. The separation of powers was emphasized. The ministers could be brought both to their political responsibility to parliament if they lost the support of the majority in the houses and also to constitutional responsibility for their contra legem acts.
Hungary introduced provisions on cartels with the enactment of Act XX of 1931. To protect good morals and public interests, the Act regulated the tools of state intervention and supervision. This legal field was the summarization of the proceedings of cartel supervisory authorities, in which not only executive state bodies but also judiciary organs took part. The paper focuses on the development of the Hungarian cartel law, with special attention to the practice of the courts and the aims of the State related to the supervisory power over the cartels before the codification of the Hungarian cartel law. The main aim of the study is to put an emphasis on the tasks of the responsible Minister and the legal director, mainly by analyzing the related primary sources. The purpose of this study is also to explain the tasks of the responsible Minister after the Cartel Act came into force, and the demonstration of the practice related to the proceedings. The main question is what the functions of the supervisory authorities related to the cartels were. In connection with the legal director, I would like to illustrate his task as a representative of state interests in the mainly cartel-related lawsuits.
The article presents an overview of the problem of fundamental rights during the First Czechoslovak Republic and focuses especially on the role played by the fundamental rights catalogue of the 1920 Czechoslovak Constitutional Charter. Section 2 presents the 1920 catalogue itself, methods of specification and of limitations of rights (usually by particular laws) and postulates continuity with pre-1918 Austrian and Hungarian law. Section 3 is dedicated to opinions of Czechoslovak legal doctrine (mainly Czech authors) on the role of the 1920 catalogue. Section 4 examines the case-law of the Supreme Administrative Court protecting fundamental rights and tries to show that some fundamental rights were applied directly by this Court and that direct application sometimes leads also to a limited form of constitutional review of pre-1918 law.
Lost Minutes of the Sittings of the Sub-commission on the Law on Kinship and Care Relationships of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland in 1939 (part II)
When Poland regained independence in 1918, the different legal systems of the various partitioning states all remained in force on its territory. Drafts of uniform laws were to be drawn up by the Codification Commission established in 1919. One of its tasks was the preparation of a draft of the family and guardianship law. The sub-commission addressing this division of civil law worked until the outbreak of World War Two. The minutes of its sittings disappeared in September 1939 along with the total output of the Codification Commission. However, copies of minutes of the sittings of the sub-commission held in 1939 were found in Kazimierz Przybyłowski’s collection of books donated to the Faculty of Law and Administration of University of Silesia in Katowice. These minutes shed new light on the final phase of the codification works. Publication of these documents will enable further detailed research on the history of family law in interwar Poland. The second part of the publication consists of minutes nos. 183–189.
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
The paper deals with the development of law in Czechoslovakia from its inception to the existence of the so-called First Republic, focusing in particular on the development of criminal law. The primary question addressed in the paper is whether there is legal continuity with the previous Austro-Hungarian legal system. Given that there were several legal orders in force in the aftermath of the establishment of Czechoslovakia, the next necessary question is how this situation was addressed. The paper presents examples from selected areas of criminal law, such as juvenile justice, national security laws, or military criminal norms, and intends to document the main legislative trends, namely the introduction of completely new legal regulations, the adoption of the original Austrian regulation and its nationwide application, or, last but not least, the adoption of both Austrian and Hungarian regulations with their simultaneous application. The codification attempts in the Criminal Code, which were not completed in the relevant period, have not been overlooked.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
This paper concerns of the doctrine of versio in rem (or actio de in rem verso) in the legal discussion in interwar Czechoslovakia. The paper presents a brief overview of the origin and field of application of actio de in rem verso in classical Roman law and the transformation of the doctrine of versio in rem i n the frame of Corpus Iuris Civilis. The scope of the changes made by the compilers is still uncertain and was a subject of extensive discussion among the legal scholars of the 19th century. The paper describes the nature of versio in rem in the Austrian Civil Code (provision of §1041) and presents legal statements of the prominent exponents of the various legal schools of interwar Czechoslovakia, the legal traditionalists and the supporters of the School of Pure Law Theory. The doctrine of versio in rem is still in the centre of attention of the modern legal scholars in the Czech Republic. The doctrine of versio in rem was adopted in the new Czech Civil Code, but without reflecting the results of the interwar discussion.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
WWI significantly influenced the development of private and trade law. The regulation of economic law institutions came up as a necessity. To protect the consumers’interests, the state interfered with private law affairs and regulated sharking procedures, unfair competition and cartel law. By taking European regulation results into account, cartel regulation organisations were introduced by the Cartel Act; the most important of them was the Cartel Court. This paper shows the most important steps of the antitrust regulation in Hungary’s special attention to the relevant European cartel regulations.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
The First World War and the Trianon Treaty shocked the Hungarian economy. The Hungarian government implemented a payment moratorium from the start of the war, but after a one-year long moratorium, the government wanted to restore the working of the economy. But it desired to avoid the massive bankruptcies of the firms; therefore, a new institution, the compulsory non-bankruptcy settlement was introduced by the government in Hungary for helping the debtors. In my paper, I examine the rearrangement of the insolvency law in the interwar period which was generated by the compulsory nonbankruptcy settlement. This appeared beside the bankruptcy procedure, which regulation was passed by the National Assembly in 1881. It was the second Hungarian bankruptcy act, which remained unchanged until socialism. These two procedures were the significant elements of the insolvency law in the examined period. In my paper, I present the circumstances of the new institution’s introduction, its modification and its relation to the bankruptcy procedure.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
As a result of the codification of Hungarian civil procedure, the first modern code of civil procedure was enacted in 1911. It was characterised by the principles of orality, immediacy, and publicity. An important question of the legislation was to decide to which extent should the parties be allowed to propose new allegations and proofs in the second instance proceedings. Furthermore, the legislative reforms of the interwar period amended the regulation of the appeal as well. The study examines these questions with the help of the primary sources of the era.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
After regaining independence in 1918, Poland inherited five different post-partition legal orders from the 19th century, regulating personal matrimony law on its territory, i.e. Prussian, Austrian, Hungarian, Russian and Polish from the times of the Kingdom of Poland. This situation required urgent reform and taking codification steps. The codification task was entrusted to the Codification Commission, established in 1919. Its result was the governmental matrimony law Project adopted in 1929, known as Lutostański’s Project. Unfortunately, it was not passed by the Sejm. It happened because of the opposition of the Catholic Church and other conservative forces. The reasons for this state of affairs were too modern, for those times, legal solutions contained therein, and above all, the possibility of obtaining a divorce. Many legal solutions included in this project can be found in modern matrimony law, i.e. almost a hundred years later. Nevertheless, the very idea of codification and the adopted main principles of matrimony law should be considered a success of Polish legal thought. The more so because many of these solutions were used in post-war Poland in the Decree on matrimony law in 1945 and are known in contemporary matrimony law.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
Jury courts existed in all the partitioning countries, and after 1918 they were to operate in all parts of the reborn Polish state. Their activities were suspended indefinitely in the former Prussian and Russian partitions. Only the former Austrian partition operated until 1938, when the Sanacja authorities liquidated them. Jury courts adjudicated only criminal cases –concerning the most severe crimes and political crimes. Recently, more attention has been devoted to jury courts and the participation of the social factor in the judiciary in Polish science, but so far, no publications in English have appeared on this subject. In the article, the author presents a short description of the jury’s activity in Poland and discusses three hypotheses about the activity of the jury in Polish science.
fINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
The article describes the regulation of liability for non-pecuniary damage on the example of 19th century Hungarian law, which is based on a long, unbroken tradition, individual legal acts and customary law. Furthermore, the classification of torts and remedies in contemporary Hungarian law is analysed, highlighting their similarities and differences to those used in the present civil law. Particular emphasis is placed on the examination and presentation of the institution of homagium, which had a medieval origin and constituted a specific instrument for obtaining compensation for non-pecuniary damage. It is compared with Polish (Code of Obligations of 1933) and Austrian (ABGB of 1811) regulations. The situation allows the author to show the variety of ways in which contract law has developed, especially concerning the pecuniary compensation of harm and pain. Employing comparative and historical methods makes it possible to highlight the timelessness of particular obligation law issues, showing its evolution in Central Europe in the last two centuries.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
The creation of the Czechoslovak Republic and its legal system had its basis in the Act No. 11/1918 Coll. The Act preserved in force former Hungarian law in the territory of Slovakia. In Czech lands, former Austrian law was to be used further on. Quite understandably, attempts were present already in the interwar period to unify the legal system of Czechoslovakia. Analysis of the process and results of unification of law in Czechoslovakia reveals the participation of broad-scale of Slovak lawyers in the process and partial influence of law valid in Slovakia in the projects of new Czechoslovak codes. In the area of substantive law, the revised Austrian Civil Code (ABGB) was to become the basis of the new Czechoslovak Civil Code and therefore, not much space was left for “Slovak law”to influence the final version of the Civil Code project. In the area of procedural law, however, the codes of civil procedure valid in the Czech part and in the Slovak part of the Republic were not as different as it was the case with the substantive civil law. Therefore, the unification process was easier and many institutes of law valid in Slovakia were to be preserved in the project of the Czechoslovak Civil Procedure Code. Unfortunately, the events of the years 1938–1939 was the reason for none of the prepared projects being actually enacted. It was only after the Second World War (mostly in 1950) that the legal order was finally unified in Czechoslovakia.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
The study analyses the Hungarian and Austrian adoption laws that inspired lawmakers of the Czechoslovak Act No. 56 of 1928 Coll. As the Hungarian and Austrian laws, the Czechoslovak Act of 1928 on Adoption recognised adoption as a contract to ensure an heir. It advocated compliance with the principle adoptio naturam imitatur. Therefore, it helped to improve the social and legal position of abandoned and neglected children. For lawmakers, the primary inspiration source was the Austrian General Civil Code (ABGB). Nonetheless, several provisions of the ABGB were identical with the Hungarian customary law, court practice, and office practice. Adopters had to be childless, older than forty years of age, and a minimum of eighteen years older than the adoptees. Married persons could adopt only with the consent of their spouses (in this, the influence of the ABGB was the strongest). Contrary to ABGB, but under the Hungarian court practice, was the possibility for a man to adopt his illegitimate biological child. It was possible to adopt majors as a limitation to the principle adoptio naturam imitatur. Adoption was a contractual relationship. It established a relation only between the adopter and adoptee, while the relationships of the adoptee with the birth family continued. For instance, if the adopter failed in his duty to aliment the adoptee, the biological father had a supportive legal obligation to pay alimony. The main goal of the adoption process was to produce an heir. For this reason, we can conclude that the interests of adopters prevailed over the interests of adoptees. It changed radically after 1949, and the most important in the adoption process has become the best interest of the child.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
The author reviews mental disorder as a ground for divorce in the Czechoslovak Act No. 320 of 1919 Coll. This Act was called the Marriage Amendment and was in effect for the Czech countries until 1950. The author considers the wording of the Act itself, the explanatory report, jurisprudence, and the court practice. The author compares it to the Hungarian marriage law that continued to be effective in Slovakia until 1950. It was Act No. XXXI of 1894 (the so-called Marriage Act), which regulated divorces in Slovakia, despite adopting the Czechoslovak Marriage Amendment. The Hungarian Marriage Act did not recognise mental illness as a ground for divorce. However, it was a controversial topic in both legal environments, the Hungarian and Czechoslovak.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
The paper deals with the development of law in Czechoslovakia from its inception to the existence of the so-called First Republic, focusing in particular on the development of criminal law. The primary question addressed in the paper is whether there is legal continuity with the previous Austro-Hungarian legal system. Given that there were several legal orders in force in the aftermath of the establishment of Czechoslovakia, the next necessary question is how this situation was addressed. The paper presents examples from selected areas of criminal law, such as juvenile justice, national security laws, or military criminal norms, and intends to document the main legislative trends, namely the introduction of completely new legal regulations, the adoption of the original Austrian regulation and its nationwide application, or, last but not least, the adoption of both Austrian and Hungarian regulations with their simultaneous application. The codification attempts in the Criminal Code, which were not completed in the relevant period, have not been overlooked.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
This paper concerns of the doctrine of versio in rem (or actio de in rem verso) in the legal discussion in interwar Czechoslovakia. The paper presents a brief overview of the origin and field of application of actio de in rem verso in classical Roman law and the transformation of the doctrine of versio in rem i n the frame of Corpus Iuris Civilis. The scope of the changes made by the compilers is still uncertain and was a subject of extensive discussion among the legal scholars of the 19th century. The paper describes the nature of versio in rem in the Austrian Civil Code (provision of §1041) and presents legal statements of the prominent exponents of the various legal schools of interwar Czechoslovakia, the legal traditionalists and the supporters of the School of Pure Law Theory. The doctrine of versio in rem is still in the centre of attention of the modern legal scholars in the Czech Republic. The doctrine of versio in rem was adopted in the new Czech Civil Code, but without reflecting the results of the interwar discussion.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
WWI significantly influenced the development of private and trade law. The regulation of economic law institutions came up as a necessity. To protect the consumers’interests, the state interfered with private law affairs and regulated sharking procedures, unfair competition and cartel law. By taking European regulation results into account, cartel regulation organisations were introduced by the Cartel Act; the most important of them was the Cartel Court. This paper shows the most important steps of the antitrust regulation in Hungary’s special attention to the relevant European cartel regulations.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
The First World War and the Trianon Treaty shocked the Hungarian economy. The Hungarian government implemented a payment moratorium from the start of the war, but after a one-year long moratorium, the government wanted to restore the working of the economy. But it desired to avoid the massive bankruptcies of the firms; therefore, a new institution, the compulsory non-bankruptcy settlement was introduced by the government in Hungary for helping the debtors. In my paper, I examine the rearrangement of the insolvency law in the interwar period which was generated by the compulsory nonbankruptcy settlement. This appeared beside the bankruptcy procedure, which regulation was passed by the National Assembly in 1881. It was the second Hungarian bankruptcy act, which remained unchanged until socialism. These two procedures were the significant elements of the insolvency law in the examined period. In my paper, I present the circumstances of the new institution’s introduction, its modification and its relation to the bankruptcy procedure.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
As a result of the codification of Hungarian civil procedure, the first modern code of civil procedure was enacted in 1911. It was characterised by the principles of orality, immediacy, and publicity. An important question of the legislation was to decide to which extent should the parties be allowed to propose new allegations and proofs in the second instance proceedings. Furthermore, the legislative reforms of the interwar period amended the regulation of the appeal as well. The study examines these questions with the help of the primary sources of the era.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
After regaining independence in 1918, Poland inherited five different post-partition legal orders from the 19th century, regulating personal matrimony law on its territory, i.e. Prussian, Austrian, Hungarian, Russian and Polish from the times of the Kingdom of Poland. This situation required urgent reform and taking codification steps. The codification task was entrusted to the Codification Commission, established in 1919. Its result was the governmental matrimony law Project adopted in 1929, known as Lutostański’s Project. Unfortunately, it was not passed by the Sejm. It happened because of the opposition of the Catholic Church and other conservative forces. The reasons for this state of affairs were too modern, for those times, legal solutions contained therein, and above all, the possibility of obtaining a divorce. Many legal solutions included in this project can be found in modern matrimony law, i.e. almost a hundred years later. Nevertheless, the very idea of codification and the adopted main principles of matrimony law should be considered a success of Polish legal thought. The more so because many of these solutions were used in post-war Poland in the Decree on matrimony law in 1945 and are known in contemporary matrimony law.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
Jury courts existed in all the partitioning countries, and after 1918 they were to operate in all parts of the reborn Polish state. Their activities were suspended indefinitely in the former Prussian and Russian partitions. Only the former Austrian partition operated until 1938, when the Sanacja authorities liquidated them. Jury courts adjudicated only criminal cases –concerning the most severe crimes and political crimes. Recently, more attention has been devoted to jury courts and the participation of the social factor in the judiciary in Polish science, but so far, no publications in English have appeared on this subject. In the article, the author presents a short description of the jury’s activity in Poland and discusses three hypotheses about the activity of the jury in Polish science.
fINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
The article describes the regulation of liability for non-pecuniary damage on the example of 19th century Hungarian law, which is based on a long, unbroken tradition, individual legal acts and customary law. Furthermore, the classification of torts and remedies in contemporary Hungarian law is analysed, highlighting their similarities and differences to those used in the present civil law. Particular emphasis is placed on the examination and presentation of the institution of homagium, which had a medieval origin and constituted a specific instrument for obtaining compensation for non-pecuniary damage. It is compared with Polish (Code of Obligations of 1933) and Austrian (ABGB of 1811) regulations. The situation allows the author to show the variety of ways in which contract law has developed, especially concerning the pecuniary compensation of harm and pain. Employing comparative and historical methods makes it possible to highlight the timelessness of particular obligation law issues, showing its evolution in Central Europe in the last two centuries.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
The creation of the Czechoslovak Republic and its legal system had its basis in the Act No. 11/1918 Coll. The Act preserved in force former Hungarian law in the territory of Slovakia. In Czech lands, former Austrian law was to be used further on. Quite understandably, attempts were present already in the interwar period to unify the legal system of Czechoslovakia. Analysis of the process and results of unification of law in Czechoslovakia reveals the participation of broad-scale of Slovak lawyers in the process and partial influence of law valid in Slovakia in the projects of new Czechoslovak codes. In the area of substantive law, the revised Austrian Civil Code (ABGB) was to become the basis of the new Czechoslovak Civil Code and therefore, not much space was left for “Slovak law”to influence the final version of the Civil Code project. In the area of procedural law, however, the codes of civil procedure valid in the Czech part and in the Slovak part of the Republic were not as different as it was the case with the substantive civil law. Therefore, the unification process was easier and many institutes of law valid in Slovakia were to be preserved in the project of the Czechoslovak Civil Procedure Code. Unfortunately, the events of the years 1938–1939 was the reason for none of the prepared projects being actually enacted. It was only after the Second World War (mostly in 1950) that the legal order was finally unified in Czechoslovakia.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
The study analyses the Hungarian and Austrian adoption laws that inspired lawmakers of the Czechoslovak Act No. 56 of 1928 Coll. As the Hungarian and Austrian laws, the Czechoslovak Act of 1928 on Adoption recognised adoption as a contract to ensure an heir. It advocated compliance with the principle adoptio naturam imitatur. Therefore, it helped to improve the social and legal position of abandoned and neglected children. For lawmakers, the primary inspiration source was the Austrian General Civil Code (ABGB). Nonetheless, several provisions of the ABGB were identical with the Hungarian customary law, court practice, and office practice. Adopters had to be childless, older than forty years of age, and a minimum of eighteen years older than the adoptees. Married persons could adopt only with the consent of their spouses (in this, the influence of the ABGB was the strongest). Contrary to ABGB, but under the Hungarian court practice, was the possibility for a man to adopt his illegitimate biological child. It was possible to adopt majors as a limitation to the principle adoptio naturam imitatur. Adoption was a contractual relationship. It established a relation only between the adopter and adoptee, while the relationships of the adoptee with the birth family continued. For instance, if the adopter failed in his duty to aliment the adoptee, the biological father had a supportive legal obligation to pay alimony. The main goal of the adoption process was to produce an heir. For this reason, we can conclude that the interests of adopters prevailed over the interests of adoptees. It changed radically after 1949, and the most important in the adoption process has become the best interest of the child.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
The author reviews mental disorder as a ground for divorce in the Czechoslovak Act No. 320 of 1919 Coll. This Act was called the Marriage Amendment and was in effect for the Czech countries until 1950. The author considers the wording of the Act itself, the explanatory report, jurisprudence, and the court practice. The author compares it to the Hungarian marriage law that continued to be effective in Slovakia until 1950. It was Act No. XXXI of 1894 (the so-called Marriage Act), which regulated divorces in Slovakia, despite adopting the Czechoslovak Marriage Amendment. The Hungarian Marriage Act did not recognise mental illness as a ground for divorce. However, it was a controversial topic in both legal environments, the Hungarian and Czechoslovak.
FINANSOWANIE
The project ‘Continuity and Discontinuity of Pre-war Legal Systems in Post-war Successor States (1918–1939)’ is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Visegrad Grant No. 22030159.
This article focuses on the relationship between the imperial cult in pagan Rome and the heavenly hierarchy taught by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. The latter’s thought played a significant role in the construction of the medieval image of the world. Medieval reflection on the state and law drew from it as well. Therefore, possible analogies between the imperial cult and the philosophy of Corpus Dionysiacum would indicate an indirect influence that the imperial cult of the emperor had on certain later ideas about state power, on the legitimacy of certain forms of social and constitutional organization, and on prophetic visions inspiring social and political movements.
Against this background, the article compares the emperor’s genius (as well as the imperial virtues and the emperor’s numen) with the immaterial beings described by the Areopagite. It reveals clear parallels regarding the hierarchical construction of geniuses in the imperial cult of ancient Rome and Pseudo-Dionysius’ Angels, Names of God, and divine providences. The similarities in mediation between the human world and the divine reality regarding the granting of creative power and supernatural knowledge are also associated with this structure. In both cases, the divine element (genius and heavenly beings) has a historiosophical aspect, consisting of justification of belief about care that the deity exercises over the universal history of mankind.
The conducted research constitutes an impulse for further research in the field of political aspects of medieval angelology.
Franciszek Bieliński’s Attitude towards Tithes. A Contribution to the History of the Dispute over Tithes in Masovia in the 1750’s
The present article describes Franciszek Bieliński’s attitude towards tithes. He was the Grand Marshal of the Polish Crown and initiated a conflict about tithes between the Masovian nobility and the Catholic clergy, that began in the early 1750’s. In the article I analyse the manifesto that was published under Bieliński’s auspices, along with his correspondence with other dignitaries of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as their speeches during the Sejm of 1752 in Grodno. It was no secret that Bieliński initiated this conflict mainly for personal reasons. However, his activity perpetuated the evolution of the practice that courts for nobility were competent to examine cases concerning tithes.
* Artykuł powstał w związku z realizacją projektu badawczego PRELUDIUM 6 Narodowego Centrum Nauki (nr DEC-2013/11/N/HS3/04734).
The Publication Accompanying the Exhibition “Faszination Stadt” Kulturelle Vernetzung in Europa. Das Magdeburger Recht und seine Städte (Cultural Net in Europe. Magdeburg Law and Its Towns), eds. Gabriele Köster, Christina Link, Heiner Lück. Dresden: Sandstein Verlag, 2018, 520 pp., ISBN 978-3-95498-452-7
The overview refers to the publication Kulturelle Vernetzung in Europa. Das Magdeburger Recht und seine Städte (eds. G. Köster, Ch. Link, H. Lück, Dresden: Sandstein Verlag, 2018). It contains 23 articles devoted to the shaping of urban centres in Central-Eastern Europe, based on an interdisciplinary approach. These centres developed from the 13th through the 18th centuries, following the Magdeburg legal model, under the influence of its legal culture. A similar economic and social context shaped comparable circumstances and transformation trends in these centres, regardless of ethnic diversity. Cities established under Magdeburg law shared a network of cultural links, both material and spiritual. The starting point of most of the texts is the history of urban law, and its transfer and adaptation to new areas. However, they also refer to the legal language, the development of written culture in law, the history of the cities’inhabitants and ethnic groups, and the history of urban development, archeology, and art.
Maciej Jan Mazurkiewicz, Ludobójstwo Niemiec na narodzie polskim (1939–1945). Studium historycznoprawne (Germany’s Genocide against the Polish Nation (1939–1945). Legal Historical Study). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej, 2021, 520 pp.
The monograph highlights the aspects of the international law qualification of the actions and omissions of Germany towards Poland and Poles during World War II. The study tries to prove that in the years 1939–1945 Germany was obliged to observe the norms of international law in its relations with Poland, and especially the non-treaty prohibitions not to initiate aggressive war or to commit the crime of genocide. The review describes the hypothesis and aims of the monograph and evaluates its substance, form, and argumentation.
Political Constitution of the Portuguese Republic of 1933
The work consists of two parts. One of them is the first Polish translation of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic of April 11, 1933, and the other is an article devoted to this constitution and the system of government prevailing in Portugal during its period of validity. The Constitution of 1933 had never previously been translated into Polish, although its translation (often anonymous) was published in several other languages, including English, French, German, and Russian. While the circumstances of adopting the constitution of 1933, its sources, and its ideological concepts are reasonably well chronicled in Polish literature, the Estado Novo system is less so, and the author devotes his article to analysing this new regime. It is a synthesis of the constitution’s provisions, against the background of the circumstances in which it was adopted and the ideology on which it was based: corporatism, conservatism, moderate nationalism, and meritocracy. The author also does not ignore the unique role of the architect and originator of the Portuguese system of that time –António de Oliveira Salazar –and his views on the state system.
Lost Minutes of the Sittings of the Sub-commission on the Law on Kinship and Care Relationships of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland in 1939 (part I)
When Poland regained independence in 1918, the different legal systems of the various partitioning states all remained in force on its territory. Drafts of uniform laws were to be drawn up by the Codification Commission established in 1919. One of its tasks was the preparation of a draft of the family and guardianship law. The sub-commission addressing this division of civil law worked until the outbreak of World War Two. The minutes of its sittings disappeared in September 1939 along with the total output of the Codification Commission. However, copies of minutes of the sittings of the sub-commission held in 1939 were found in Kazimierz Przybyłowski’s collection of books donated to the Faculty of Law and Administration of University of Silesia in Katowice. These minutes shed new light on the final phase of the codification works. Publication of these documents will enable further detailed research on the history of family law in interwar Poland. The first part of the publication focuses on minutes nos. 165–173, while following parts will include minutes nos. 183–201, and a reconstruction of the draft provisions.
Medice, cura te ipsum. A response to Andrzej Zakrzewski
Andrzej Zakrzewski’s article reviews the book The judiciary adopted by the Treasury Commission of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in fiscal cases (1765–1794) by Piotr Miłosz Pilarczyk. The article was published in Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa 14, issue 4 (2021). It is an unpleasant example of academic misconduct. Due to the doubts it raises, it is necessary to indicate the abuses committed by the reviewer.
Among Zakrzewski’s numerous remarks, his charge of insufficient use of the literature available on the subject stands out. However, the majority of issues raised by the reviewer either do not relate to things found in the book, or the references found there are irrelevant. The next objection relates to the language used in the work. The reviewer’s arguments result from misunderstanding of the assumptions elucidated in the work.
Polemics with the reviewer are in many cases impossible, because they often fail to justify criticisms with substantiable arguments, or they lack rational bases because of being ad personam. Criticism also applies to what is not in the book, because the reviewer does not focus on the content of the work, but refers to other topics that he would like to read about. Bearing all this in mind, one cannot consider Zakrzewski’s text be substantive and conforming to reasonable standards of academic criticism.
This article focuses on the relationship between the imperial cult in pagan Rome and the heavenly hierarchy taught by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. The latter’s thought played a significant role in the construction of the medieval image of the world. Medieval reflection on the state and law drew from it as well. Therefore, possible analogies between the imperial cult and the philosophy of Corpus Dionysiacum would indicate an indirect influence that the imperial cult of the emperor had on certain later ideas about state power, on the legitimacy of certain forms of social and constitutional organization, and on prophetic visions inspiring social and political movements.
Against this background, the article compares the emperor’s genius (as well as the imperial virtues and the emperor’s numen) with the immaterial beings described by the Areopagite. It reveals clear parallels regarding the hierarchical construction of geniuses in the imperial cult of ancient Rome and Pseudo-Dionysius’ Angels, Names of God, and divine providences. The similarities in mediation between the human world and the divine reality regarding the granting of creative power and supernatural knowledge are also associated with this structure. In both cases, the divine element (genius and heavenly beings) has a historiosophical aspect, consisting of justification of belief about care that the deity exercises over the universal history of mankind.
The conducted research constitutes an impulse for further research in the field of political aspects of medieval angelology.
Franciszek Bieliński’s Attitude towards Tithes. A Contribution to the History of the Dispute over Tithes in Masovia in the 1750’s
The present article describes Franciszek Bieliński’s attitude towards tithes. He was the Grand Marshal of the Polish Crown and initiated a conflict about tithes between the Masovian nobility and the Catholic clergy, that began in the early 1750’s. In the article I analyse the manifesto that was published under Bieliński’s auspices, along with his correspondence with other dignitaries of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as their speeches during the Sejm of 1752 in Grodno. It was no secret that Bieliński initiated this conflict mainly for personal reasons. However, his activity perpetuated the evolution of the practice that courts for nobility were competent to examine cases concerning tithes.
* Artykuł powstał w związku z realizacją projektu badawczego PRELUDIUM 6 Narodowego Centrum Nauki (nr DEC-2013/11/N/HS3/04734).
The Publication Accompanying the Exhibition “Faszination Stadt” Kulturelle Vernetzung in Europa. Das Magdeburger Recht und seine Städte (Cultural Net in Europe. Magdeburg Law and Its Towns), eds. Gabriele Köster, Christina Link, Heiner Lück. Dresden: Sandstein Verlag, 2018, 520 pp., ISBN 978-3-95498-452-7
The overview refers to the publication Kulturelle Vernetzung in Europa. Das Magdeburger Recht und seine Städte (eds. G. Köster, Ch. Link, H. Lück, Dresden: Sandstein Verlag, 2018). It contains 23 articles devoted to the shaping of urban centres in Central-Eastern Europe, based on an interdisciplinary approach. These centres developed from the 13th through the 18th centuries, following the Magdeburg legal model, under the influence of its legal culture. A similar economic and social context shaped comparable circumstances and transformation trends in these centres, regardless of ethnic diversity. Cities established under Magdeburg law shared a network of cultural links, both material and spiritual. The starting point of most of the texts is the history of urban law, and its transfer and adaptation to new areas. However, they also refer to the legal language, the development of written culture in law, the history of the cities’inhabitants and ethnic groups, and the history of urban development, archeology, and art.
Maciej Jan Mazurkiewicz, Ludobójstwo Niemiec na narodzie polskim (1939–1945). Studium historycznoprawne (Germany’s Genocide against the Polish Nation (1939–1945). Legal Historical Study). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej, 2021, 520 pp.
The monograph highlights the aspects of the international law qualification of the actions and omissions of Germany towards Poland and Poles during World War II. The study tries to prove that in the years 1939–1945 Germany was obliged to observe the norms of international law in its relations with Poland, and especially the non-treaty prohibitions not to initiate aggressive war or to commit the crime of genocide. The review describes the hypothesis and aims of the monograph and evaluates its substance, form, and argumentation.
Political Constitution of the Portuguese Republic of 1933
The work consists of two parts. One of them is the first Polish translation of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic of April 11, 1933, and the other is an article devoted to this constitution and the system of government prevailing in Portugal during its period of validity. The Constitution of 1933 had never previously been translated into Polish, although its translation (often anonymous) was published in several other languages, including English, French, German, and Russian. While the circumstances of adopting the constitution of 1933, its sources, and its ideological concepts are reasonably well chronicled in Polish literature, the Estado Novo system is less so, and the author devotes his article to analysing this new regime. It is a synthesis of the constitution’s provisions, against the background of the circumstances in which it was adopted and the ideology on which it was based: corporatism, conservatism, moderate nationalism, and meritocracy. The author also does not ignore the unique role of the architect and originator of the Portuguese system of that time –António de Oliveira Salazar –and his views on the state system.
Lost Minutes of the Sittings of the Sub-commission on the Law on Kinship and Care Relationships of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland in 1939 (part I)
When Poland regained independence in 1918, the different legal systems of the various partitioning states all remained in force on its territory. Drafts of uniform laws were to be drawn up by the Codification Commission established in 1919. One of its tasks was the preparation of a draft of the family and guardianship law. The sub-commission addressing this division of civil law worked until the outbreak of World War Two. The minutes of its sittings disappeared in September 1939 along with the total output of the Codification Commission. However, copies of minutes of the sittings of the sub-commission held in 1939 were found in Kazimierz Przybyłowski’s collection of books donated to the Faculty of Law and Administration of University of Silesia in Katowice. These minutes shed new light on the final phase of the codification works. Publication of these documents will enable further detailed research on the history of family law in interwar Poland. The first part of the publication focuses on minutes nos. 165–173, while following parts will include minutes nos. 183–201, and a reconstruction of the draft provisions.
Medice, cura te ipsum. A response to Andrzej Zakrzewski
Andrzej Zakrzewski’s article reviews the book The judiciary adopted by the Treasury Commission of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in fiscal cases (1765–1794) by Piotr Miłosz Pilarczyk. The article was published in Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa 14, issue 4 (2021). It is an unpleasant example of academic misconduct. Due to the doubts it raises, it is necessary to indicate the abuses committed by the reviewer.
Among Zakrzewski’s numerous remarks, his charge of insufficient use of the literature available on the subject stands out. However, the majority of issues raised by the reviewer either do not relate to things found in the book, or the references found there are irrelevant. The next objection relates to the language used in the work. The reviewer’s arguments result from misunderstanding of the assumptions elucidated in the work.
Polemics with the reviewer are in many cases impossible, because they often fail to justify criticisms with substantiable arguments, or they lack rational bases because of being ad personam. Criticism also applies to what is not in the book, because the reviewer does not focus on the content of the work, but refers to other topics that he would like to read about. Bearing all this in mind, one cannot consider Zakrzewski’s text be substantive and conforming to reasonable standards of academic criticism.
The Issue of the Office of Justice of the Peace in the Work of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic in Light of Parliamentary Bills and Interpellations
The justices of the peace were one of the forms of society’s participation in the judiciary in the Second Polish Republic. This institution was inherited from the former partitioning states and did not exist throughout the country. Justices of the peace were provided for by the Act’s provisions amending the Law on the System of Ordinary Courts, but its requirements have been never implemented. Justices of the peace ended their activity in 1929, but their formal liquidation only occurred in 1938. In interwar Poland justices of the peace were not a form of public participation in the judiciary. They were in fact judges with significantly lower substantive competencies than professional judges.
Contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of 1921, justices of the peace were not elected by popular vote. The article deals with the extensive debates that took place in the Sejm regarding the selection of justices of the peace, and their role in the judiciary of the Second Republic of Poland, especially in its first period (1919–1928), when it was a problem of great interest to parliamentarians. This is evidenced by the numerous interpellations and parliamentary bills that the parliamentarians submitted, which the author analyses and quotes. On this basis, he concludes that the institution of justice of the peace was not supported by deputies, especially from among the agrarian and socialist parties. Often, justices of the peace were (in interpellations) accused of corruption, nepotism, and incompetence. The solution to this problem was seen in the full admission of society to participate in the judiciary, e.g. in the forms of justices of the peace, jury courts and lay judges.
Transformations in the Construction of the State’s Compensatory Liability in Poland in the 20th Century. From the Basic Law of 1921 to the Constitution of 1997
The March Constitution was one of the first in Europe to introduce an innovative regulation of the institution of state liability for damages. The provision of Article 121 of the Constitution raised this legal institution to the rank of a constitutional principle. However, the constitutionalization of the citizens’ right to compensation for damages resulting from unauthorized or otherwise deleterious activity on the part of the authorities turned out to be insufficient. Despite sufficient grounds for the compensatory liability of state authorities in case of their unlawful actions or failed duties of service, the prevailing view in doctrine and jurisprudence was that Article 121 of the Constitution was only a programmatic norm. Even if in practice it became only a “dead letter of the law”, it played a key role in shaping the institution of the state’s liability for damages in Polish law in the 20th century.
The Impact of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of March 17, 1921 on the Formation of Local Governments in the Second Polish Republic
This article was written in connection with the 100th anniversary of the enactment of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 17 March 1921 (the March Constitution). First, it presents the systemic assumptions of the Constitution, relating to local government, and then shows its impact on the formation of local governments in the Second Polish Republic. It describes the challenges and difficulties that accompanied attempts to pass local government laws in line with the spirit of the March Constitution. It presents an outline is given of the legal bases for the organisation of local governments in Poland and their activities during the entire interwar period (1918–1939). It also draws attention to changes in approach that those in power took towards the role of local government which followed the May coup in 1926 and were introduced in the Act of 23 March 1933 on the partial change of the local government system, and in the Constitution of 23 April 1935 (the April Constitution).
The Case of the Dissolution of the Kraków City Council in 1924
This study was devoted to the investigation of the case of the dissolution of the Kraków City Council in 1924 and the consequences resulting from this decision. After the death of the President of Kraków, Jan Kanty Federowicz, the supervisory authority (i.e. the voivode) decided to dissolve the City Council and appoint a government commissioner and a supervisory board. The commissioner was associated with the central government, while the members of the board mostly represented the ruling coalition. The councilors objected to this decision and appealed it to the Supreme Administrative Tribunal, which ultimately agreed with them. It was found that the voivode had issued the decision for dissolution in breach of the law. The controversial judgment was commented on by lawyers and criticized by those who contended that the Tribunal had errouneously based its decision rely on archaic legislation.
Disciplinary Responsibility over Judges in the Second Republic of Poland. Substantive Law Issues in Light of Judges’ Personal and Disciplinary Files from the Former Prussian Territories
The issue of disciplinary responsibility over judges is one of the key aspects of the functioning of the judiciary. This mechanism must remain a compromise between respecting a special status for judges based on their independence and their key role in the functioning of the state, versus the need to eliminate negative behaviors on their part. Such oversight in turn should lead to the building up of societal trust in the judiciary. The article is an attempt to present the issue of disciplinary proceedings against judges in the Second Polish Republic in the areas of the former Prussian territories.
By presenting this issue from the perspective of substantive law, this article complements research already carried out in this area, the issue of the course of procedure in disciplinary proceedings having already been presented in a separate text. In this article, the author focuses on the issues regarding judge’s disciplinary misconduct and actual disciplinary punishments. The legal provisions were compared with the practice of their application, reconstructed on the basis of preserved archival files of judges, both personal and disciplinary.
Acts with the Force of Statute – Models, Theory, and Practice in the Polish Parliamentary-Cabinet System in the Years 1921–1926 and after 1989
The centenary of the enactment of the March Constitution in Poland prompts questions about the constituent parts of the achievements of Polish constitutionalism of that period. The authors have found the issue of the sources of law worthy of attention, and among the latter, especially those acts that are situated between the classically conceived competences of the authorities, i.e., acts with the force of statute issued by the organs of executive authority. These acts, formally absent from the system of sources of law of the March Constitution until the enactment of the August amendment of 1926, appeared in the practice of the Second Republic at the time of the budgetary crisis in 1924, in the form of acts issued “by the President of the Republic on the basis of resolutions of the Council of Ministers”. These “special kinds of autonomous regulations” [Z. Cybichowski] provoked intensive discussions regarding both the admissibility of such delegation of legislative power, as well as the legal essence and constitutionality of aforementioned regulations. The authors would like to take a closer look at the institution of legal acts with the force of statutes as sources functioning in the era of democratic constitutional solutions establishing a parliamentary-cabinet system [i.e., in the years 1921–1926 and after 1989], without neglecting the historical and comparative context in which the examined institution evolved.
* Niniejsze opracowanie pozostaje w części wynikiem badań przeprowadzonych w ramach realizacji grantu „Law-making delegation in representative democracy” Narodowego Centrum Nauki, w konkursie Opus 11, umowa nr 2016/21/B/HS5/00197.
In Need of New Questions… and Greater Diligence. Apropos Piotr Pilarczyk’s Monograph on the Judiciary of the Lithuanian Treasury Commission
Contemporary Polish legal historians’ writings rarely concern the political system of the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth, and even less often any substantial or procedural law thereof. Matters relating to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania are becoming less and less popular in Polish academia as well. Actually, such a phenomenon is quite understandable, when one takes into account the expanding scholarly activities among Lithuanian and Belorussian researchers, and the archives abundant in source materials in these countries. Having that in mind, anyone interested should pay particular attention to Dr. Piotr Miłosz Pilarczyk’s monograph that deals with the topic of the Lithuanian Treasury Commission in the years 1765–1794.
The strongest point of the above-mentioned book is undeniably the fact, that the author conducted extensive archival enquiry and based his work on collected primary source materials – mainly records of the judiciary activities of the Commission. Unfortunately, the author’s failure to include materials from other sources (for instance correspondence) resulted in an unsatisfactory presentation of the social background of the activity of the Commission’s court, and, consequently, the motives behind its decisions are not always discernible. Although Pilarczyk correctly describes investigated data, he nevertheless rarely enriches his analysis with his own questions. The reviewed monograph contains numerous examples of judiciary praxis, which varied from the model as regulated in the Third Lithuanian Statute (1588). Regrettably, despite the homogeneous character of sources cited in the study, no quantitative methods were applied, which would presumably have resulted in a more detailed image of new trends in the praxis of administration of justice, including possible new or unconventional grounds (motives) behind court decisions. Although Pilarczyk’s work does provide many meaningful findings, he could have produced more interesting results.
Hopefully, scholars will further analyse the collected source materials in the future, with an objective of presenting either a quantitative or prosopographic study that could broaden the body of knowledge concerning the judiciary in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 18th century.
A Project of Changes to Civil Procedure in the Works of the Civil Reform Committee (1814–1815). A Source Edition – Part 2 (Enforcement Proceedings)
The present source publication is the sixth in a series encompassing the most important documents related to preparations for the replacement of French codes with national codification drafted by the Civil Reform Committee which worked between 1814 and 1815. The publication includes the second part of “The project of the civil judicial procedure in first instance”, which is comprised of enforcement proceedings presented just like the first part (the trial) by Franciszek Grabowski, and the fragments of the minutes reporting the course of the discussion concerning the solutions proposed within the project.
* Niniejsza publikacja została przygotowana w ramach projektu „Kodyfikacja narodowa – fantazmat czy realna alternatywa? W kręgu debat nad rodzimym systemem prawa sądowego w konstytucyjnym Królestwie Polskim” finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki na podstawie umowy nr UMO-2015/18/E/ HS5/00762.
“Legal Heritage: Scholarly Meetings.” Report on Scholarly Meetings in the Academic Year 2020/2021
In the academic year 2020/2021 the Jagiellonian University Faculty of Law and Administration initiated a series of scholarly meetings devoted to legal heritage. Nine meetings were held, during which eight papers were presented. They were prepared by the following researchers: Dr. Jakob Maziarz (Department of the History of Polish Law of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University) on “The freedom of scientific research, the freedom to use cultural goods and access to archival materials”; Dr. Bohdan Widła (Department of Intellectual Property Law of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University) on “Protection of scientific or critical editions and first editions”; Dr. Jan Halberda (Department of the General History of the State and Law of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University) on “Estoppel in Anglo-American private law. The Rise of High Trees (1947) as the ‘Precedent’.”; Dr. Mateusz Mataniak (Laboratory of Source Publishing of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University) on “Archival materials for history of the Government of Galicia (1854–1914) from the resource of Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv. Contribution to research on Polish legal heritage.” Jan Bazyli Klakla (PhD student at the Department of Sociology of Law of the Faculty of Law and Administration and the Institute of Sociology of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University) on “Is customary law like an onion? A multi-layered approach to customary law and its status in the modern world”; Dr. Hab. Katarzyna Krzysztofek-Strzała (Department of History of Administration and Religious Law, Laboratory of Religious Law and Law on Religious Denominations of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University) on “Between the letter of the law and the law in action. Office for Religious Affairs practice towards churches and religious associations”; Dr. Anna Ceglarska (Department of the History of Political and Legal Doctrines of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University) on “The concept of the ‘rule of law’ in presocratic Greece”; Prof. Piotr Górecki (University of California, Riverside Department of History) on “The course of events in Polish and German law court trials in medieval Poland. A comparative sketch”.
The Issue of the Office of Justice of the Peace in the Work of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic in Light of Parliamentary Bills and Interpellations
The justices of the peace were one of the forms of society’s participation in the judiciary in the Second Polish Republic. This institution was inherited from the former partitioning states and did not exist throughout the country. Justices of the peace were provided for by the Act’s provisions amending the Law on the System of Ordinary Courts, but its requirements have been never implemented. Justices of the peace ended their activity in 1929, but their formal liquidation only occurred in 1938. In interwar Poland justices of the peace were not a form of public participation in the judiciary. They were in fact judges with significantly lower substantive competencies than professional judges.
Contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of 1921, justices of the peace were not elected by popular vote. The article deals with the extensive debates that took place in the Sejm regarding the selection of justices of the peace, and their role in the judiciary of the Second Republic of Poland, especially in its first period (1919–1928), when it was a problem of great interest to parliamentarians. This is evidenced by the numerous interpellations and parliamentary bills that the parliamentarians submitted, which the author analyses and quotes. On this basis, he concludes that the institution of justice of the peace was not supported by deputies, especially from among the agrarian and socialist parties. Often, justices of the peace were (in interpellations) accused of corruption, nepotism, and incompetence. The solution to this problem was seen in the full admission of society to participate in the judiciary, e.g. in the forms of justices of the peace, jury courts and lay judges.
Transformations in the Construction of the State’s Compensatory Liability in Poland in the 20th Century. From the Basic Law of 1921 to the Constitution of 1997
The March Constitution was one of the first in Europe to introduce an innovative regulation of the institution of state liability for damages. The provision of Article 121 of the Constitution raised this legal institution to the rank of a constitutional principle. However, the constitutionalization of the citizens’ right to compensation for damages resulting from unauthorized or otherwise deleterious activity on the part of the authorities turned out to be insufficient. Despite sufficient grounds for the compensatory liability of state authorities in case of their unlawful actions or failed duties of service, the prevailing view in doctrine and jurisprudence was that Article 121 of the Constitution was only a programmatic norm. Even if in practice it became only a “dead letter of the law”, it played a key role in shaping the institution of the state’s liability for damages in Polish law in the 20th century.
The Impact of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of March 17, 1921 on the Formation of Local Governments in the Second Polish Republic
This article was written in connection with the 100th anniversary of the enactment of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 17 March 1921 (the March Constitution). First, it presents the systemic assumptions of the Constitution, relating to local government, and then shows its impact on the formation of local governments in the Second Polish Republic. It describes the challenges and difficulties that accompanied attempts to pass local government laws in line with the spirit of the March Constitution. It presents an outline is given of the legal bases for the organisation of local governments in Poland and their activities during the entire interwar period (1918–1939). It also draws attention to changes in approach that those in power took towards the role of local government which followed the May coup in 1926 and were introduced in the Act of 23 March 1933 on the partial change of the local government system, and in the Constitution of 23 April 1935 (the April Constitution).
The Case of the Dissolution of the Kraków City Council in 1924
This study was devoted to the investigation of the case of the dissolution of the Kraków City Council in 1924 and the consequences resulting from this decision. After the death of the President of Kraków, Jan Kanty Federowicz, the supervisory authority (i.e. the voivode) decided to dissolve the City Council and appoint a government commissioner and a supervisory board. The commissioner was associated with the central government, while the members of the board mostly represented the ruling coalition. The councilors objected to this decision and appealed it to the Supreme Administrative Tribunal, which ultimately agreed with them. It was found that the voivode had issued the decision for dissolution in breach of the law. The controversial judgment was commented on by lawyers and criticized by those who contended that the Tribunal had errouneously based its decision rely on archaic legislation.
Disciplinary Responsibility over Judges in the Second Republic of Poland. Substantive Law Issues in Light of Judges’ Personal and Disciplinary Files from the Former Prussian Territories
The issue of disciplinary responsibility over judges is one of the key aspects of the functioning of the judiciary. This mechanism must remain a compromise between respecting a special status for judges based on their independence and their key role in the functioning of the state, versus the need to eliminate negative behaviors on their part. Such oversight in turn should lead to the building up of societal trust in the judiciary. The article is an attempt to present the issue of disciplinary proceedings against judges in the Second Polish Republic in the areas of the former Prussian territories.
By presenting this issue from the perspective of substantive law, this article complements research already carried out in this area, the issue of the course of procedure in disciplinary proceedings having already been presented in a separate text. In this article, the author focuses on the issues regarding judge’s disciplinary misconduct and actual disciplinary punishments. The legal provisions were compared with the practice of their application, reconstructed on the basis of preserved archival files of judges, both personal and disciplinary.
Acts with the Force of Statute – Models, Theory, and Practice in the Polish Parliamentary-Cabinet System in the Years 1921–1926 and after 1989
The centenary of the enactment of the March Constitution in Poland prompts questions about the constituent parts of the achievements of Polish constitutionalism of that period. The authors have found the issue of the sources of law worthy of attention, and among the latter, especially those acts that are situated between the classically conceived competences of the authorities, i.e., acts with the force of statute issued by the organs of executive authority. These acts, formally absent from the system of sources of law of the March Constitution until the enactment of the August amendment of 1926, appeared in the practice of the Second Republic at the time of the budgetary crisis in 1924, in the form of acts issued “by the President of the Republic on the basis of resolutions of the Council of Ministers”. These “special kinds of autonomous regulations” [Z. Cybichowski] provoked intensive discussions regarding both the admissibility of such delegation of legislative power, as well as the legal essence and constitutionality of aforementioned regulations. The authors would like to take a closer look at the institution of legal acts with the force of statutes as sources functioning in the era of democratic constitutional solutions establishing a parliamentary-cabinet system [i.e., in the years 1921–1926 and after 1989], without neglecting the historical and comparative context in which the examined institution evolved.
* Niniejsze opracowanie pozostaje w części wynikiem badań przeprowadzonych w ramach realizacji grantu „Law-making delegation in representative democracy” Narodowego Centrum Nauki, w konkursie Opus 11, umowa nr 2016/21/B/HS5/00197.
In Need of New Questions… and Greater Diligence. Apropos Piotr Pilarczyk’s Monograph on the Judiciary of the Lithuanian Treasury Commission
Contemporary Polish legal historians’ writings rarely concern the political system of the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth, and even less often any substantial or procedural law thereof. Matters relating to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania are becoming less and less popular in Polish academia as well. Actually, such a phenomenon is quite understandable, when one takes into account the expanding scholarly activities among Lithuanian and Belorussian researchers, and the archives abundant in source materials in these countries. Having that in mind, anyone interested should pay particular attention to Dr. Piotr Miłosz Pilarczyk’s monograph that deals with the topic of the Lithuanian Treasury Commission in the years 1765–1794.
The strongest point of the above-mentioned book is undeniably the fact, that the author conducted extensive archival enquiry and based his work on collected primary source materials – mainly records of the judiciary activities of the Commission. Unfortunately, the author’s failure to include materials from other sources (for instance correspondence) resulted in an unsatisfactory presentation of the social background of the activity of the Commission’s court, and, consequently, the motives behind its decisions are not always discernible. Although Pilarczyk correctly describes investigated data, he nevertheless rarely enriches his analysis with his own questions. The reviewed monograph contains numerous examples of judiciary praxis, which varied from the model as regulated in the Third Lithuanian Statute (1588). Regrettably, despite the homogeneous character of sources cited in the study, no quantitative methods were applied, which would presumably have resulted in a more detailed image of new trends in the praxis of administration of justice, including possible new or unconventional grounds (motives) behind court decisions. Although Pilarczyk’s work does provide many meaningful findings, he could have produced more interesting results.
Hopefully, scholars will further analyse the collected source materials in the future, with an objective of presenting either a quantitative or prosopographic study that could broaden the body of knowledge concerning the judiciary in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 18th century.
A Project of Changes to Civil Procedure in the Works of the Civil Reform Committee (1814–1815). A Source Edition – Part 2 (Enforcement Proceedings)
The present source publication is the sixth in a series encompassing the most important documents related to preparations for the replacement of French codes with national codification drafted by the Civil Reform Committee which worked between 1814 and 1815. The publication includes the second part of “The project of the civil judicial procedure in first instance”, which is comprised of enforcement proceedings presented just like the first part (the trial) by Franciszek Grabowski, and the fragments of the minutes reporting the course of the discussion concerning the solutions proposed within the project.
* Niniejsza publikacja została przygotowana w ramach projektu „Kodyfikacja narodowa – fantazmat czy realna alternatywa? W kręgu debat nad rodzimym systemem prawa sądowego w konstytucyjnym Królestwie Polskim” finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki na podstawie umowy nr UMO-2015/18/E/ HS5/00762.
“Legal Heritage: Scholarly Meetings.” Report on Scholarly Meetings in the Academic Year 2020/2021
In the academic year 2020/2021 the Jagiellonian University Faculty of Law and Administration initiated a series of scholarly meetings devoted to legal heritage. Nine meetings were held, during which eight papers were presented. They were prepared by the following researchers: Dr. Jakob Maziarz (Department of the History of Polish Law of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University) on “The freedom of scientific research, the freedom to use cultural goods and access to archival materials”; Dr. Bohdan Widła (Department of Intellectual Property Law of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University) on “Protection of scientific or critical editions and first editions”; Dr. Jan Halberda (Department of the General History of the State and Law of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University) on “Estoppel in Anglo-American private law. The Rise of High Trees (1947) as the ‘Precedent’.”; Dr. Mateusz Mataniak (Laboratory of Source Publishing of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University) on “Archival materials for history of the Government of Galicia (1854–1914) from the resource of Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv. Contribution to research on Polish legal heritage.” Jan Bazyli Klakla (PhD student at the Department of Sociology of Law of the Faculty of Law and Administration and the Institute of Sociology of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University) on “Is customary law like an onion? A multi-layered approach to customary law and its status in the modern world”; Dr. Hab. Katarzyna Krzysztofek-Strzała (Department of History of Administration and Religious Law, Laboratory of Religious Law and Law on Religious Denominations of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University) on “Between the letter of the law and the law in action. Office for Religious Affairs practice towards churches and religious associations”; Dr. Anna Ceglarska (Department of the History of Political and Legal Doctrines of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University) on “The concept of the ‘rule of law’ in presocratic Greece”; Prof. Piotr Górecki (University of California, Riverside Department of History) on “The course of events in Polish and German law court trials in medieval Poland. A comparative sketch”.
The American model of medical malpractice liability has been the subject of lively public and scientific debate for years. This system is characterized by a large number of lawsuits against doctors and very high damages awarded in such cases. In turn, these phenomena contribute to the occurrence of so-called medical malpractice crisis. It seems that an important place in the proper understanding of the American model of physicians’ liability for medical malpractice may be the historical analysis of legal norms regulating this matter. The text claims that the modern specificity of the system of liability for medical malpractice is closely related to the development of American law in its formative period in the nineteenth century. The article indicates four features of the legal system developed at that time, which today are identified as responsible for a large number of lawsuits and high compensation in malpractice trials. These include, in particular, linking medical liability to the tort law regime, domination of the civil law dimension of liability for medical errors, the role of the jury in lawsuits for medical malpractice, and the method of remuneration of attorneys in such cases.
* The article was prepared thanks to the funds that the author received to prepare a doctoral dissertation on the development of medical malpractice liability in the United States of America from the National Science Center as part of financing a doctoral scholarship on the basis of decision number DEC-2015/16/T/HS5/00432.
The Application of the Law of Succession of the Code civil by the Judiciary of the Free City of Kraków – the Sawiczewscy Case
The aim of this paper is to present the in-depth study of the only one piece of the adjudication activity of the judiciary in the Free City of Cracow (1815–1846) – the Sawiczewscy case. Named after its subject, the division of the estate of well-known Cracow’s pharmacist and university professor Józef Sawiczewski, the case is the example of rich source of material for the researcher in the field of the application of the French law of succession in the Republic of Cracow. In its first part the article describes the case proceedings including written pleadings lodged by the parties, rulings of the Cracow’s courts: the Tribunal of First Instance, the Court of Appeal, the Court of Third Instance and also the opinion of the Professors and Doctors of the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University. Due to that detailed analysis, the process of the interpretation of the Code civil regulations by the Cracow’s lawyers can be fully understood and properly evaluated. The comparative base for that evaluation is presented in the second part of the paper, which outlined the nineteenth century French interpretation of institutions of the law of succession applied in the case, i.e. the restitutions (rapports) and the disposable proportion (quotité disponible). As regards this base the outcomes are unsatisfactory since the members of the judiciary of the Free City of Kraków failed to meet not only the original intent but also the contemporary French understanding of the law of succession of the Code civil.
* Artykuł został przygotowany w ramach projektu badawczego Narodowego Centrum Nauki nr 2017/27/B/HS5/01308.
Bronisław Wróblewski and Stefan Glaser. The Case of the Departments of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius
The article sets out to present the history of the departments of Law and Criminal Procedure at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius through the prism of the two professors Bronisław Wróblewski and Stefan Glaser. They differed in almost everything (except the place of employment); place of birth, almae matres, and above all the way of pursuing academic passion. Unfortunately, their relationship was significantly affected by their differences in the field of politics too. Wróblewski adamantly believed that criminal law and procedure should be lectured and researched separately, whereas Glaser felt otherwise, perhaps on account of his practical experience. The disputes between both of them concerned inter alia Glaser’s professorship appointment and his election to be dean, the reassignment of the academic tasks of their departments, and last but not least – granting them full professorships.
On the Usefulness of Research into Roman Law – Some Reflections on the Joanna Kruszyńska – Kola’s Dissertation Ratio przedawnienia [The ratio of prescription]
In this paper I present my personal opinion on the role of present-day research into the history of law, especially into Roman law, referring to the wider issue of the usefulness of Roman law in the future development of private law. I emphasize the clear deficit of communication between historians and proponents of modern law doctrine. This shortcoming is manifested in the lack of interest that lawyers tend to display in achievements in the field of legal history, and is proved more concretely by the fact that the references to the history in monographs on civil law are often only superficial and fragmentary. Unfortunately, legal historians rarely try to initiate any real dialogue with the practitioners of civil law doctrine. This approach offers a profound and compelling study, which both takes the present point of view into consideration and tackles many of the questions that are important and interesting today.
I intend to indicate at least some basic issues that should be taken into consideration by legal historians who want to pique other lawyers’ interest in their works. In my opinion, the most important aspects are the choice of an attractive topic, that is not confined only to history; proper identification of the detailed issues, including such issues as are crucial and interesting today; and in-depth analysis of both current law and the discourse held in modern doctrine. It is significant to combine the appropriate historical methodology with the need for an attractive and communicative presentation of the research and its results.
In her dissertation on the ratio of prescription Joanna Kruszyńska-Kola proposes an excellent method for improving communication with proponents of modern law doctrine. I am convinced that her work brings substance to the vision of research into the history of law which is described in my paper, for that reason I demonstrate how the author managed to achieve the purpose that legal historians should be pursuing.
Some Remarks on Oskar Kanecki’s Book Sądy kapturowe Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego (1572–1764) [Interregnum courts of law in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1572–1764)], Sopot: Wydawnictwo Arche Marek Tokarczyk, 2020, pp. 341
Oskar Kanecki’s book considerably broadens the state of knowledge of the judiciary of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the interregnum periods (16th–18th century). The work deals with the genesis, organisation and process before these courts in an interesting and wide-ranging way. It seems that a drawback of the book is the incomplete use of the Statute of Lithuania and legislation.
The Academic Portrait of the Creator of the Pure Theory of Law was written by Thomas Olechowski, a professor of the University of Vienna, and a historian of law with an established academic position, having outstanding expertise in the field of the history of the system of law in Austria in the 19th and 20th centuries. Olechowski collected impressive source material - mainly archival, including Kelsen’s extensive correspondence, university and administrative files connected with all the stages of his life and academic activity, and interviews with still-living persons (oral history) who had met Kelsen directly or indirectly. Owing to the obtained material, often secured through detailed source query in Austrian, Czech, German, and American archives, the author managed to correct and complete many details from his subject’s life and works. Hence, the reviewed biography of Kelsen provides a great deal of new information, which presents a view of his life and academic achievements through a multithreaded method. Various examples of little-known or completely unknown facts from H. Kelsen’s biography will be presented in the review.
* This overview is based on the Rechtshistorische Courant, a monthly newsletter from the Institute for Legal History at Ghent University, from January to December 2020 and on the websites of the Belgian universities and of several organizations, notably of the Institute for Legal History (http://www.rechtsgeschiedenis.be; accessed: 31.03.2021).
Report from the International Scientific Conference, A Lost World? Jewish International Lawyers and New World Orders (1917–1951), Jerusalem, May 24th–25th, 2021
The report presents the international scientific conference “A Lost World? Jewish International Lawyers and New World Orders (1917–1951)”, which was organized in Jerusalem, May 24th–25th, 2021, by the International Law Forum of the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, together with the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow (Leipzig University) and the Jacob Robinson Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The main topic was the contribution of Jewish international lawyers to the significant developments in international law in the first half of the 20th century.
Professor Witold Wołodkiewicz (1929–2021) in memoriam
This text presents an outline of the academic and professional path of the late Professor Witold Wołodkiewicz (1929–2021). Wołodkiewicz was born in Warsaw and died there. He was an outstanding Polish scholar, lawyer, and humanist, and as an eminent expert and teacher in Roman law and ancient culture, he was a co-founder of the post-war Romanist studies in Poland. Wołodkiewicz was the author of many publications, such as Materfamilias and Obligationes ex variis causarum figuris. He was also a student and collaborator of the famous Italian Romanist Edoardo Volterra and initiated extensive Polish-Italian academic cooperation.
The American model of medical malpractice liability has been the subject of lively public and scientific debate for years. This system is characterized by a large number of lawsuits against doctors and very high damages awarded in such cases. In turn, these phenomena contribute to the occurrence of so-called medical malpractice crisis. It seems that an important place in the proper understanding of the American model of physicians’ liability for medical malpractice may be the historical analysis of legal norms regulating this matter. The text claims that the modern specificity of the system of liability for medical malpractice is closely related to the development of American law in its formative period in the nineteenth century. The article indicates four features of the legal system developed at that time, which today are identified as responsible for a large number of lawsuits and high compensation in malpractice trials. These include, in particular, linking medical liability to the tort law regime, domination of the civil law dimension of liability for medical errors, the role of the jury in lawsuits for medical malpractice, and the method of remuneration of attorneys in such cases.
* The article was prepared thanks to the funds that the author received to prepare a doctoral dissertation on the development of medical malpractice liability in the United States of America from the National Science Center as part of financing a doctoral scholarship on the basis of decision number DEC-2015/16/T/HS5/00432.
The Application of the Law of Succession of the Code civil by the Judiciary of the Free City of Kraków – the Sawiczewscy Case
The aim of this paper is to present the in-depth study of the only one piece of the adjudication activity of the judiciary in the Free City of Cracow (1815–1846) – the Sawiczewscy case. Named after its subject, the division of the estate of well-known Cracow’s pharmacist and university professor Józef Sawiczewski, the case is the example of rich source of material for the researcher in the field of the application of the French law of succession in the Republic of Cracow. In its first part the article describes the case proceedings including written pleadings lodged by the parties, rulings of the Cracow’s courts: the Tribunal of First Instance, the Court of Appeal, the Court of Third Instance and also the opinion of the Professors and Doctors of the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University. Due to that detailed analysis, the process of the interpretation of the Code civil regulations by the Cracow’s lawyers can be fully understood and properly evaluated. The comparative base for that evaluation is presented in the second part of the paper, which outlined the nineteenth century French interpretation of institutions of the law of succession applied in the case, i.e. the restitutions (rapports) and the disposable proportion (quotité disponible). As regards this base the outcomes are unsatisfactory since the members of the judiciary of the Free City of Kraków failed to meet not only the original intent but also the contemporary French understanding of the law of succession of the Code civil.
* Artykuł został przygotowany w ramach projektu badawczego Narodowego Centrum Nauki nr 2017/27/B/HS5/01308.
Bronisław Wróblewski and Stefan Glaser. The Case of the Departments of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius
The article sets out to present the history of the departments of Law and Criminal Procedure at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius through the prism of the two professors Bronisław Wróblewski and Stefan Glaser. They differed in almost everything (except the place of employment); place of birth, almae matres, and above all the way of pursuing academic passion. Unfortunately, their relationship was significantly affected by their differences in the field of politics too. Wróblewski adamantly believed that criminal law and procedure should be lectured and researched separately, whereas Glaser felt otherwise, perhaps on account of his practical experience. The disputes between both of them concerned inter alia Glaser’s professorship appointment and his election to be dean, the reassignment of the academic tasks of their departments, and last but not least – granting them full professorships.
On the Usefulness of Research into Roman Law – Some Reflections on the Joanna Kruszyńska – Kola’s Dissertation Ratio przedawnienia [The ratio of prescription]
In this paper I present my personal opinion on the role of present-day research into the history of law, especially into Roman law, referring to the wider issue of the usefulness of Roman law in the future development of private law. I emphasize the clear deficit of communication between historians and proponents of modern law doctrine. This shortcoming is manifested in the lack of interest that lawyers tend to display in achievements in the field of legal history, and is proved more concretely by the fact that the references to the history in monographs on civil law are often only superficial and fragmentary. Unfortunately, legal historians rarely try to initiate any real dialogue with the practitioners of civil law doctrine. This approach offers a profound and compelling study, which both takes the present point of view into consideration and tackles many of the questions that are important and interesting today.
I intend to indicate at least some basic issues that should be taken into consideration by legal historians who want to pique other lawyers’ interest in their works. In my opinion, the most important aspects are the choice of an attractive topic, that is not confined only to history; proper identification of the detailed issues, including such issues as are crucial and interesting today; and in-depth analysis of both current law and the discourse held in modern doctrine. It is significant to combine the appropriate historical methodology with the need for an attractive and communicative presentation of the research and its results.
In her dissertation on the ratio of prescription Joanna Kruszyńska-Kola proposes an excellent method for improving communication with proponents of modern law doctrine. I am convinced that her work brings substance to the vision of research into the history of law which is described in my paper, for that reason I demonstrate how the author managed to achieve the purpose that legal historians should be pursuing.
Some Remarks on Oskar Kanecki’s Book Sądy kapturowe Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego (1572–1764) [Interregnum courts of law in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1572–1764)], Sopot: Wydawnictwo Arche Marek Tokarczyk, 2020, pp. 341
Oskar Kanecki’s book considerably broadens the state of knowledge of the judiciary of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the interregnum periods (16th–18th century). The work deals with the genesis, organisation and process before these courts in an interesting and wide-ranging way. It seems that a drawback of the book is the incomplete use of the Statute of Lithuania and legislation.
The Academic Portrait of the Creator of the Pure Theory of Law was written by Thomas Olechowski, a professor of the University of Vienna, and a historian of law with an established academic position, having outstanding expertise in the field of the history of the system of law in Austria in the 19th and 20th centuries. Olechowski collected impressive source material - mainly archival, including Kelsen’s extensive correspondence, university and administrative files connected with all the stages of his life and academic activity, and interviews with still-living persons (oral history) who had met Kelsen directly or indirectly. Owing to the obtained material, often secured through detailed source query in Austrian, Czech, German, and American archives, the author managed to correct and complete many details from his subject’s life and works. Hence, the reviewed biography of Kelsen provides a great deal of new information, which presents a view of his life and academic achievements through a multithreaded method. Various examples of little-known or completely unknown facts from H. Kelsen’s biography will be presented in the review.
* This overview is based on the Rechtshistorische Courant, a monthly newsletter from the Institute for Legal History at Ghent University, from January to December 2020 and on the websites of the Belgian universities and of several organizations, notably of the Institute for Legal History (http://www.rechtsgeschiedenis.be; accessed: 31.03.2021).
Report from the International Scientific Conference, A Lost World? Jewish International Lawyers and New World Orders (1917–1951), Jerusalem, May 24th–25th, 2021
The report presents the international scientific conference “A Lost World? Jewish International Lawyers and New World Orders (1917–1951)”, which was organized in Jerusalem, May 24th–25th, 2021, by the International Law Forum of the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, together with the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow (Leipzig University) and the Jacob Robinson Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The main topic was the contribution of Jewish international lawyers to the significant developments in international law in the first half of the 20th century.
Professor Witold Wołodkiewicz (1929–2021) in memoriam
This text presents an outline of the academic and professional path of the late Professor Witold Wołodkiewicz (1929–2021). Wołodkiewicz was born in Warsaw and died there. He was an outstanding Polish scholar, lawyer, and humanist, and as an eminent expert and teacher in Roman law and ancient culture, he was a co-founder of the post-war Romanist studies in Poland. Wołodkiewicz was the author of many publications, such as Materfamilias and Obligationes ex variis causarum figuris. He was also a student and collaborator of the famous Italian Romanist Edoardo Volterra and initiated extensive Polish-Italian academic cooperation.
Roman women – priestesses, patrician women, mysterious guardians of the sacred flame of goddess Vesta, admired and respected, sometimes blamed for misfortune of the Eternal City. Vestals identified with the eternity of Rome, the priestesses having a specific, unavailable to other women power. That power gained at the moment of a ritual capture (captio) and responsibilities and privileges resulted from it are the subject matter of this paper. The special attention is paid to the importance of Vestals for Rome and Romans in various historic moments, and to the purifying rituals performed by Vestals on behalf of the Roman state’s fortune. The study presents probable dating and possible causes of the end of the College of the Vestals in Rome.
The Obligation to Provide Housing for Military and Civilian Use between 1919 and 1925 in Light of the Legislation and Judicial Decisions of the Supreme Administrative Tribunal
In connection with the dramatic shortage of residential accommodations in the first years of Polish statehood after the regaining of independence in 1918, the way to guarantee their provision for military personnel (officers and married non-commissioned officers) and civilians (state and local government officials) was a statutory obligation to provide them by means of legal administrative coercion. The aim of this article is to analyse issues relating to the requisitioning of flats, and in particular, to analyse the sources of legislation in this area at that time, and judicial decisions of the administrative court with regard to complaints made to this court in cases concerning these requisitions.
Privileged Decree of Last Will in the Law and Jurisprudence of the Courts of the Territories of the Former Austrian Partition in the Interwar Period Drawn up during the Plague
Diseases and the risk of death associated with them i.e. from plagues (epidemics), especially dangerous as virulence increased, led the legislature to provide in the provisions of the inheritance law for the testator to draw up a will which for its validity had less formal requirements than an ordinary will, but would be in force in the event of the sudden death of the testator. Such a possibility was included by the Austrian legislature in the possibility for such a person to take advantage of the privileged decree of last will, the rules of which are regulated in §§ 597–599 ABGB. According to these rules, in places where there was a plague or similar plagues, the testator could make a will before two people who were at least fourteen years old. At the same time, they did not have to be present due to the risk of contracting a disease. The laconic nature of the conditions enabling the use of a privileged will as defined in ABGB meant that in practice these issues had to be finally resolved by the judicature of the courts.
In a Provincial City in Western Poland. Concerning the Prosecutor’s Office of the District Court in Głogów with Its Seat in Nowa Sól (1945–1950)
After World War II, a number of territories that had belonged to Germany before 1945 were incorporated into those of the Polish state. The change of borders resulted in the need to build structures of the Polish judiciary and prosecutor’s offices in these territories. This article is devoted to describing the functioning of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Regional Court in Głogów with its seat in Nowa Sól. The history of this office is an example of how prosecutors’ offices operated in difficult post-war conditions in the recovered territories, as well as of relations between the prosecutors’ offices and other public authorities such as the Citizens’ Militia or the judiciary.
Opinion of Professor Władysław Wolter on the Activities of German Courts in Polish Territories during the Nazi Occupation
The study was devoted to the legal opinion drawn up in the post-war trial against the German judge Albert Michel on the activities of German courts in Polish territories during the Nazi occupation. The scope of the opinion is broader than it appears from the title – Professor Władysław Wolter covered the entire German occupation including the actual German invasion in 1939. The text of the source was preceded by a discussion in which the circumstances of the opinion were explained, the author’s profile was presented, and its most important theses were characterised. The statements of the opinion were related to other views of the doctrine and jurisprudence, as well as the decisions issued in the Michel case.
* Tekst został opracowany w ramach projektu badawczego finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki, Polska (2017/27/N/HS5/00423).
Books debunking stereotypes are particularly noteworthy. Such is the monograph of S. Lo Iacono. The author compares Italian, Swiss, and Roman laws to eventually demonstrate that contracts on succession do not in fact infringe the freedom of testation to the extent that they are usually thought to.
* Praca powstała wyniku realizacji projektu badawczego o nr 2019/35/D/HS5/04168 finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki.
Grzegorz Blicharz, Commons – Jointly-used Goods: Comparative Aspects of the Use of Water Resources. Bielsko-Biała: Od.Nowa, 2017, 195 Pages
“Commons – Jointly-used Goods: Comparative Aspects of the Use of Water Resources” further develops the theory of governing the dwindling resources, based on Professor Elinor Ostrom’s economic theory of Commons, and expands on it on legal science. The monograph highlights the increased effectiveness of bottom-up norms in preventing the complete depletion of the endangered resources while simultaneously satisfying the needs of the local community, if the public authorities decide to respect them. The legal and functional characteristics of those norms aren’t uniform in different legal traditions, which is shown by examples from various legal systems provided by the author. The author also acknowledges that the issue of property and restricting it in the interests of other people was often mentioned in Roman law, especially in arguments between Roman jurists about water easements. The review describes basic theses and their argumentation contained in the monograph and evaluates its substance, form, and the universal character of the referenced problem.
Review of Piotr Alexandrowicz’s Book Canonistic Justification of Freedom of Contract in the Western Legal Tradition. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2020,333 Pages
The inspiring monograph of Piotr Alexandrowicz entitled “Canonistic Justification of Freedom of Contract in the Western Legal Tradition” clearly shows that the true creators of freedom of contract were not ancient Roman jurists or emperors, but medieval canonists. Based on Christian moral theology, they built the unique doctrine of obligations without which it is quite difficult to imagine contemporary legal transactions. Their thought was subsequently taken up and further developed by modern thinkers.
Review of Krzysztof Broński’s Book Public Finance of Galicia in the Autonomy Era (1867–1914). Kraków: Kraków University of Economics Press, 2019, 319 Pages
The review discusses the latest book on the situation of public finances in Galicia during the period of autonomy (1867–1914). The author, using numerous statistical studies, materials of the Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria, and the National Department as well as academic literature (nineteenth-century and modern), presents Galicia’s place in the Austro-Hungarian tax system and recreates the structure of its budgets, as well as the financial situation of local government, and the basic principles of the social security system. This is all offered against a broad constitutional and political, as well as socio-economic, background. The result of the work is several important research theorems, which significantly enrich knowledge about Galicia.
Militia, Open Up! About Crime Fiction in People’s Poland. Szczecin–Warszawa: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, 2019, 231 Pages
In People’s Poland, a distinct type of crime fiction was developed. Popular militia novels were entertaining, but also dictated attitudes towards the legal system.
On the Digitization of Historical and Legal Research: A Few Remarks in the Margin of John B. Nann and Morris L. Cohen’s Book The Yale Law School Guide to Research in American Legal History. New Haven–London: Yale University Press, 2018, 349 Pages
The review deals with a recently published book authored by John B. Nann and Morris L. Cohen and titled “The Yale Law School Guide to Research in American Legal History”. The modern, digital inclusive, approach to research in legal history presented by the book’s authors, provides a basis for the further comments gathered in the review. The review aims to convince Polish scholars to create a similar tool for young acolytes of legal history.
Report of the “English Law and Colonial Connections: Histories, Parallels, and Influences”. On-line Conference
The: “English Law and Colonial Connections: Histories, Parallels, and Influences conference” was held over the course of two afternoons, on January 26–27, 2020. It was organized by the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Łódź and Northumbria University in Newcastle. The symposium’s goal was to bring together researchers with interests in the history of English law and its influences on other parts of the world, particularly within an imperial context. An additional topic of the conference was the meaning of legacies and continuing influences of the empire and colonial influences of the law back to the Metropole. Nine lectures were delivered over the course of four sessions.
Roman women – priestesses, patrician women, mysterious guardians of the sacred flame of goddess Vesta, admired and respected, sometimes blamed for misfortune of the Eternal City. Vestals identified with the eternity of Rome, the priestesses having a specific, unavailable to other women power. That power gained at the moment of a ritual capture (captio) and responsibilities and privileges resulted from it are the subject matter of this paper. The special attention is paid to the importance of Vestals for Rome and Romans in various historic moments, and to the purifying rituals performed by Vestals on behalf of the Roman state’s fortune. The study presents probable dating and possible causes of the end of the College of the Vestals in Rome.
The Obligation to Provide Housing for Military and Civilian Use between 1919 and 1925 in Light of the Legislation and Judicial Decisions of the Supreme Administrative Tribunal
In connection with the dramatic shortage of residential accommodations in the first years of Polish statehood after the regaining of independence in 1918, the way to guarantee their provision for military personnel (officers and married non-commissioned officers) and civilians (state and local government officials) was a statutory obligation to provide them by means of legal administrative coercion. The aim of this article is to analyse issues relating to the requisitioning of flats, and in particular, to analyse the sources of legislation in this area at that time, and judicial decisions of the administrative court with regard to complaints made to this court in cases concerning these requisitions.
Privileged Decree of Last Will in the Law and Jurisprudence of the Courts of the Territories of the Former Austrian Partition in the Interwar Period Drawn up during the Plague
Diseases and the risk of death associated with them i.e. from plagues (epidemics), especially dangerous as virulence increased, led the legislature to provide in the provisions of the inheritance law for the testator to draw up a will which for its validity had less formal requirements than an ordinary will, but would be in force in the event of the sudden death of the testator. Such a possibility was included by the Austrian legislature in the possibility for such a person to take advantage of the privileged decree of last will, the rules of which are regulated in §§ 597–599 ABGB. According to these rules, in places where there was a plague or similar plagues, the testator could make a will before two people who were at least fourteen years old. At the same time, they did not have to be present due to the risk of contracting a disease. The laconic nature of the conditions enabling the use of a privileged will as defined in ABGB meant that in practice these issues had to be finally resolved by the judicature of the courts.
In a Provincial City in Western Poland. Concerning the Prosecutor’s Office of the District Court in Głogów with Its Seat in Nowa Sól (1945–1950)
After World War II, a number of territories that had belonged to Germany before 1945 were incorporated into those of the Polish state. The change of borders resulted in the need to build structures of the Polish judiciary and prosecutor’s offices in these territories. This article is devoted to describing the functioning of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Regional Court in Głogów with its seat in Nowa Sól. The history of this office is an example of how prosecutors’ offices operated in difficult post-war conditions in the recovered territories, as well as of relations between the prosecutors’ offices and other public authorities such as the Citizens’ Militia or the judiciary.
Opinion of Professor Władysław Wolter on the Activities of German Courts in Polish Territories during the Nazi Occupation
The study was devoted to the legal opinion drawn up in the post-war trial against the German judge Albert Michel on the activities of German courts in Polish territories during the Nazi occupation. The scope of the opinion is broader than it appears from the title – Professor Władysław Wolter covered the entire German occupation including the actual German invasion in 1939. The text of the source was preceded by a discussion in which the circumstances of the opinion were explained, the author’s profile was presented, and its most important theses were characterised. The statements of the opinion were related to other views of the doctrine and jurisprudence, as well as the decisions issued in the Michel case.
* Tekst został opracowany w ramach projektu badawczego finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki, Polska (2017/27/N/HS5/00423).
Books debunking stereotypes are particularly noteworthy. Such is the monograph of S. Lo Iacono. The author compares Italian, Swiss, and Roman laws to eventually demonstrate that contracts on succession do not in fact infringe the freedom of testation to the extent that they are usually thought to.
* Praca powstała wyniku realizacji projektu badawczego o nr 2019/35/D/HS5/04168 finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki.
Grzegorz Blicharz, Commons – Jointly-used Goods: Comparative Aspects of the Use of Water Resources. Bielsko-Biała: Od.Nowa, 2017, 195 Pages
“Commons – Jointly-used Goods: Comparative Aspects of the Use of Water Resources” further develops the theory of governing the dwindling resources, based on Professor Elinor Ostrom’s economic theory of Commons, and expands on it on legal science. The monograph highlights the increased effectiveness of bottom-up norms in preventing the complete depletion of the endangered resources while simultaneously satisfying the needs of the local community, if the public authorities decide to respect them. The legal and functional characteristics of those norms aren’t uniform in different legal traditions, which is shown by examples from various legal systems provided by the author. The author also acknowledges that the issue of property and restricting it in the interests of other people was often mentioned in Roman law, especially in arguments between Roman jurists about water easements. The review describes basic theses and their argumentation contained in the monograph and evaluates its substance, form, and the universal character of the referenced problem.
Review of Piotr Alexandrowicz’s Book Canonistic Justification of Freedom of Contract in the Western Legal Tradition. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2020,333 Pages
The inspiring monograph of Piotr Alexandrowicz entitled “Canonistic Justification of Freedom of Contract in the Western Legal Tradition” clearly shows that the true creators of freedom of contract were not ancient Roman jurists or emperors, but medieval canonists. Based on Christian moral theology, they built the unique doctrine of obligations without which it is quite difficult to imagine contemporary legal transactions. Their thought was subsequently taken up and further developed by modern thinkers.
Review of Krzysztof Broński’s Book Public Finance of Galicia in the Autonomy Era (1867–1914). Kraków: Kraków University of Economics Press, 2019, 319 Pages
The review discusses the latest book on the situation of public finances in Galicia during the period of autonomy (1867–1914). The author, using numerous statistical studies, materials of the Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria, and the National Department as well as academic literature (nineteenth-century and modern), presents Galicia’s place in the Austro-Hungarian tax system and recreates the structure of its budgets, as well as the financial situation of local government, and the basic principles of the social security system. This is all offered against a broad constitutional and political, as well as socio-economic, background. The result of the work is several important research theorems, which significantly enrich knowledge about Galicia.
Militia, Open Up! About Crime Fiction in People’s Poland. Szczecin–Warszawa: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, 2019, 231 Pages
In People’s Poland, a distinct type of crime fiction was developed. Popular militia novels were entertaining, but also dictated attitudes towards the legal system.
On the Digitization of Historical and Legal Research: A Few Remarks in the Margin of John B. Nann and Morris L. Cohen’s Book The Yale Law School Guide to Research in American Legal History. New Haven–London: Yale University Press, 2018, 349 Pages
The review deals with a recently published book authored by John B. Nann and Morris L. Cohen and titled “The Yale Law School Guide to Research in American Legal History”. The modern, digital inclusive, approach to research in legal history presented by the book’s authors, provides a basis for the further comments gathered in the review. The review aims to convince Polish scholars to create a similar tool for young acolytes of legal history.
Report of the “English Law and Colonial Connections: Histories, Parallels, and Influences”. On-line Conference
The: “English Law and Colonial Connections: Histories, Parallels, and Influences conference” was held over the course of two afternoons, on January 26–27, 2020. It was organized by the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Łódź and Northumbria University in Newcastle. The symposium’s goal was to bring together researchers with interests in the history of English law and its influences on other parts of the world, particularly within an imperial context. An additional topic of the conference was the meaning of legacies and continuing influences of the empire and colonial influences of the law back to the Metropole. Nine lectures were delivered over the course of four sessions.
Between the Cross and the Circle. Illiterates in the Records of the Conciliation Department and the Simple Police of the Peace Court in Zgierz and Łódź 1844–1876
The law in the Kingdom of Poland regulated the use of alternative forms of signature. The files of the courts of peace in Zgierz and Łódźabound in examples of their use. In guardianship documents, we most often find three crosses in lieu of a signature (in applications) or a mention of the illiteracy of the participants in the proceedings (minutes of meetings and resolutions). In the simple police department’s cases, Christians signed with crosses, while Jews drew three circles or signed in Hebrew. In each case, the official (a person witnessing the ‘signature’) attested that the signs were made by a specific person.
The regulations of the economic competition agreement were introduced by the 20th Act of 1931 after the economic crisis attention to the cartel regulations in Europe in the interwar period. We can realize that the regulation of the unfair business completion has a long codification history which started in the period of the Dualism. Before the end of dualism the Hungary regulated some question related to the cartels special attention to the circulation of commodities. In my presentation, I aim to describe the Hungarian and European codification antecedents and steps (for example: the regulation of industry) of the first Hungarian Cartel Act. This codification process was very important in Hungarian economy and social life because the economic changes started processes in both the field of legal life and legal sciences, and as a result of this, a demand arose to legally codify any rules in connection to cartels. The foundations of these were found in private law, especially in the regulations of the commercial law, which could be further elaborated upon and lead to a development of the regulations on the annulment of contracts in connection to dishonourable business competition.
* Supported by János Bolyai Research Scholarship (BO/00198/18/9). Almási, A háborúhatása, 8.
The Penal Provisions of the Polish Copyright Law of 1926 in Legislative Works and Judicial Practice: Overprint – Plagiarism – the Subjective Side – Penal Sanctions
This paper is the result of the continuation of ongoing studies on the penal provisions of the Polish Copyright Law of 1926. Some of the research results were presented in the article titled The Penal Provisions of the Polish Copyright Law of 1926. The History of Its Creation –Its General Characteristics –Art. 61 and Its Significance for Further Regulations, which was published in “Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History”(2018, issue 4). This text is a presentation of the analysis of special provisions regulating penal liability for the offences of overprint and plagiarism. Further in the article, the notion of the subjective side is discussed in relation to the offences defined in the Polish Copyright Law of 1926 and also the penal sanctions provided for these offences. In the analysis of the specific problems, emphasis is placed on the course of works on the regulations conducted by the Codification Commission and by the Parliament as well as on the issues related to their application. This approach makes it possible to reconstruct the fundamental legal problems faced by the codifiers and subsequently by the system of justice applying the relevant regulations. The studies concerning the application of copyright law were mainly focused on the judicial practice of the District Court in Kraków. They were based on the court registers and records from the interwar period stored in the National Archives in Kraków. The archival research discovered that the cases concerning the infringement of copyright constituted barely 0.09% of all criminal cases lodged with the District Court in Kraków in the 1930s. In that period, only five persons were definitely sentenced in this respect. Even though there were few criminal cases concerning copyright infringement in the times of the Second Polish Republic, the rulings issued, especially those issued by the Supreme Court, undoubtedly influenced the formation of jurisprudence regarding the interpretation of copyright, and they continue to be cited in pertinent literature up to this day.
The German occupiers abolished the Supreme Court in the General Government. In the Polish (non-German) judiciary sector, there was no court of the highest instance to ensure the unification of jurisprudence. The competence to ensure the uniformity of jurisprudence and resolve existing doubts and legal issues was transferred to the courts of appeal. The objective of the present article was to demonstrate the procedure and practice of issuing legal theses by the Court of Appeal in Kraków. The article also presents changes in the composition of the judges and the territorial jurisdiction of the Kraków Court of Appeal. Archival sources constitute the source basis of the work. We also resorted to the latest subject literature. The work is based mainly on the analysis of archival sources and legal acts, so the scientific methods typical of the history of law were applied.
*The present publication was elaborated as part of the research project entitled “Charakter prawny i rola tez prawnych uchwalanych przez polskie (nieniemieckie) sądy apelacyjne w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie w okresie II wojny światowej” financed by the National Science Center, Poland –under contract No. UMO-2017/27/N/HS5/00812.
A Project of Changes to Civil Procedure in the Works of the Civil Reform Committee (1814–1815). A Source Edition – Part 1 (Trial)
The present source publication is the fifth in a series encompassing the most important documents related to preparations for the replacement of French codes with national codification written by the Civil Reform Committee which worked between 1814 and 1815. Herein are contained the minutes of the sessions held by the Committee which concern a key debate among its members who argued as to whether to derogate the French Code of Civil Procedure in its entirety or only in fragments which were considered to be the most burdensome in Polish realities. Moreover, the publication also includes the first part of “The project of the civil judicial procedure in first instance”(primary procedure) presented by Franciszek Grabowski, a preeminent traditionalist in the Committee, along with fragments of the minutes reporting the course of the discussion concerning the project. Together with the second part of the proposition submitted by Grabowski encompassing enforcement proceedings, a counterproject of the code of civil procedure by progressive judge Antoni Bieńkowski, as well as a debate over these two proposals, which are to be published in the next issues of “Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa”, the materials presented below portray the crux of the debate held over the Code de procedure civile of 1806, which aroused much controversy, and which was in fact the most criticized part of the French legislation in force in Polish territories.
* Niniejsza publikacja została przygotowana w ramach projektu „Kodyfikacja narodowa – fantazmat czy realna alternatywa? W kręgu debat nad rodzimym systemem prawa sądowego w konstytucyjnym Królestwie Polskim” finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki na podstawie umowy nr UMO-2015/18/E/HS5/00762.
Orsolya Falus. Hospital Orders of Knights in the Times of the Arpads in Hungary. Zabrze–Tarnowskie Góry: Inforteditions, 2019, “On the Trail of the Crusades”, vol. XI, 226 Pages
The new book by Prof. Orsolya Falus concerns hospitalier orders of knights in Hungary during the reign of the Arpad dynasty. The topic undertaken by the author is largely unknown in Poland, and therefore worth presenting. The author, a graduate of the University of Pécs, dealt with six orders that were active during the reign of the Arpads and had hospitalier profiles in their activities.
The Oldest Accounting Notes of Przemyśl (1472–1510). Eds Anna Łosowska and Michał Schmidt. The Przemyśl: State Archive in Przemyśl, 2019, 252 Pages + Appendix
The book presented is a critical source edition of the three oldest accounts of the city of Przemyśl (manuscripts of the State Archives in Przemyśl, Shelfmarks 297, 298, and 299). The short description of the edition focuses on the use of these types of sources in research in the field of legal history, and emphasizes the richness of the critical apparatus developed by publishers.
Jewish Territorial Self-Government in the Crown in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Introduction and edition Adam Kaźmierczyk, Przemysław Zarubin. Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka, 2019, 679 Pages
The note presents the structure of the volume, including the method of summarizing documents in the form of a short abstract and a more extensive register –in English and Polish. Attention was also paid to the research value of sources concerning the Jewish self-government in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The volume provides valuable material for research in the field of the history of law, for example the legal grounds for judgments.
Łukasz Jan Korporowicz. Roman Law in Eighteenth-Century England. Teaching, Studying, Scholarship. Łódź: Lodz University Press, 2019, 237 Pages
This review presents a book recently authored by Łukasz Jan Korporowicz on the presence of Roman law in eighteenth century England. The book is divided into five chapters that deal with following issues: 1) teaching of ius civile in Oxbridge, 2) teaching of ius civile outside the universities, 3) the study of Roman law and obtaining formal degrees, 4) the impact of civil lawyers on the socio-political environment of England, and finally, 5) literature on Roman law.
Between the Cross and the Circle. Illiterates in the Records of the Conciliation Department and the Simple Police of the Peace Court in Zgierz and Łódź 1844–1876
The law in the Kingdom of Poland regulated the use of alternative forms of signature. The files of the courts of peace in Zgierz and Łódźabound in examples of their use. In guardianship documents, we most often find three crosses in lieu of a signature (in applications) or a mention of the illiteracy of the participants in the proceedings (minutes of meetings and resolutions). In the simple police department’s cases, Christians signed with crosses, while Jews drew three circles or signed in Hebrew. In each case, the official (a person witnessing the ‘signature’) attested that the signs were made by a specific person.
The regulations of the economic competition agreement were introduced by the 20th Act of 1931 after the economic crisis attention to the cartel regulations in Europe in the interwar period. We can realize that the regulation of the unfair business completion has a long codification history which started in the period of the Dualism. Before the end of dualism the Hungary regulated some question related to the cartels special attention to the circulation of commodities. In my presentation, I aim to describe the Hungarian and European codification antecedents and steps (for example: the regulation of industry) of the first Hungarian Cartel Act. This codification process was very important in Hungarian economy and social life because the economic changes started processes in both the field of legal life and legal sciences, and as a result of this, a demand arose to legally codify any rules in connection to cartels. The foundations of these were found in private law, especially in the regulations of the commercial law, which could be further elaborated upon and lead to a development of the regulations on the annulment of contracts in connection to dishonourable business competition.
* Supported by János Bolyai Research Scholarship (BO/00198/18/9). Almási, A háborúhatása, 8.
The Penal Provisions of the Polish Copyright Law of 1926 in Legislative Works and Judicial Practice: Overprint – Plagiarism – the Subjective Side – Penal Sanctions
This paper is the result of the continuation of ongoing studies on the penal provisions of the Polish Copyright Law of 1926. Some of the research results were presented in the article titled The Penal Provisions of the Polish Copyright Law of 1926. The History of Its Creation –Its General Characteristics –Art. 61 and Its Significance for Further Regulations, which was published in “Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History”(2018, issue 4). This text is a presentation of the analysis of special provisions regulating penal liability for the offences of overprint and plagiarism. Further in the article, the notion of the subjective side is discussed in relation to the offences defined in the Polish Copyright Law of 1926 and also the penal sanctions provided for these offences. In the analysis of the specific problems, emphasis is placed on the course of works on the regulations conducted by the Codification Commission and by the Parliament as well as on the issues related to their application. This approach makes it possible to reconstruct the fundamental legal problems faced by the codifiers and subsequently by the system of justice applying the relevant regulations. The studies concerning the application of copyright law were mainly focused on the judicial practice of the District Court in Kraków. They were based on the court registers and records from the interwar period stored in the National Archives in Kraków. The archival research discovered that the cases concerning the infringement of copyright constituted barely 0.09% of all criminal cases lodged with the District Court in Kraków in the 1930s. In that period, only five persons were definitely sentenced in this respect. Even though there were few criminal cases concerning copyright infringement in the times of the Second Polish Republic, the rulings issued, especially those issued by the Supreme Court, undoubtedly influenced the formation of jurisprudence regarding the interpretation of copyright, and they continue to be cited in pertinent literature up to this day.
The German occupiers abolished the Supreme Court in the General Government. In the Polish (non-German) judiciary sector, there was no court of the highest instance to ensure the unification of jurisprudence. The competence to ensure the uniformity of jurisprudence and resolve existing doubts and legal issues was transferred to the courts of appeal. The objective of the present article was to demonstrate the procedure and practice of issuing legal theses by the Court of Appeal in Kraków. The article also presents changes in the composition of the judges and the territorial jurisdiction of the Kraków Court of Appeal. Archival sources constitute the source basis of the work. We also resorted to the latest subject literature. The work is based mainly on the analysis of archival sources and legal acts, so the scientific methods typical of the history of law were applied.
*The present publication was elaborated as part of the research project entitled “Charakter prawny i rola tez prawnych uchwalanych przez polskie (nieniemieckie) sądy apelacyjne w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie w okresie II wojny światowej” financed by the National Science Center, Poland –under contract No. UMO-2017/27/N/HS5/00812.
A Project of Changes to Civil Procedure in the Works of the Civil Reform Committee (1814–1815). A Source Edition – Part 1 (Trial)
The present source publication is the fifth in a series encompassing the most important documents related to preparations for the replacement of French codes with national codification written by the Civil Reform Committee which worked between 1814 and 1815. Herein are contained the minutes of the sessions held by the Committee which concern a key debate among its members who argued as to whether to derogate the French Code of Civil Procedure in its entirety or only in fragments which were considered to be the most burdensome in Polish realities. Moreover, the publication also includes the first part of “The project of the civil judicial procedure in first instance”(primary procedure) presented by Franciszek Grabowski, a preeminent traditionalist in the Committee, along with fragments of the minutes reporting the course of the discussion concerning the project. Together with the second part of the proposition submitted by Grabowski encompassing enforcement proceedings, a counterproject of the code of civil procedure by progressive judge Antoni Bieńkowski, as well as a debate over these two proposals, which are to be published in the next issues of “Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa”, the materials presented below portray the crux of the debate held over the Code de procedure civile of 1806, which aroused much controversy, and which was in fact the most criticized part of the French legislation in force in Polish territories.
* Niniejsza publikacja została przygotowana w ramach projektu „Kodyfikacja narodowa – fantazmat czy realna alternatywa? W kręgu debat nad rodzimym systemem prawa sądowego w konstytucyjnym Królestwie Polskim” finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki na podstawie umowy nr UMO-2015/18/E/HS5/00762.
Orsolya Falus. Hospital Orders of Knights in the Times of the Arpads in Hungary. Zabrze–Tarnowskie Góry: Inforteditions, 2019, “On the Trail of the Crusades”, vol. XI, 226 Pages
The new book by Prof. Orsolya Falus concerns hospitalier orders of knights in Hungary during the reign of the Arpad dynasty. The topic undertaken by the author is largely unknown in Poland, and therefore worth presenting. The author, a graduate of the University of Pécs, dealt with six orders that were active during the reign of the Arpads and had hospitalier profiles in their activities.
The Oldest Accounting Notes of Przemyśl (1472–1510). Eds Anna Łosowska and Michał Schmidt. The Przemyśl: State Archive in Przemyśl, 2019, 252 Pages + Appendix
The book presented is a critical source edition of the three oldest accounts of the city of Przemyśl (manuscripts of the State Archives in Przemyśl, Shelfmarks 297, 298, and 299). The short description of the edition focuses on the use of these types of sources in research in the field of legal history, and emphasizes the richness of the critical apparatus developed by publishers.
Jewish Territorial Self-Government in the Crown in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Introduction and edition Adam Kaźmierczyk, Przemysław Zarubin. Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka, 2019, 679 Pages
The note presents the structure of the volume, including the method of summarizing documents in the form of a short abstract and a more extensive register –in English and Polish. Attention was also paid to the research value of sources concerning the Jewish self-government in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The volume provides valuable material for research in the field of the history of law, for example the legal grounds for judgments.
Łukasz Jan Korporowicz. Roman Law in Eighteenth-Century England. Teaching, Studying, Scholarship. Łódź: Lodz University Press, 2019, 237 Pages
This review presents a book recently authored by Łukasz Jan Korporowicz on the presence of Roman law in eighteenth century England. The book is divided into five chapters that deal with following issues: 1) teaching of ius civile in Oxbridge, 2) teaching of ius civile outside the universities, 3) the study of Roman law and obtaining formal degrees, 4) the impact of civil lawyers on the socio-political environment of England, and finally, 5) literature on Roman law.
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy Nr 285/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 30 maja 2019 r. z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”. The journal was subsidized by Ministry of Science and Higher Education, agreement No. 285/WCN/2019/1 of 30. May 2019, programme „Support for Scientific Journals”.
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji. The publication has been sponsored by Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
Publikacja dofinansowana przez CANPACK S.A.
The publication has been sponsored by CANPACK S.A.
The aim of the study is to reveal the connections and inspirations between Roman and contemporary regulations of warranty, as an element of European heritage. The material for the study consists of Justinian’s “Digest”, Gellius’and Cato’s works, contemporary Polish warranty legislation –the Civil Code, its amendments and executive acts. Juridical, medical and philosophical views of ancient Roman lawyers on animal health in the mentioned material were examined and analyzed. The views of the ancient Romans reflected in Polish civil law were pointed out. Studies have been carried out, comparing the ideas that provide the background for legal norms of warranty. It has been proved how different defining of health and disease in veterinary medicine can affect divergent legal regulations in relation to animals sold. The functionality criterion was affirmed to be applicable not only as one of warranty premises, but also as a motor for legal development.
The Concept of the State and the Ruler in the Political Thought of Paul Orosius
In this article, the author tries to present Paul Orosius’s political doctrine, taking its connection with the tradition of imperial theology of Eusebius of Caesarea and the philosophy of Augustine of Hippo as references. The main source material is the historiographic study of Orosius from the beginning of the 5th century – Seven Books of History Against the Pagans. The considerations focus on the interpretation of four key themes: the Roman Empire, monotheism, peace, and Christianity. Orosius shares the prevalent belief of Christian writers of the late antiquity, that God gives special protection to the Roman Empire. He emphasizes the importance of the peace that prevailed in the time of Augustus, and gives theological and political interpretation of the temporal coincidence of Octavian’s reign and Christ’s birth. On the basis of proper interpretation of symbolic historical events, Orosius built a kind of political ecclesiology. This doctrine advanced the principal that the Roman state and the Church were united by a common mission to promote the Christian faith. At the same time, in Book Seven, Orosius confronts an attempt at the historiosophical interpretation of barbarian invasions that threatened the prosperity of the empire. Based on factual material, he relativizes the relationship between the Roman Empire and Christianity. The state appears as a subsidiary power to the Church’s evangelizing mission, which concept is also reflected in the ethos of the good ruler proposed by Orosius.
The Image of a Judge as Illustrated in Works of Polish Poets and Political Writers in the 16th–17th Centuries
Since judges played a significant role in a justice system founded upon customary law and court praxis, it comes as no surprise that their conduct was widely commented on in 16th and 17th century Poland. The purpose of this article is to introduce a literary image of judges and their profession during a given period of time. In poetry and political works one could find either positive or negative impressions of an old-Polish judicial officer. The former was rather infrequent and usually performed the function of literary speculum of the profession, in which impartiality and fairness were emphasized the most. The latter was ubiquitous. Judges were repeatedly condemned for their favouritism and partisanship (especially towards moneyed or powerful interests), as well as their susceptibility to both bribery and undue leniency. No wonder the aphorism spread: “Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through”. Unfortunately, the authors hardly ever provided readers with concrete remedies, but demanded most importantly improvement in virtue. The coexistence of the two different images of judges proves that the society of that time craved esteemed and highly regarded judicial officers, who, above all, were expected to be impartial and objective.
* Praca naukowa finansowana ze środków budżetowych na naukę w latach 2014–2020 jako projekt badawczy w ramach programu „Diamentowy Grant”.
Earliest Days of Polish Criminology. From the Pre-Positivist Era to the Mature Positivist Era
The publication of Cesare Lombroso’s The Criminal Man in 1876 is generally considered the birth of criminology. The new science did not emerge all of a sudden but resulted from a longer process. Various attempts, feasible for the scientific method at successive stages of its development, were made to explain the reasons for criminality before the arrival of the era of positivism and contemporary science, and the construction of Lombroso’s theory of the born criminal. Franz Joseph Gall proposed the theory of phrenology, claiming that the shape of the brain is decisive for criminal tendencies. Philippe Pinel perceived the cause of crime in “mania without delirium”, and James C. Prichard in “moral insanity”. The developing social sciences and the positivist physicalism governing them made it possible to handle the statistical aspects of the phenomenon (A.M. Guerry, A. Quetelet). Such novel scientific information reached Poland mostly through physicians, yet was hardly interesting for lawyers brought up on the foundations of the classical school. In criminal law, they a priori rejected determinism together with the achievements of contemporary science. The first of the Polish lawyers to support the concept of determinism in human and social behaviours was professor of criminal law Józef MichałRosenblatt. He also realised that the new discipline of criminology, distinct from criminal law, was being born. In 1888 Ludwik Krzywicki, a social philosopher, teacher, and sociologist could have been the first to use the term “kryminologia”in Poland. He also challenged Lombroso’s theory, criticising it from Marxist and sociological positions. However, one of the most fascinating Polish criminologists of the late 19th century was professor of forensic medicine Leon Wachholz.
Unequal Opportunities Facing Equal Law The Struggle for the Common Rights of the Inhabitants of Galicia Based on the Examples of the Villages of Bratkówka and Odrzykoń in the 19th Century
The basic issue of the article concerns the peasants’problems with respect to common rights of forest and pasturage (which in Austria was called Servituten). The issue has never been adequately researched, but rather has only been described in a general or fragmentary way. The examples of the villages of Odrzykońand Bratkówka (which belonged to one estate at the time), illustrate the peasants’struggles over issues such as rights to wood, forest litter, and grazing of their cattle on the noblemen’s estates. In a chronological structure the article presents the most important events that influenced the functioning, evolution, and attempts of peasants to gain confirmation of these rights. It also contains information about the process of regulation their laws in the second half of the 19th century. Therefore, the main issue of the article regards the question of the inequality of the peasant’s chances despite the law’s theoretical equality.
* Praca powstała w wyniku realizacji projektu badawczego „Konflikty o serwituty w Galicji w drugiej połowie XIX wieku. Proces wykupu i regulacji służebności na terenie Galicji Środkowej” w ramach konkursu SONATINA 1 o nr 2017/24/C/HS3/00129 finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki.
Appointment of Lay Judges to the Courts of Peace and the District Court in Łódź in the First Years of Interwar Poland
On July 18, 1917, the Provisional Council of State approved “Temporary Provisions on the Organization of the Judiciary in the Kingdom of Poland”. These regulations granted the organization and functioning of the courts in the area of the newly created Kingdom of Poland, and was therefore binding in Łódź. It specified, inter alia, the rules for appointing lay judges to the courts of peace and regional courts. In Łódź, the implementation of the rules met numerous problems, related for example to the increase in the number of cases that were to be resolved with the participation of lay judges. There was also a problem with the initially low salary received by lay judges and the time needed by the City Council of Łódźto select candidates.
A Presentation of the Edition of the Oldest Castle Court Records of Cracow in the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences
The text in question is a report on the presentation of the edition of the oldest castle court books of Cracow from the early 15th century. The volume was issued by three scholarly institutes, and the presentation took place in the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cracow on December 10, 2019.
A Presentation of the Edition of the Oldest Castle Court Records of Cracow in the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences
The text in question is a report on the presentation of the edition of the oldest castle court books of Cracow from the early 15th century. The volume was issued by three scholarly institutes, and the presentation took place in the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cracow on December 10, 2019.
The aim of the study is to reveal the connections and inspirations between Roman and contemporary regulations of warranty, as an element of European heritage. The material for the study consists of Justinian’s “Digest”, Gellius’and Cato’s works, contemporary Polish warranty legislation –the Civil Code, its amendments and executive acts. Juridical, medical and philosophical views of ancient Roman lawyers on animal health in the mentioned material were examined and analyzed. The views of the ancient Romans reflected in Polish civil law were pointed out. Studies have been carried out, comparing the ideas that provide the background for legal norms of warranty. It has been proved how different defining of health and disease in veterinary medicine can affect divergent legal regulations in relation to animals sold. The functionality criterion was affirmed to be applicable not only as one of warranty premises, but also as a motor for legal development.
The Concept of the State and the Ruler in the Political Thought of Paul Orosius
In this article, the author tries to present Paul Orosius’s political doctrine, taking its connection with the tradition of imperial theology of Eusebius of Caesarea and the philosophy of Augustine of Hippo as references. The main source material is the historiographic study of Orosius from the beginning of the 5th century – Seven Books of History Against the Pagans. The considerations focus on the interpretation of four key themes: the Roman Empire, monotheism, peace, and Christianity. Orosius shares the prevalent belief of Christian writers of the late antiquity, that God gives special protection to the Roman Empire. He emphasizes the importance of the peace that prevailed in the time of Augustus, and gives theological and political interpretation of the temporal coincidence of Octavian’s reign and Christ’s birth. On the basis of proper interpretation of symbolic historical events, Orosius built a kind of political ecclesiology. This doctrine advanced the principal that the Roman state and the Church were united by a common mission to promote the Christian faith. At the same time, in Book Seven, Orosius confronts an attempt at the historiosophical interpretation of barbarian invasions that threatened the prosperity of the empire. Based on factual material, he relativizes the relationship between the Roman Empire and Christianity. The state appears as a subsidiary power to the Church’s evangelizing mission, which concept is also reflected in the ethos of the good ruler proposed by Orosius.
The Image of a Judge as Illustrated in Works of Polish Poets and Political Writers in the 16th–17th Centuries
Since judges played a significant role in a justice system founded upon customary law and court praxis, it comes as no surprise that their conduct was widely commented on in 16th and 17th century Poland. The purpose of this article is to introduce a literary image of judges and their profession during a given period of time. In poetry and political works one could find either positive or negative impressions of an old-Polish judicial officer. The former was rather infrequent and usually performed the function of literary speculum of the profession, in which impartiality and fairness were emphasized the most. The latter was ubiquitous. Judges were repeatedly condemned for their favouritism and partisanship (especially towards moneyed or powerful interests), as well as their susceptibility to both bribery and undue leniency. No wonder the aphorism spread: “Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through”. Unfortunately, the authors hardly ever provided readers with concrete remedies, but demanded most importantly improvement in virtue. The coexistence of the two different images of judges proves that the society of that time craved esteemed and highly regarded judicial officers, who, above all, were expected to be impartial and objective.
* Praca naukowa finansowana ze środków budżetowych na naukę w latach 2014–2020 jako projekt badawczy w ramach programu „Diamentowy Grant”.
Earliest Days of Polish Criminology. From the Pre-Positivist Era to the Mature Positivist Era
The publication of Cesare Lombroso’s The Criminal Man in 1876 is generally considered the birth of criminology. The new science did not emerge all of a sudden but resulted from a longer process. Various attempts, feasible for the scientific method at successive stages of its development, were made to explain the reasons for criminality before the arrival of the era of positivism and contemporary science, and the construction of Lombroso’s theory of the born criminal. Franz Joseph Gall proposed the theory of phrenology, claiming that the shape of the brain is decisive for criminal tendencies. Philippe Pinel perceived the cause of crime in “mania without delirium”, and James C. Prichard in “moral insanity”. The developing social sciences and the positivist physicalism governing them made it possible to handle the statistical aspects of the phenomenon (A.M. Guerry, A. Quetelet). Such novel scientific information reached Poland mostly through physicians, yet was hardly interesting for lawyers brought up on the foundations of the classical school. In criminal law, they a priori rejected determinism together with the achievements of contemporary science. The first of the Polish lawyers to support the concept of determinism in human and social behaviours was professor of criminal law Józef MichałRosenblatt. He also realised that the new discipline of criminology, distinct from criminal law, was being born. In 1888 Ludwik Krzywicki, a social philosopher, teacher, and sociologist could have been the first to use the term “kryminologia”in Poland. He also challenged Lombroso’s theory, criticising it from Marxist and sociological positions. However, one of the most fascinating Polish criminologists of the late 19th century was professor of forensic medicine Leon Wachholz.
Unequal Opportunities Facing Equal Law The Struggle for the Common Rights of the Inhabitants of Galicia Based on the Examples of the Villages of Bratkówka and Odrzykoń in the 19th Century
The basic issue of the article concerns the peasants’problems with respect to common rights of forest and pasturage (which in Austria was called Servituten). The issue has never been adequately researched, but rather has only been described in a general or fragmentary way. The examples of the villages of Odrzykońand Bratkówka (which belonged to one estate at the time), illustrate the peasants’struggles over issues such as rights to wood, forest litter, and grazing of their cattle on the noblemen’s estates. In a chronological structure the article presents the most important events that influenced the functioning, evolution, and attempts of peasants to gain confirmation of these rights. It also contains information about the process of regulation their laws in the second half of the 19th century. Therefore, the main issue of the article regards the question of the inequality of the peasant’s chances despite the law’s theoretical equality.
* Praca powstała w wyniku realizacji projektu badawczego „Konflikty o serwituty w Galicji w drugiej połowie XIX wieku. Proces wykupu i regulacji służebności na terenie Galicji Środkowej” w ramach konkursu SONATINA 1 o nr 2017/24/C/HS3/00129 finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki.
Appointment of Lay Judges to the Courts of Peace and the District Court in Łódź in the First Years of Interwar Poland
On July 18, 1917, the Provisional Council of State approved “Temporary Provisions on the Organization of the Judiciary in the Kingdom of Poland”. These regulations granted the organization and functioning of the courts in the area of the newly created Kingdom of Poland, and was therefore binding in Łódź. It specified, inter alia, the rules for appointing lay judges to the courts of peace and regional courts. In Łódź, the implementation of the rules met numerous problems, related for example to the increase in the number of cases that were to be resolved with the participation of lay judges. There was also a problem with the initially low salary received by lay judges and the time needed by the City Council of Łódźto select candidates.
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy Nr 285/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 30 maja 2019 r. z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”. The journal was subsidized by Ministry of Science and Higher Education, agreement No. 285/WCN/2019/1 of 30. May 2019, programme „Support for Scientific Journals”.
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji. The publication has been sponsored by Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
In church law, the union of churches (unio ecclesiarum) concerned the merger of two and more dioceses under the same bishop. In the Middle Ages, canonists were already pointing to three types of union: 1) aeque principalis; 2) unio per subiectionem, when one of the churches was subject to the other and thus the episcopal dignity remained only in that one, and finally, the third kind, called 3) unio per extinctionem, when two particular churches, usually dioceses, were merged into a single new one. The canonical achievements in the field of union of churches and benefices were collected and summarized, among others, in the treatise De unionibus ecclesiarum atque beneficiorum by Nicolaus Thilen, and in the work of Anaclet Reiffenstuel entitled Ius canonicum universum. The three types of union of churches and benefices presented above, distinguished by their mergers, were adopted into the Code of Canon Law of 1917 (canons 1419 and 1420). The 450th anniversary of the union concluded on July 1, 1569 in Lublin was celebrated in 2019. As a result of this union the Kingdom of Poland, called the Crown, merged with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The canonical models of the union of churches and benefices, developed in medieval canon law, are important for a closer description of the essence of this relationship, starting with the first of them, i.e. the union concluded in 1385 in Krevo. The political relationships established between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania largely corresponded to the three canonical models of the church union indicated above, i.e. unio aeque principalis (1385), unio per subiectionem (1413) and unio per extinctionem seu translationem (1569).
Parish records are an interesting source material for researching the issue of beliefs in returning dead. Parish records of deaths rarely relate the funerals of people other than the God-fearing citizens who rested in the parish necropolis or those killed in tragic circumstances, usually as a result of an accident. From the end of the 16th century, the areas of the Silesian-Moravian borderland, or northern Moravia itself, were the scene of fierce struggles against the dead rising from their graves. Later, mainly eighteenth-century publications began to use the term defining these phenomena as magia posthuma. The intensity of beliefs in posthumous magic peaked in late 17th and early 18th centuries. It was widely thought at the time that a deceased person whose body does not show normal, post-mortem changes (rigidity) was a witch or a sorcerer. In Silesia and Moravia effective forms of dealing with harmful deceased people were developed in the period of 16th-18th centuries. Based on the analysis of existing source material, we know that the most frequent course of action was to find the grave of the “undead”in the cemetery, exhume the corpse and destroy it. All these measures against corpses who rose from their graves had to leave a trace in the parish books. In the discussed area, the oldest entries from records of death concerning the beliefs in dead who returned to plague the living can be found in the volume for the Silesian city of Strzegom (German: Striegau) covering the years 1589–1715. Some interesting research material is also provided by entries made in the records of death in the small town of Ryžoviště(German: Braunseifen) for the years 1583–1640 and 1640–1717. One of the last entries in the death records was made on 1 March 1755, when the Empress Maria Theresa issued a decree forbidding the persecution of people accused of witchcraft, treasure hunts with the aid of magic and also the exhumation or burning of the bodies of people accused of posthumous magic.
*This article presents the results of author’s research conducted as part of a project financed by the National Centre Science (no. 2016/21/D/HS3/02963) entitled Magia Posthuma –Beliefs in the Harmful Activity of the Dead in Silesia and Moravia in 16th–18th Centuries, carried out at the University of Wrocław, Faculty of Historical and Pedagogical Sciences.
The current Austrian Civil Code goes back to 1811, after more than 200 years it still is in force in Austria –though with many amendments. Its origin and development is connected to the political history of the Austrian Empire, later the Dual Monarchy and its successor states in the 20th century. The paper analyses the significance of the Austrian Civil Code on the development of civil law in Central Europe on the verge of the collapse of the old empires and the emergence of the new political systems. Especially the question of the influence of the Austrian Civil Code on Polish law and inversely the influence of Polish lawyers on the development of the Austrian Civil Code is addressed. Due to the character of the inclusion of the Polish parts into the Austrian Empire in the 18th century the paper raises the question of the role of civil law in forced unions.
* This article is a slightly revised version of my lecture at the Jagiellonian University (20. 09. 2019).
Opinions of the Professors and Doctors of the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University as a Source for Research on the Application of the Napoleonic Code in the Free City of Krakow
The article describes the consultative activities of the Professors and Doctors of the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University in the years 1817–1833. On the basis of Article 15 of the 1815 Constitution of the Free City of Krakow, they examined whether it was admissible for the parties to the court proceedings to lodge a third instance appeals against the consistent decisions issued by both of the first instance court and the court of appeal. This was deemed to be possible if the judgements were found in violation of substantive civil law or important forms of court proceedings. I briefly describe the form of proceedings by the Faculty of Law, including the appointment of case clerks, the convening of meetings, and the procedure for passing resolutions. Based on extensive archival materials, stored in the Jagiellonian University Archives and the National Archive in Krakow, I reconstruct three such proceedings. They concerned provisions on the form of legal acts for evidence purposes (Article 1341 KN) and contracts with a private signature (Article 1325 KN), as well as a provision on matrimonial property relationships (Article 1443 KN). In the first case, the opinion of the Faculty of Law determined a correct line of jurisprudence, while in the second, its interpretation of the provision narrowed the code dimension of contract freedom and constrained the principle of pacta sunt servanda. The last opinion is an example of an incorrect interpretation of the Napoleonic Code.
* Artykuł został przygotowany w ramach projektu badawczego Narodowego Centrum Nauki nr 2017/27/B/HS5/01308.
The following text examines the topic of unifying territories with disparate legal traditions as exemplified by Czechoslovakia during the first years of its existence and interpreted by Vratislav Kalousek (1883–1936), an unjustly forgotten clerk at the Ministry of the Interior, a lawyer and a contributor to inter-war legal magazines. He analyzed how the Czechoslovak law –drafted by the Czechoslovak officials of the Cisleithanian tradition –was implemented in the newly acquired lands, namely in Slovakia and in Carpathian Ruthenia. Vratislav Kalousek perceived the foundation of Czechoslovakia, based on uniting lands with a different history, as well as cultural, social and legal traditions, as a situation in which it was necessary to act swiftly, instead of slowing the process down with emphasis on accuracy typical for legal theory.
Using Sources of Law for the Purpose of Historical Interpretation
This article pertains to the use of relevant sources of law for the purpose of historical interpretation. The article is divided into three sections. The first section is dedicated to theoretical issues and presents the concept of sources of law and the types of legal interpretation, in particular historical interpretation. The next section describes examples of how sources of law may be applied in conjunction with historical interpretation. It discusses, inter alia, the application of historical interpretation in court rulings, the functioning of joint land property, agricultural reform in Poland after the Second World War, the consequences of the inflation policy and the associated occurrence of what is referred to as mortgage discharge, i.e. the repayment of the amounts due by the mortgagors. In the last section of the publication, the author summarises his reflections focusing primarily on the meaning of sources of law in the context of applying historical interpretation in contemporary court rulings. The author’s final conclusion is that using the sources of old law and the interpretation thereof are an important component of the legal system currently in effect.
*Artykuł jest zmienioną i rozszerzoną wersją referatu wygłoszonego na sympozjum pt. „Łączą nas źródła”, które zorganizował Wydział Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego w Krakowie w dniu 19 września 2019 r.
The Plan for the New Civil Code and the project for the establishment of the Codification Commission prepared for the Civil Reform Committee (1814–1815). Historical Source Edition
As part of the source publication series begun in the second fascicle of the twelfth volume of Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa [Krakow Studies in History of State and Law], we are publishing this time documents related to the preparation of the Civil Reform Committee, which operated in 1814–1815, to develop a new national civil code to replace the Napoleonic Code: 1. Wstęp przy wprowadzeniu planu do kodeksu cywilnego [Introduction to the Plan of Implementation of the Civil Code], 2. Plan Bieńkowskiego do nowego kodeksu cywilnego [Bieńkowski’s Plan for the New Civil Code], 3. Projekt Linowskiego do uformowania komisji mającej wygotowaćKsięgęprawa cywilnego i procedury [Linowski’s Plan for Forming a Commission to Prepare a Book of Civil Law and Procedure] and fragments of minutes of the Civil Reform Committee sessions regarding this draft. Source material on matrimonial law published in two last issues of the „Krakow Studies”in 2019 differed from the documents published in this fascicle because they were intended to serve only a partial reform of the Napoleonic Code envisaged for a temporary period, until a new civil code was developed. Antoni Bieńkowski presented his Plan for Implementation of the Civil Code at the session held on 20th November, 1814, less than a month after presenting the drafts of matrimonial law to the Civil Reform Committee (23rd October). The introductory part of the Plan presents the general assumptions regarding the works. They are followed by a list of the planned chapters and a justification of the adopted order. The actual Plan itself (second document) lists the same titles of chapters, along with the issues that should be regulated in a given place, and then it indicates where the models to follow could be sought. The debate related to the presentation of Bieńkowski’s Plan and the scope of activities in this field entrusted to the Committee by Emperor Alexander, took place at sessions held from 17th to 24th November. It ended with the preparation of Aleksander Linowski’s Plan for Forming a Commission to Prepare a Book of Civil Law and Procedure on 27th November. This document planned three stages of codification works: first, a 9-member commission was to draft both codes, and then departmental deputies were to work on them (first personally, and then representatives of them, with some Committee members). The last stage of preparatory works was to be comprised of meetings of five senators and members of the Council of State with selected Committee members and a representatives of departmental deputies.
* Niniejsza publikacja została przygotowana w ramach projektu „Kodyfikacja narodowa – fantazmat czy realna alternatywa? W kręgu debat nad rodzimym systemem prawa sądowego w konstytucyjnym Królestwie Polskim” finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki na podstawie umowy nr UMO-2015/18/E/HS5/00762.
The XXVth Annual Forum of Young Legal Historians “Identity, Citizenship, and Legal History”
The XXV Annual Forum of Young Legal Historians was organized by three Belgian universities: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Universitélibre de Bruxelles, and UniversitéSaint-Louis Bruxelles. It took place from 5th through 8th June, 2019. This years’forum concerned identity and citizenship, what was echoed in vast majority of the conference papers. The conference consisted of nearly 90 scholars representing more than 20 states, including non-European countries. As usual, the host country’s delegation presented the largest group of young legal historians. 6 speakers were representing the University of Warsaw, 3 Jagiellonian University, and 2 the University of Gdansk. The universities of Bialystok and Lodz, had one representative each during the Forum.
Professor Stanisław Grodziski (1929–2020). Polish Historian of State System and Law
The work presents the achievements of Professor Grodziski. Research directions, major publications, didactic and organizational activities at the Faculty of Law and Administration, and membership in scientific organizations and associations are presented. The professor reactivated Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was an outstanding expert on the Old Polish Sejm and the history of Galicia and Austria. In short, he was an excellent teacher.
The Plan for the New Civil Code and the project for the establishment of the Codification Commission prepared for the Civil Reform Committee (1814–1815). Historical Source Edition
As part of the source publication series begun in the second fascicle of the twelfth volume of Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa [Krakow Studies in History of State and Law], we are publishing this time documents related to the preparation of the Civil Reform Committee, which operated in 1814–1815, to develop a new national civil code to replace the Napoleonic Code: 1. Wstęp przy wprowadzeniu planu do kodeksu cywilnego [Introduction to the Plan of Implementation of the Civil Code], 2. Plan Bieńkowskiego do nowego kodeksu cywilnego [Bieńkowski’s Plan for the New Civil Code], 3. Projekt Linowskiego do uformowania komisji mającej wygotowaćKsięgęprawa cywilnego i procedury [Linowski’s Plan for Forming a Commission to Prepare a Book of Civil Law and Procedure] and fragments of minutes of the Civil Reform Committee sessions regarding this draft. Source material on matrimonial law published in two last issues of the „Krakow Studies”in 2019 differed from the documents published in this fascicle because they were intended to serve only a partial reform of the Napoleonic Code envisaged for a temporary period, until a new civil code was developed. Antoni Bieńkowski presented his Plan for Implementation of the Civil Code at the session held on 20th November, 1814, less than a month after presenting the drafts of matrimonial law to the Civil Reform Committee (23rd October). The introductory part of the Plan presents the general assumptions regarding the works. They are followed by a list of the planned chapters and a justification of the adopted order. The actual Plan itself (second document) lists the same titles of chapters, along with the issues that should be regulated in a given place, and then it indicates where the models to follow could be sought. The debate related to the presentation of Bieńkowski’s Plan and the scope of activities in this field entrusted to the Committee by Emperor Alexander, took place at sessions held from 17th to 24th November. It ended with the preparation of Aleksander Linowski’s Plan for Forming a Commission to Prepare a Book of Civil Law and Procedure on 27th November. This document planned three stages of codification works: first, a 9-member commission was to draft both codes, and then departmental deputies were to work on them (first personally, and then representatives of them, with some Committee members). The last stage of preparatory works was to be comprised of meetings of five senators and members of the Council of State with selected Committee members and a representatives of departmental deputies.
* Niniejsza publikacja została przygotowana w ramach projektu „Kodyfikacja narodowa – fantazmat czy realna alternatywa? W kręgu debat nad rodzimym systemem prawa sądowego w konstytucyjnym Królestwie Polskim” finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki na podstawie umowy nr UMO-2015/18/E/HS5/00762.
The XXVth Annual Forum of Young Legal Historians “Identity, Citizenship, and Legal History”
The XXV Annual Forum of Young Legal Historians was organized by three Belgian universities: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Universitélibre de Bruxelles, and UniversitéSaint-Louis Bruxelles. It took place from 5th through 8th June, 2019. This years’forum concerned identity and citizenship, what was echoed in vast majority of the conference papers. The conference consisted of nearly 90 scholars representing more than 20 states, including non-European countries. As usual, the host country’s delegation presented the largest group of young legal historians. 6 speakers were representing the University of Warsaw, 3 Jagiellonian University, and 2 the University of Gdansk. The universities of Bialystok and Lodz, had one representative each during the Forum.
Professor Stanisław Grodziski (1929–2020). Polish Historian of State System and Law
The work presents the achievements of Professor Grodziski. Research directions, major publications, didactic and organizational activities at the Faculty of Law and Administration, and membership in scientific organizations and associations are presented. The professor reactivated Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was an outstanding expert on the Old Polish Sejm and the history of Galicia and Austria. In short, he was an excellent teacher.
In church law, the union of churches (unio ecclesiarum) concerned the merger of two and more dioceses under the same bishop. In the Middle Ages, canonists were already pointing to three types of union: 1) aeque principalis; 2) unio per subiectionem, when one of the churches was subject to the other and thus the episcopal dignity remained only in that one, and finally, the third kind, called 3) unio per extinctionem, when two particular churches, usually dioceses, were merged into a single new one. The canonical achievements in the field of union of churches and benefices were collected and summarized, among others, in the treatise De unionibus ecclesiarum atque beneficiorum by Nicolaus Thilen, and in the work of Anaclet Reiffenstuel entitled Ius canonicum universum. The three types of union of churches and benefices presented above, distinguished by their mergers, were adopted into the Code of Canon Law of 1917 (canons 1419 and 1420). The 450th anniversary of the union concluded on July 1, 1569 in Lublin was celebrated in 2019. As a result of this union the Kingdom of Poland, called the Crown, merged with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The canonical models of the union of churches and benefices, developed in medieval canon law, are important for a closer description of the essence of this relationship, starting with the first of them, i.e. the union concluded in 1385 in Krevo. The political relationships established between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania largely corresponded to the three canonical models of the church union indicated above, i.e. unio aeque principalis (1385), unio per subiectionem (1413) and unio per extinctionem seu translationem (1569).
Parish records are an interesting source material for researching the issue of beliefs in returning dead. Parish records of deaths rarely relate the funerals of people other than the God-fearing citizens who rested in the parish necropolis or those killed in tragic circumstances, usually as a result of an accident. From the end of the 16th century, the areas of the Silesian-Moravian borderland, or northern Moravia itself, were the scene of fierce struggles against the dead rising from their graves. Later, mainly eighteenth-century publications began to use the term defining these phenomena as magia posthuma. The intensity of beliefs in posthumous magic peaked in late 17th and early 18th centuries. It was widely thought at the time that a deceased person whose body does not show normal, post-mortem changes (rigidity) was a witch or a sorcerer. In Silesia and Moravia effective forms of dealing with harmful deceased people were developed in the period of 16th-18th centuries. Based on the analysis of existing source material, we know that the most frequent course of action was to find the grave of the “undead”in the cemetery, exhume the corpse and destroy it. All these measures against corpses who rose from their graves had to leave a trace in the parish books. In the discussed area, the oldest entries from records of death concerning the beliefs in dead who returned to plague the living can be found in the volume for the Silesian city of Strzegom (German: Striegau) covering the years 1589–1715. Some interesting research material is also provided by entries made in the records of death in the small town of Ryžoviště(German: Braunseifen) for the years 1583–1640 and 1640–1717. One of the last entries in the death records was made on 1 March 1755, when the Empress Maria Theresa issued a decree forbidding the persecution of people accused of witchcraft, treasure hunts with the aid of magic and also the exhumation or burning of the bodies of people accused of posthumous magic.
*This article presents the results of author’s research conducted as part of a project financed by the National Centre Science (no. 2016/21/D/HS3/02963) entitled Magia Posthuma –Beliefs in the Harmful Activity of the Dead in Silesia and Moravia in 16th–18th Centuries, carried out at the University of Wrocław, Faculty of Historical and Pedagogical Sciences.
The current Austrian Civil Code goes back to 1811, after more than 200 years it still is in force in Austria –though with many amendments. Its origin and development is connected to the political history of the Austrian Empire, later the Dual Monarchy and its successor states in the 20th century. The paper analyses the significance of the Austrian Civil Code on the development of civil law in Central Europe on the verge of the collapse of the old empires and the emergence of the new political systems. Especially the question of the influence of the Austrian Civil Code on Polish law and inversely the influence of Polish lawyers on the development of the Austrian Civil Code is addressed. Due to the character of the inclusion of the Polish parts into the Austrian Empire in the 18th century the paper raises the question of the role of civil law in forced unions.
* This article is a slightly revised version of my lecture at the Jagiellonian University (20. 09. 2019).
Opinions of the Professors and Doctors of the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University as a Source for Research on the Application of the Napoleonic Code in the Free City of Krakow
The article describes the consultative activities of the Professors and Doctors of the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University in the years 1817–1833. On the basis of Article 15 of the 1815 Constitution of the Free City of Krakow, they examined whether it was admissible for the parties to the court proceedings to lodge a third instance appeals against the consistent decisions issued by both of the first instance court and the court of appeal. This was deemed to be possible if the judgements were found in violation of substantive civil law or important forms of court proceedings. I briefly describe the form of proceedings by the Faculty of Law, including the appointment of case clerks, the convening of meetings, and the procedure for passing resolutions. Based on extensive archival materials, stored in the Jagiellonian University Archives and the National Archive in Krakow, I reconstruct three such proceedings. They concerned provisions on the form of legal acts for evidence purposes (Article 1341 KN) and contracts with a private signature (Article 1325 KN), as well as a provision on matrimonial property relationships (Article 1443 KN). In the first case, the opinion of the Faculty of Law determined a correct line of jurisprudence, while in the second, its interpretation of the provision narrowed the code dimension of contract freedom and constrained the principle of pacta sunt servanda. The last opinion is an example of an incorrect interpretation of the Napoleonic Code.
* Artykuł został przygotowany w ramach projektu badawczego Narodowego Centrum Nauki nr 2017/27/B/HS5/01308.
The following text examines the topic of unifying territories with disparate legal traditions as exemplified by Czechoslovakia during the first years of its existence and interpreted by Vratislav Kalousek (1883–1936), an unjustly forgotten clerk at the Ministry of the Interior, a lawyer and a contributor to inter-war legal magazines. He analyzed how the Czechoslovak law –drafted by the Czechoslovak officials of the Cisleithanian tradition –was implemented in the newly acquired lands, namely in Slovakia and in Carpathian Ruthenia. Vratislav Kalousek perceived the foundation of Czechoslovakia, based on uniting lands with a different history, as well as cultural, social and legal traditions, as a situation in which it was necessary to act swiftly, instead of slowing the process down with emphasis on accuracy typical for legal theory.
Using Sources of Law for the Purpose of Historical Interpretation
This article pertains to the use of relevant sources of law for the purpose of historical interpretation. The article is divided into three sections. The first section is dedicated to theoretical issues and presents the concept of sources of law and the types of legal interpretation, in particular historical interpretation. The next section describes examples of how sources of law may be applied in conjunction with historical interpretation. It discusses, inter alia, the application of historical interpretation in court rulings, the functioning of joint land property, agricultural reform in Poland after the Second World War, the consequences of the inflation policy and the associated occurrence of what is referred to as mortgage discharge, i.e. the repayment of the amounts due by the mortgagors. In the last section of the publication, the author summarises his reflections focusing primarily on the meaning of sources of law in the context of applying historical interpretation in contemporary court rulings. The author’s final conclusion is that using the sources of old law and the interpretation thereof are an important component of the legal system currently in effect.
*Artykuł jest zmienioną i rozszerzoną wersją referatu wygłoszonego na sympozjum pt. „Łączą nas źródła”, które zorganizował Wydział Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego w Krakowie w dniu 19 września 2019 r.
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy Nr 285/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 30 maja 2019 r. z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”. The journal was subsidized by Ministry of Science and Higher Education, agreement No. 285/WCN/2019/1 of 30. May 2019, programme „Support for Scientific Journals”.
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji. The publication has been sponsored by Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
Dominial Jurisdiction in the Demesne of the Cistercian Monastery in Koprzywnica until 1819: Selected Issues
Dominial jurisdiction in the demesne of the Cistercian Monastery in Koprzywnica underwent a long and complicated evolution from the foundation of the abbey in 1185 to its dissolution in 1819. For over 6 centuries this monastery owned the town of Koprzywnica all the time, and the towns of Jasło and Frysztak temporarily and almost 60 villages and their parts in different periods. Privileges and judicial immunities granted by the ruling monarchs (in 1262, 1267, 1284, 1308, 1360 and later) were of a fundamental importance for development of the dominial jurisdiction of the abbot of Koprzywnica. A kind of exception in the organization of the dominial jurisdiction was the self-governmental structure in the town of Koprzywnica located under German Law (Magdeburg Law) under the privilege of the Duke Bolesław V the Chaste in 1267. However, the abbot did not like the independent judicial position of the head of the commune in Koprzywnica and village representatives in the monastery villages. The head of the commune and village representatives were often confidants for inhabitants’ matters, from where they came from rather than interests of the abbot or the monastery. These circumstances were, among others, the reason that at the turn of the 14th and the 15th centuries the monastery authorities brought to annihilation of self-governmental jurisdiction in their demesne and introduced judges-clerks completely controlled by them. It was the institution of a judicial head of a commune. The abbot’s subjects were not pleased with such a solution. They complained about the judicial activity of the abbot and his clerks even to the king himself. Most often ineffectively. In principle, this state of affairs lasted until the judicial reforms at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. At that time the Austrian state authorities and the authorities of the Duchy of Warsaw, following the movement of the Enlightenment, allowed to replace the dominial jurisdiction of the abbot and his clerks with the independent state courts (and judges). Yet, the transformation process of this dominial jurisdiction into the common one was not completed because the monastery in Koprzywnica was dissolved by the Russian authorities in 1819.
The Bernese Civil Code (1824–1830) and Its Impact on Socio-Political Development*
The objective of this paper is to present the dynamics of events and dependencies, which resulted in the enactment of the Bernese Civil Code, as well as the importance and consequences of this work in the development of civil law and civil society in the canton of Bern. The paper addresses the issues concerning the question as to whether it is possible for an act of civil law to become a source of rules which, not finding sufficient protection in the existing constitutional system, cause changes in the latter. Did the codification of private law and the act of providing the ideas of freedom and equality with statutory protection result in the fall of the governance existing in Bern in the first half of the 19th century? Or was it perhaps the result of the accumulation of internal and external circumstances, leading to a formal sanctioning of systemic changes which had already occurred? The process of codification and systemic change in Bern constitutes an excellent example of the interdependence between private and publiclegal legislation and the fact that constitutional law does not always have to be the primary source of state protection covering basic social values.
*Artykuł powstał w ramach realizacji projektu Narodowego Centrum Nauki pt. „Szwajcarski kodeks cywilny z 10 grudnia 1907 roku – cele i metody”, nr UMO-2017/26/D/HS5/00625.
Polish Acts of 1920 and 1921 on Combating Offences by Public Officials
In 1920–1921, the Polish Legislative Sejm issued two legal acts the purpose of which was to facilitate the fight against offences committed by officials of the public administration. Offences committed in connection with a tenure in order to gain profit were punishable by death by firing squad. Moreover, the acts further placed criminal liability on persons guilty of bribing a public official, or of complicity in offences committed by the officials. The introduction of the act of 1920 aroused great controversy, which was particularly visible during the parliamentary debate on its draft. The other act, initially conceived as an amendment to the first one, repeated its regulations to a large extent. The enactment of these strict provisions during the difficult time of establishing the structures of the newly independent state and the military campaign to secure the country’s borders was one way of resolving one of its current problems. The acts, temporary in character from the very beginning, were in effect for just over two years. However, despite the short period of validity, they left a considerable legacy in the form of numerous judicial decisions of the Supreme Court. This article is an attempt to view the acts from the perspective both of the principles which guided their creators and of the judicial practice itself. Therefore, along with the particular version of the draft bills and the reports from the parliamentary sessions, the analysis covers the ample jurisdictional output. This approach makes it possible to reconstruct the basic legal issues which arose in the context of application of the law and to draw conclusions in reference to the pronounced penalties. Furthermore, the analysis allows – within the scope enabled by the accessible sources – for demonstrating the extent to which the legislative assumptions were put into practice.
* Praca naukowa finansowana ze środków budżetowych na naukę w latach 2016/2020, jako projekt badawczy
The Case of Lviv Municipal Government in the Supreme Administrative Tribunal in 1929
This article is devoted to the issue of the dissolution of the Lviv City Council and the matter considered by the Supreme Administrative Tribunal in 1929. On August 31st, 1927, the Lviv voivode dissolved the Provisional City Council, transferring power over the city to the executive body and a 32-person Adjutant Council. The decision to dissolve the Provisional City Council was widely discussed in political circles, where its legality was questioned. In this regard, the councilors of the Provisional City Council decided to lodge a complaint to the Supreme Administrative Tribunal, which considered the case two years later, in 1929. The representatives of the dissolved Provisional City Council presented a number of arguments, pointing out errors in the voivode’s decision and defective supervisory proceedings. Proxies of the dissolved Provisional City Council requested the annulment of the voivode’s decision. The verdict in the case was issued on November 28th, 1929 and concerned the formal shortcomings of the dissolution of the Provisional City Council. It was demonstrated that its content did not include information on available remedies, in breach of the rules of administrative procedure. The judgment had specific legal and political effects, while the whole case illustrates the attitude of the supervisory authority to the local government.
Limits of the Powers of the Forced Management in Galicia on the Example of an Employee Dispute in the Ordynacja Przeworsk (1933)
The article presents the matter of an employee dispute between the former head of the agricultural directorate of the Ordynacja (landed property in fideicommis) in Przeworsk (Polish Galicia), Stanisław Trzeciak, and the property management, which was under the control of the Lubomirski family. In 1933, the director was dismissed from his position, which was justified by his offensive behavior towards the compulsory administrator appointed on the estate. In the face of this, the employee obtained a legal opinion signed by the leading civilians of that time – (prof. Jagiellonian University, Stanisław Gołąb, and dr. Zygmunt Wusatowski), in which the illegality of immediate termination of the employment contract was proved on the basis of applicable regulations (both Austrian and Polish), case law and the guidelines of doctrine. Then S. Trzeciak sent a letter to the owner of Ordynacja Przeworsk, Andrzej Lubomirski with a detailed description of the case and his claims. This case of interwar employee relations is even more interesting, because they occurred in the specific conditions of fideicommis, which had an impact on the course and end of the dispute.
* Niniejsza publikacja została przygotowana w ramach projektu „Fideikomisy familijne w Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej w świetle orzecznictwa sądów cywilnych. Dzieje funkcjonowania feudalnej instytucji prawnej w obrocie prawnym państwa nowoczesnego” finansowanego ze środków grantu NCN 2017/27/B/HS5/02679 realizowanego w ramach Konkursu OPUS 14.
Instructions for Lithuanian Treasury Commissioners Delegated to the Sejm (1780–1790)
Five instructions prepared by the Treasury Commission of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were published. This Commission, founded in 1764, consisted of two Lithuanian treasurers, and varying number of commissioners elected by the parliament. The Commission functioned as a court and administrative organ in charge of managing state finances. It was part of the executive, due to which fact it was answerable to the parliament (the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Every two years, the Commission delegated two commissioners for convened Sejm sessions. During parliamentary control of the Commission these Commissioners were present to provide information for members of the parliament. The first instruction that the Commissioners prepared was in 1780, during the affair concerning treasurer Antoni Tyzenhauz. He was accused of financial abuse, and the Commission tried to convince the members of the parliament, that Tyzenhauz alone was responsible for these crimes. Subsequent to this first one, instructions (1782, 1786, 1788, and 1790) contain reform proposals. The Treasury Commission described practical problems and possible solutions, suggested changes to tax structures, issued new legal regulations, and reorganized rules of operation in the institution.
* Publikacja powstała w ramach stażu naukowego sfinansowanego w drodze konkursu ze środków statutowych Wydziału Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Instructions for Lithuanian Treasury Commissioners Delegated to the Sejm (1780–1790)
Five instructions prepared by the Treasury Commission of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were published. This Commission, founded in 1764, consisted of two Lithuanian treasurers, and varying number of commissioners elected by the parliament. The Commission functioned as a court and administrative organ in charge of managing state finances. It was part of the executive, due to which fact it was answerable to the parliament (the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Every two years, the Commission delegated two commissioners for convened Sejm sessions. During parliamentary control of the Commission these Commissioners were present to provide information for members of the parliament. The first instruction that the Commissioners prepared was in 1780, during the affair concerning treasurer Antoni Tyzenhauz. He was accused of financial abuse, and the Commission tried to convince the members of the parliament, that Tyzenhauz alone was responsible for these crimes. Subsequent to this first one, instructions (1782, 1786, 1788, and 1790) contain reform proposals. The Treasury Commission described practical problems and possible solutions, suggested changes to tax structures, issued new legal regulations, and reorganized rules of operation in the institution.
* Publikacja powstała w ramach stażu naukowego sfinansowanego w drodze konkursu ze środków statutowych Wydziału Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Dominial Jurisdiction in the Demesne of the Cistercian Monastery in Koprzywnica until 1819: Selected Issues
Dominial jurisdiction in the demesne of the Cistercian Monastery in Koprzywnica underwent a long and complicated evolution from the foundation of the abbey in 1185 to its dissolution in 1819. For over 6 centuries this monastery owned the town of Koprzywnica all the time, and the towns of Jasło and Frysztak temporarily and almost 60 villages and their parts in different periods. Privileges and judicial immunities granted by the ruling monarchs (in 1262, 1267, 1284, 1308, 1360 and later) were of a fundamental importance for development of the dominial jurisdiction of the abbot of Koprzywnica. A kind of exception in the organization of the dominial jurisdiction was the self-governmental structure in the town of Koprzywnica located under German Law (Magdeburg Law) under the privilege of the Duke Bolesław V the Chaste in 1267. However, the abbot did not like the independent judicial position of the head of the commune in Koprzywnica and village representatives in the monastery villages. The head of the commune and village representatives were often confidants for inhabitants’ matters, from where they came from rather than interests of the abbot or the monastery. These circumstances were, among others, the reason that at the turn of the 14th and the 15th centuries the monastery authorities brought to annihilation of self-governmental jurisdiction in their demesne and introduced judges-clerks completely controlled by them. It was the institution of a judicial head of a commune. The abbot’s subjects were not pleased with such a solution. They complained about the judicial activity of the abbot and his clerks even to the king himself. Most often ineffectively. In principle, this state of affairs lasted until the judicial reforms at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. At that time the Austrian state authorities and the authorities of the Duchy of Warsaw, following the movement of the Enlightenment, allowed to replace the dominial jurisdiction of the abbot and his clerks with the independent state courts (and judges). Yet, the transformation process of this dominial jurisdiction into the common one was not completed because the monastery in Koprzywnica was dissolved by the Russian authorities in 1819.
The Bernese Civil Code (1824–1830) and Its Impact on Socio-Political Development*
The objective of this paper is to present the dynamics of events and dependencies, which resulted in the enactment of the Bernese Civil Code, as well as the importance and consequences of this work in the development of civil law and civil society in the canton of Bern. The paper addresses the issues concerning the question as to whether it is possible for an act of civil law to become a source of rules which, not finding sufficient protection in the existing constitutional system, cause changes in the latter. Did the codification of private law and the act of providing the ideas of freedom and equality with statutory protection result in the fall of the governance existing in Bern in the first half of the 19th century? Or was it perhaps the result of the accumulation of internal and external circumstances, leading to a formal sanctioning of systemic changes which had already occurred? The process of codification and systemic change in Bern constitutes an excellent example of the interdependence between private and publiclegal legislation and the fact that constitutional law does not always have to be the primary source of state protection covering basic social values.
*Artykuł powstał w ramach realizacji projektu Narodowego Centrum Nauki pt. „Szwajcarski kodeks cywilny z 10 grudnia 1907 roku – cele i metody”, nr UMO-2017/26/D/HS5/00625.
Polish Acts of 1920 and 1921 on Combating Offences by Public Officials
In 1920–1921, the Polish Legislative Sejm issued two legal acts the purpose of which was to facilitate the fight against offences committed by officials of the public administration. Offences committed in connection with a tenure in order to gain profit were punishable by death by firing squad. Moreover, the acts further placed criminal liability on persons guilty of bribing a public official, or of complicity in offences committed by the officials. The introduction of the act of 1920 aroused great controversy, which was particularly visible during the parliamentary debate on its draft. The other act, initially conceived as an amendment to the first one, repeated its regulations to a large extent. The enactment of these strict provisions during the difficult time of establishing the structures of the newly independent state and the military campaign to secure the country’s borders was one way of resolving one of its current problems. The acts, temporary in character from the very beginning, were in effect for just over two years. However, despite the short period of validity, they left a considerable legacy in the form of numerous judicial decisions of the Supreme Court. This article is an attempt to view the acts from the perspective both of the principles which guided their creators and of the judicial practice itself. Therefore, along with the particular version of the draft bills and the reports from the parliamentary sessions, the analysis covers the ample jurisdictional output. This approach makes it possible to reconstruct the basic legal issues which arose in the context of application of the law and to draw conclusions in reference to the pronounced penalties. Furthermore, the analysis allows – within the scope enabled by the accessible sources – for demonstrating the extent to which the legislative assumptions were put into practice.
* Praca naukowa finansowana ze środków budżetowych na naukę w latach 2016/2020, jako projekt badawczy
The Case of Lviv Municipal Government in the Supreme Administrative Tribunal in 1929
This article is devoted to the issue of the dissolution of the Lviv City Council and the matter considered by the Supreme Administrative Tribunal in 1929. On August 31st, 1927, the Lviv voivode dissolved the Provisional City Council, transferring power over the city to the executive body and a 32-person Adjutant Council. The decision to dissolve the Provisional City Council was widely discussed in political circles, where its legality was questioned. In this regard, the councilors of the Provisional City Council decided to lodge a complaint to the Supreme Administrative Tribunal, which considered the case two years later, in 1929. The representatives of the dissolved Provisional City Council presented a number of arguments, pointing out errors in the voivode’s decision and defective supervisory proceedings. Proxies of the dissolved Provisional City Council requested the annulment of the voivode’s decision. The verdict in the case was issued on November 28th, 1929 and concerned the formal shortcomings of the dissolution of the Provisional City Council. It was demonstrated that its content did not include information on available remedies, in breach of the rules of administrative procedure. The judgment had specific legal and political effects, while the whole case illustrates the attitude of the supervisory authority to the local government.
Limits of the Powers of the Forced Management in Galicia on the Example of an Employee Dispute in the Ordynacja Przeworsk (1933)
The article presents the matter of an employee dispute between the former head of the agricultural directorate of the Ordynacja (landed property in fideicommis) in Przeworsk (Polish Galicia), Stanisław Trzeciak, and the property management, which was under the control of the Lubomirski family. In 1933, the director was dismissed from his position, which was justified by his offensive behavior towards the compulsory administrator appointed on the estate. In the face of this, the employee obtained a legal opinion signed by the leading civilians of that time – (prof. Jagiellonian University, Stanisław Gołąb, and dr. Zygmunt Wusatowski), in which the illegality of immediate termination of the employment contract was proved on the basis of applicable regulations (both Austrian and Polish), case law and the guidelines of doctrine. Then S. Trzeciak sent a letter to the owner of Ordynacja Przeworsk, Andrzej Lubomirski with a detailed description of the case and his claims. This case of interwar employee relations is even more interesting, because they occurred in the specific conditions of fideicommis, which had an impact on the course and end of the dispute.
* Niniejsza publikacja została przygotowana w ramach projektu „Fideikomisy familijne w Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej w świetle orzecznictwa sądów cywilnych. Dzieje funkcjonowania feudalnej instytucji prawnej w obrocie prawnym państwa nowoczesnego” finansowanego ze środków grantu NCN 2017/27/B/HS5/02679 realizowanego w ramach Konkursu OPUS 14.
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy Nr 285/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 30 maja 2019 r. z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”. The journal was subsidized by Ministry of Science and Higher Education, agreement No. 285/WCN/2019/1 of 30. May 2019, programme „Support for Scientific Journals”.
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji. The publication has been sponsored by Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
The Decisiones Lituanicae of Piotr Rojzjusz –an Example of the Renaissance Source of Knowledge Concerning the Application of Roman law Before the Court of Assessors in Vilnius. Problems in Research and Translation
The objective of the paper is to present the current state of research on the silhouette and activity of Pedro Ruiz de Moros (Roysius), as well as on his work Decisiones Lituanicae, and put forward research postulates. The author presented in particular the results of research conducted by Tomasz Fijałkowski and Andrzej Kremer, and proposed directions in which these studies should be supplemented. One of the postulates is to take a closer look at Roysius as a Renaissance expert in Roman law. Another postulate is to conduct in-depth research into elements of Roman law in Decisiones, and then determine the influence of this work on judicial practice. Another area of research is the activity of Roysius in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in particular his role in the work on the Second Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the development of the Statutes of the Samogitian chapter. Next, the postulate of publishing Decisiones’ translation into Polish was presented, and difficulties and doubts related to the translation were indicated.
Constitutions of Selected European Free Cities 1806–1954. Source Texts
Recently, two monographs have been published that are directly related to the research topic. The purpose of their writing was to supplement the existing Polish and European literature concerning the political history and organization of those European Free Cities which significantly influenced the development of the political and socio-economic relations of the continent over 150 years of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Closer attention to the above-mentioned subject has become urgent, especially due to the lack of relevant studies in European literature, which has been examined only fragmentarily. The emergence of free cities, sometimes also referred to as “countries”in Europe, was, of course, with the exception of Germany, mainly the effect of inter-empire or inter-state cooperation in order to prevent political and national conflicts by establishing a new European order to prevent such conflicts in the future (such as at the Vienna Congress, and Versailles and Potsdam). As it turned out, the adopted decisions were temporary, and their durations lasted from several to several dozen years. Each of them promulgated their own constitution at that time, the texts of which will be published in a separate publication.
Court Case Files and Court Judgments from the Second Republic of Poland as a Historical Source: Key Archival and Methodological Issues in an Example of Research on Family fideicommissa
The article is the result of archival research, executed under the leadership of Prof. Zbigniew Naworski within the framework of an academic project financed by the National Science Centre (the OPUS 14 program). The author tries to show basic rules and problems associated with research on civil court case files in Polish archives from the interwar period. The starting points for his considerations are the history of Polish archival law on the criteria for the assessment of the archival value of court files, and the consequences of adopting them into practice. Besides that, he tries to emphasize how essential the archival finding aids are for this type of research, as well as how their absence is a key issue to the effectiveness of archival research. Those are crucial factors, especially when a legal historian needs to work on numerous, diffused, and not always organized archival collections. Unfortunately, this is an issue with interwar court case files. The author suggests how the archival staff might improve the shaping of the archival inventories on court case files, to make them more accessible and easier to work with. He also tries to demonstrate the advantages of creating other archival aids on this type of source material –especially archival descriptive inventories and indexes which are very helpful for preliminary research. In the end, the author shares his experiences of his attempts to reconstruct or regain lost court case files using other archival collections of sources of interwar family archives or barristers files.
*Artykuł został przygotowany w toku realizacji projektu badawczego finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki w programie OPUS 14 (nr 2017/27/B/HS5/02679) zatytułowanego Fideikomisy familijne w Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej w świetle orzecznictwa sądów cywilnych. Dzieje funkcjonowania feudalnej instytucji prawnej w obrocie prawnym państwa nowoczesnego. Tekst ma charakter historycznoprawny, wykorzystuje jednak i silnie nawiązuje do terminologii i metod badawczych archiwistyki. W konsekwencji w dalszym toku wywodu będęużywałw skrótowej formie standardowych skrótów używanych w nauce i praktyce archiwalnej.
Files of Polish Regional Courts as Sources for Research on Selected Examples of Post-war (1945–1950) Crime
The study of post-war crime is becoming more and more popular among Polish researchers. The basic source for conducting this kind of research is criminal files, primarily those of the regional courts operating in the years 1945–1950. The author calls attention to both statutory and actual restrictions on access to source materials. He also notes how using other, non-official sources or witness accounts in this type of research will not always be appropriate. He postulates that research on post-war crime in Poland should be designed primarily as research on crime in the juridical sense. The author also indicates that research on post-war crime has many points in common with the so-called historical criminology.
The Penalization of the Participants of the March 1968 Events by Criminal-Administrative Colleges
In March 1968, in the streets of Warsaw, Polish students protested against the communist authorities’ restriction of freedom of cultural and artistic activity. Demonstrations taking place during the so-called March events were brutally pacified by the militia, and participants in the events were charged with breach of the peace. When considering cases of their offenses, the penal-administrative colleges imposed severe basic arrest penalties and high fines, which were usually immediately convertible into alternative arrest. The penalties isolating the offender from society were imposed in an accelerated procedure without any guarantee of defence of the rights of the accused. This practice of the colleges’ severe punishment of participants in social protests, which was initiated during the March events of 1968, would be repeated during successive political crises of the 1970s and 1980s.
On the Need to Supplement the “Akta zjazdów stanów Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego”: The Edition of Documents Concerning the Lithuanian Convocation
The article is the edition of two sources supplementing the publication series “Akta zjazdów stanów Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego” [Records of Conventions of the Estates of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania] edited by Henryk Lulewicz. Both documents refer to the Lithuanian Convocation of 1615. One of them is “Punkta postanowiene na Convocatiey” [Resolutions Adopted at the Convocation] (Vilnius, 5 VI 1615), prepared for the deputies who were to present the resolutions of the general convocation to Sigismund III Vasa. The other one is the king’s response to the resolutions and the above-mentioned decisions of the Lithuanian Convocation. In the introduction to the published materials I stress the significance of the ruler’s response to the resolutions of the estates of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. With few exceptions, the approval of the monarch was necessary to make tax resolutions and legal standards valid law. Therefore, the final process of the legislative procedure of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania needs to be taken into consideration in the context of historical and legal research.
* Edycja źródłowa powstała w ramach projektu badawczego Narodowego Centrum Nauki SONATA, nr 2016/23/D/HS3/03210 pt. „Rewolucja militarna jako czynnik modernizacyjny skarbowości i organizacji państwa polsko-litewskiego na tle europejskim”.
Concerning Methods for the Use of Sources in the Work of a Legal Historian and Critical Editions of Those Sources, on the 90th Birthday of Prof. Stanisław Grodziski. The “Sources connect us” Academic Conference (Kraków, September 19, 2019)
On the 19th of September 2019, the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University organised an academic conference entitled “Łącząnas źródła”[“Sources connect us”]. The symposium was combined with the celebrations of the 90th birthday of Prof. Stanisław Grodziski, an outstanding legal historian, author of around 500 publications, and former Dean of the Faculty (1978–1981) and Vice-Rector of the University (1987–1990), who also has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wrocław. One of the significant areas of Prof. Grodziski’s academic activity is in the editing of legal history sources. The subject of the conference was therefore a great occasion to focus on Prof. Grodziski’s achievements in this field of study. In the jubilee part of the conference, presided over by Vice-Rector for University Development, Prof. Dorota Malec, speeches were given by Prof. Wojciech Nowak, Rector of the Jagiellonian University, and by Prof. Jerzy Pisuliński, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Administration. The laudation for Prof. Grodziski was delivered by Prof. Wacław Uruszczak. The subsequent part of the conference consisted of 15 papers, divided into three sessions, presented by scholars affiliated with various academic centres. The presentations concerned current or planned editing works regarding legal history sources. Moreover, various methods of applying these sources to academic research and educational activities at the university, as well as to judicial decisions, were discussed. To conclude the conference, Dr. Hab. Maciej Mikuła presented the basic assumptions of the novel project concerning the electronic meta-edition of legal history sources “IURA. Sources of Laws from the Past”.
Symposium „I take You to be my wife / husband...? What do nupturients mean today?”, Krakow, 15th November 2018
The symposium „I take You to be my wife / husband...? What do the nupturients mean today?”was held on November 15, 2018. It was organized by the Faculty of Canon Law of the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków. The main topic of the conference was the meaning of matrimonial consent. During two sessions there were five lectures delivered. The lectures in the first session concerned the faith of the nupturients as the element of matrimonial consent, verifying it nupturients do not exclude indissolubility of marriage, and the question as to whether a marriage motivated by pregnancy always incurs manifest nullity within the meaning of the Apostolic Letter Motu Proprio of Supreme Pontiff Francis Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus. The last two lectures discussed marriages contracted for other than specifically religious reasons (e.g. economical), and pre-nuptial agreements –especially their influence on the validity of matrimonial consent.
On the Need to Supplement the “Akta zjazdów stanów Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego”: The Edition of Documents Concerning the Lithuanian Convocation
The article is the edition of two sources supplementing the publication series “Akta zjazdów stanów Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego” [Records of Conventions of the Estates of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania] edited by Henryk Lulewicz. Both documents refer to the Lithuanian Convocation of 1615. One of them is “Punkta postanowiene na Convocatiey” [Resolutions Adopted at the Convocation] (Vilnius, 5 VI 1615), prepared for the deputies who were to present the resolutions of the general convocation to Sigismund III Vasa. The other one is the king’s response to the resolutions and the above-mentioned decisions of the Lithuanian Convocation. In the introduction to the published materials I stress the significance of the ruler’s response to the resolutions of the estates of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. With few exceptions, the approval of the monarch was necessary to make tax resolutions and legal standards valid law. Therefore, the final process of the legislative procedure of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania needs to be taken into consideration in the context of historical and legal research.
* Edycja źródłowa powstała w ramach projektu badawczego Narodowego Centrum Nauki SONATA, nr 2016/23/D/HS3/03210 pt. „Rewolucja militarna jako czynnik modernizacyjny skarbowości i organizacji państwa polsko-litewskiego na tle europejskim”.
Concerning Methods for the Use of Sources in the Work of a Legal Historian and Critical Editions of Those Sources, on the 90th Birthday of Prof. Stanisław Grodziski. The “Sources connect us” Academic Conference (Kraków, September 19, 2019)
On the 19th of September 2019, the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University organised an academic conference entitled “Łącząnas źródła”[“Sources connect us”]. The symposium was combined with the celebrations of the 90th birthday of Prof. Stanisław Grodziski, an outstanding legal historian, author of around 500 publications, and former Dean of the Faculty (1978–1981) and Vice-Rector of the University (1987–1990), who also has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wrocław. One of the significant areas of Prof. Grodziski’s academic activity is in the editing of legal history sources. The subject of the conference was therefore a great occasion to focus on Prof. Grodziski’s achievements in this field of study. In the jubilee part of the conference, presided over by Vice-Rector for University Development, Prof. Dorota Malec, speeches were given by Prof. Wojciech Nowak, Rector of the Jagiellonian University, and by Prof. Jerzy Pisuliński, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Administration. The laudation for Prof. Grodziski was delivered by Prof. Wacław Uruszczak. The subsequent part of the conference consisted of 15 papers, divided into three sessions, presented by scholars affiliated with various academic centres. The presentations concerned current or planned editing works regarding legal history sources. Moreover, various methods of applying these sources to academic research and educational activities at the university, as well as to judicial decisions, were discussed. To conclude the conference, Dr. Hab. Maciej Mikuła presented the basic assumptions of the novel project concerning the electronic meta-edition of legal history sources “IURA. Sources of Laws from the Past”.
Symposium „I take You to be my wife / husband...? What do nupturients mean today?”, Krakow, 15th November 2018
The symposium „I take You to be my wife / husband...? What do the nupturients mean today?”was held on November 15, 2018. It was organized by the Faculty of Canon Law of the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków. The main topic of the conference was the meaning of matrimonial consent. During two sessions there were five lectures delivered. The lectures in the first session concerned the faith of the nupturients as the element of matrimonial consent, verifying it nupturients do not exclude indissolubility of marriage, and the question as to whether a marriage motivated by pregnancy always incurs manifest nullity within the meaning of the Apostolic Letter Motu Proprio of Supreme Pontiff Francis Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus. The last two lectures discussed marriages contracted for other than specifically religious reasons (e.g. economical), and pre-nuptial agreements –especially their influence on the validity of matrimonial consent.
The Decisiones Lituanicae of Piotr Rojzjusz –an Example of the Renaissance Source of Knowledge Concerning the Application of Roman law Before the Court of Assessors in Vilnius. Problems in Research and Translation
The objective of the paper is to present the current state of research on the silhouette and activity of Pedro Ruiz de Moros (Roysius), as well as on his work Decisiones Lituanicae, and put forward research postulates. The author presented in particular the results of research conducted by Tomasz Fijałkowski and Andrzej Kremer, and proposed directions in which these studies should be supplemented. One of the postulates is to take a closer look at Roysius as a Renaissance expert in Roman law. Another postulate is to conduct in-depth research into elements of Roman law in Decisiones, and then determine the influence of this work on judicial practice. Another area of research is the activity of Roysius in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in particular his role in the work on the Second Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the development of the Statutes of the Samogitian chapter. Next, the postulate of publishing Decisiones’ translation into Polish was presented, and difficulties and doubts related to the translation were indicated.
Constitutions of Selected European Free Cities 1806–1954. Source Texts
Recently, two monographs have been published that are directly related to the research topic. The purpose of their writing was to supplement the existing Polish and European literature concerning the political history and organization of those European Free Cities which significantly influenced the development of the political and socio-economic relations of the continent over 150 years of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Closer attention to the above-mentioned subject has become urgent, especially due to the lack of relevant studies in European literature, which has been examined only fragmentarily. The emergence of free cities, sometimes also referred to as “countries”in Europe, was, of course, with the exception of Germany, mainly the effect of inter-empire or inter-state cooperation in order to prevent political and national conflicts by establishing a new European order to prevent such conflicts in the future (such as at the Vienna Congress, and Versailles and Potsdam). As it turned out, the adopted decisions were temporary, and their durations lasted from several to several dozen years. Each of them promulgated their own constitution at that time, the texts of which will be published in a separate publication.
Court Case Files and Court Judgments from the Second Republic of Poland as a Historical Source: Key Archival and Methodological Issues in an Example of Research on Family fideicommissa
The article is the result of archival research, executed under the leadership of Prof. Zbigniew Naworski within the framework of an academic project financed by the National Science Centre (the OPUS 14 program). The author tries to show basic rules and problems associated with research on civil court case files in Polish archives from the interwar period. The starting points for his considerations are the history of Polish archival law on the criteria for the assessment of the archival value of court files, and the consequences of adopting them into practice. Besides that, he tries to emphasize how essential the archival finding aids are for this type of research, as well as how their absence is a key issue to the effectiveness of archival research. Those are crucial factors, especially when a legal historian needs to work on numerous, diffused, and not always organized archival collections. Unfortunately, this is an issue with interwar court case files. The author suggests how the archival staff might improve the shaping of the archival inventories on court case files, to make them more accessible and easier to work with. He also tries to demonstrate the advantages of creating other archival aids on this type of source material –especially archival descriptive inventories and indexes which are very helpful for preliminary research. In the end, the author shares his experiences of his attempts to reconstruct or regain lost court case files using other archival collections of sources of interwar family archives or barristers files.
*Artykuł został przygotowany w toku realizacji projektu badawczego finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki w programie OPUS 14 (nr 2017/27/B/HS5/02679) zatytułowanego Fideikomisy familijne w Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej w świetle orzecznictwa sądów cywilnych. Dzieje funkcjonowania feudalnej instytucji prawnej w obrocie prawnym państwa nowoczesnego. Tekst ma charakter historycznoprawny, wykorzystuje jednak i silnie nawiązuje do terminologii i metod badawczych archiwistyki. W konsekwencji w dalszym toku wywodu będęużywałw skrótowej formie standardowych skrótów używanych w nauce i praktyce archiwalnej.
Files of Polish Regional Courts as Sources for Research on Selected Examples of Post-war (1945–1950) Crime
The study of post-war crime is becoming more and more popular among Polish researchers. The basic source for conducting this kind of research is criminal files, primarily those of the regional courts operating in the years 1945–1950. The author calls attention to both statutory and actual restrictions on access to source materials. He also notes how using other, non-official sources or witness accounts in this type of research will not always be appropriate. He postulates that research on post-war crime in Poland should be designed primarily as research on crime in the juridical sense. The author also indicates that research on post-war crime has many points in common with the so-called historical criminology.
The Penalization of the Participants of the March 1968 Events by Criminal-Administrative Colleges
In March 1968, in the streets of Warsaw, Polish students protested against the communist authorities’ restriction of freedom of cultural and artistic activity. Demonstrations taking place during the so-called March events were brutally pacified by the militia, and participants in the events were charged with breach of the peace. When considering cases of their offenses, the penal-administrative colleges imposed severe basic arrest penalties and high fines, which were usually immediately convertible into alternative arrest. The penalties isolating the offender from society were imposed in an accelerated procedure without any guarantee of defence of the rights of the accused. This practice of the colleges’ severe punishment of participants in social protests, which was initiated during the March events of 1968, would be repeated during successive political crises of the 1970s and 1980s.
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy Nr 285/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 30 maja 2019 r. z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”. The journal was subsidized by Ministry of Science and Higher Education, agreement No. 285/WCN/2019/1 of 30. May 2019, programme „Support for Scientific Journals”.
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji, przez CAN-PACK S.A. oraz przez Uniwersytet Gdańsk. The publication has been sponsored by Jagiellonian University in Krakow by CAN-PACK S.A., and by University of Gdańsk.
Iura Masoviae Terrestria: Concerning the Work Itself, and Some Perspectives on Its Continuation
The present paper focuses on Iura Masoviae Terrestria – an unfinished collection of sources for Masovian law. Work on the volume started back in the latter half of the 20th century. Back in 1956, Professor Jakub Sawicki obtained financial support from the Polish Academy of Sciences [PAN] to produce the publication. These funds allowed him to assemble a project team and begin research in the archives. The main goal of the project was to publish all general individual public acts of Masovian law from a period beginning in the 13th century through 1577, i.e. up to the introduction of Polish law in the former Duchy of Masovia. Despite an advanced level of preparation, financial support for the project was withheld in 1958, and progress on its preparation was stopped for a decade. Work was resumed in 1969 with plans for publishing the sources of Masovian law in five volumes, the last with indexes and translation into Polish of the most important Latin acts of the Masovian law. Finally, the first three volumes were published in 1972–1974. Due to health problems and ultimately the passing of Prof. Sawicki, the fourth volume, containing the acts from the 1541–1577 period was never published. Materials for its completion are preserved in Prof. Sawicki’s papers in PAN archives. They are to a great extent ready for publishing, although some additional research seems inevitable. The current paper presents perspectives for completing the fourth volume, as well as for possible continuation of the completion of Iura Masoviae Terrestria.
The Lithuanian Convocation of 1615. Research on the Procedure for Adopting Convocation Resolutions
The article presents the circumstances of the convening of the Lithuanian convocation of 1615, along with the course of the event and the resolutions it considered, with special consideration of the procedure for enacting law in this form of parliamentary assembly. Before the convocation could be convened, deputies had to be elected at pre-convocation sejmiks. Then, the deputies and the senators had to assemble at the time and place specified in the royal legacja. The sessions of the 1615 convocation lasted from May 21st to June 5th and took place in two chambers. There were at least 6 senators and more than 50 deputies. The resolutions passed during the convocation can be divided into 31 issues. They were recorded, and messengers were appointed at the convocation to carry their contents to the king. It was only after the monarch expressed his consent that the tax resolutions and legal standards became the applicable law. Sigismund III rejected three resolutions, modified two, and approved eighteen. The article presents in detail the output of the convocation, both in terms of passing tax laws and enacting other entirely new laws.
* Artykuł powstał w ramach projektu badawczego Narodowego Centrum Nauki SONATA, nr 2016/23/D/HS3/03210 pt. „Rewolucja militarna jako czynnik modernizacyjny skarbowości i organizacji państwa polsko-litewskiego na tle europejskim”.
The aim of this article is to present the status of the Free City of Kraków in the policies of its neighbouring states, i.e. Austria, Prussia, and Russia, in regards to regional security (in areas of Central and Eastern Europe under the legal or real sovereignty of these powers). The main objective of the regional policy conducted by these powers was to protect the status quo and maintain the ancien régime in their respective states, along with upholding security and public order in the region. The article draws attention to the main ideas underlying the cooperation of these counties in this respect, and identifies the conventions and secret agreements that had direct impact on the creation, functioning, and dismantling of the Republic of Kraków. It further discusses the roles of the representatives of the protecting powers in Kraków, and their influence on the activity and reorganization of the city’s administration, police, militia, and judiciary. It offers examples that illustrate the consequences that the inhabitants of the Free City of Kraków suffered due to the legal and factual dependence of the state on the policies of the partitioning powers.
How to Make the Impossible Possible? Reflections on the Unification [see below] of Inheritance Law in 19th Century Switzerland
This article is devoted to the issues around unification of inheritance law in Switzerland in the 19th century. Its objective is to demonstrate the problems confronting the Swiss legislature, the strategy adopted, and methods implemented for taking action in the face of having to reconcile diverse traditions, customs, and expectations under a single act. Eugen Huber, the main architect of the codification, strove to achieve a compromise that would allow the creation of a unified legal system based on the erstwhile legislative thought and technique, without having to forsake everything previously tried and trusted by this very diverse nation, grouped in small communities. He did so by pursuing the idea of universalization of testamentary succession, which had been marginalized in Swiss tradition since medieval times. The cantonal and common inheritance law which obtained till the time of codification was a mosaic of various laws, both with reference to the methods and the purposes of regulations. In this situation unification of the law through broadly understood self-regulating mechanisms of the market was probably the best choice. Implementing the institution of testamentary inheritance into the general legal system resulted in a situation whereby the society could, on the basis of common rules of conduct, independently determine its material situation in the event of a death, while remaining faithful to prevailing traditions and values. Unification through the introduction of common methods of conduct, and not through imposition of common principles and values, allowed the Swiss to harmonize apparently contradictory ideals of social cohesion and individualism, as well as to harmonize state interventionism with the right to self-determination.
* Artykuł powstał w ramach realizacji projektu „Szwajcarski kodeks cywilny z 10 grudnia 1907 roku – cele i metody” nr 2017/26/D/HS5/00625, finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki.
The paper examines the process of the unification of substantive and procedural criminal law in the Yugoslav state during the interwar period. Despite its unitary and centralistic administrative organization, the Yugoslav state at the time was characterized by legal particularism. Among the territories that encompassed the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes there were substantially different legal systems, and hence, considerably diverse sources of law, since they had been parts of different political and territorial units prior to the unification. After the unification, there were six criminal codes and equally as many codes of criminal procedure in force in the territory of the Kingdom. Reformation and unification of substantive and procedural criminal law became an inevitable task, which was regarded as being urgent because achieving the standardization of the legal system was considered as a step forward, which would facilitate and solidify the unity and the proclaimed centralism that the state sought. Despite the initial efforts towards unification of criminal law that were begun by the beginning of 1919, the process was nevertheless turbulent, slow-going, and inefficient. Such circumstances were deeply conditioned by the permanent political instability, which emerged from continuous changes in the person of the Minister of Justice that always occurred in very short periods. The unification of criminal law was finally achieved only after the proclamation of the Dictatorship in 1929.
Crimes Constituting Relics of Local Customs in Soviet Codes
The object of the study presented in Prof. Katarzyna Laskowska’s paper is crimes that constitute relics of local customs, which are regulated in three Soviet codes. Interest in those crimes was due to the fact that acts associated with clan lifestyles of some nations of the USSR were considered to be offenses. Consequently, the research problem was formulated by the following question: “How did the state fight against traditions and customs of some of the nations inhabiting the Soviet Union?” The research hypothesis, in turn, was formulated by the following assumption: “The state fought against traditions and customs of some of the nations inhabiting the Soviet Union by criminalizing them in penal codes.” The source materials used were mostly the penal codes of the RSFSR of 1922, 1926, and 1960, as well as the legal and criminological literature from those periods. Their analysis enabled the researcher to reach the conclusion that Soviet authorities fought against crimes that constituted relics of local customs by use of criminal law in an instrumental manner in order to implement the ideology of the new political system and the authorities.
Matrimonial Law in Works of the Civil Reform Committee (1814–1815). Historical Source Edition
We present three source texts. The first are the writings of father Dhiel, General Superintendent of the Reformed Evangelical Congregations, which dealt with matrimonial laws and divorces. Next is the draft act by A. Bieńkowski concerning property contracts between spouses, and the last are fragments of Civil Reform Committee session minutes regarding these writings. The author of the first text covered three issues of fundamental significance to the Protestants, those being: obstacles to contracting marriage, premises for divorce, and the problems of jurisdiction in divorce cases. The author of the published draft act, in turn, postulated the reinstatement of the separation of assets, which had functioned previously under ius terrestre as the statutory property regime in marriage. This solution was in direct opposition to the one introduced in the Napoleonic Code. The draft act was much shorter than the chapter of the Napoleonic Code that it was to replace: 34 articles as compared to 195. In many aspects it could be deemed fragmentary, written from the perspective of the landed gentry, and omitting many problems that concerned other social strata.
*Niniejsza publikacja została przygotowana w ramach projektu „Kodyfikacja narodowa – fantazmat czy realna alternatywa? W kręgu debat nad rodzimym systemem prawa sądowego w konstytucyjnym Królestwie Polskim” finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki na podstawie umowy nr UMO-2015/18/E/HS5/00762.
A Review of Józef Koredczuk’s Book, Entitled The Inheritance of Real Estate in Light of the Case-law of the Lviv Appellate Circuit Courts in the Second Polish Republic, The E-Wydawnictwo. Prawnicza i Ekonomiczna Biblioteka Cyfrowa. Wydział Prawa, Administracji i Ekonomii Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, Wrocław 2019, 289 p.; ISBN 978-83-66066-57-1 (druk) i ISBN 978-83-66066-58-8 (online)
The reviewed book by Dr. Jozef Koredczuk entitled The inheritance of real estate in light of the caselaw of the Lviv Appellate Circuit courts in the Second Polish Republic is a monograph. It is a pioneer elaboration in the history of Polish law. The theme of the book focuses on cases regulated primarily by the Austrian Civil Code (ABGB) of 1811. This Code was binding in the Polish territory of the so-called Galicia (today, the Malopolska region) for almost 135 years, from 1812 until the end of 1946. The author narrows his research down to the jurisdiction of the Lvi’v appellate courts between 1918 and 1939. The author does not go directly to court records, but to previously published judicial decisions and their justifications. The researcher’s subject of interest is the inheritance of real estate, and thus leaving inheritance of chattels and rights behind.
The Review of Michał Klimecki’s book Sovietisation of Poland in 1920. The Polish Provisional Revolutionary Committee, as well as its Institutions, in the Summer and Autumn, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń 2016, 339 p.
The events of the year 1920 were a unique breakthrough in Polish history, yet now are largely forgotten. The war between the Republic of Poland and the Russian Bolsheviks was, after all, a threat to all of Europe. In Białystok the rulers of red Russia organized their own administration known as the Polish Provisional Revolutionary Committee to govern conquered parts of Polish territory. This body was ultimately going to have transformed itself into the government of a Polish Soviet Republic. This process, as well as the building of the Polish Red Army, is described in the reviewed book. Dr. Klimecki’s work also recounts the social background of Polish collaborators of Polish and Jewish origin from soldiers of the Red Army to Polish members of the Communist Party. Fortunately, Polish forces stopped the Bolsheviks at the battle of Warsaw, after which Poland enjoyed twenty years of independence. The reviewed book is an exceptional example of diligent academic work which also describes a now halfforgotten event in the war of 1920.
Review: S. Salmonowicz, Polnische Preussen oder Westpreussen. Ausgewählte Studien, Instytut Kaszubski: Gdańsk 2018, 159 p.
In 2018, Prof. Stanisław Salmonowicz, published his latest book entitled Polish Prussia or West Prussia. Selected Studies (Kashubian Institute in Gdańsk). It consists of the author’s biography and eight texts published in the last 30 years. The key binding individual works together is the subject of Prussia, in which Prof. Salmonowicz specializes and is an undisputed academic authority. They raise the issue of relations between Royal Prussia and the Crown, the role of Königsberg in the era of Enlightenment, the functioning of the Academic Schools in Prussia and their importance for the identity of its inhabitants, the language in everyday life of early modern Toruń, the culture of Pomerania, and the image of Poland as seen through the eyes of Georg Forster. Assembling these broad elements into a single publication provides a major asset for researchers dealing with Prussian issues in general, and more broadly, with modern history.
Legal-historical Remarks Concerning the Book: Mobilia. Inwentarze mienia ruchomego mieszczan krakowskich do schyłku XV wieku. [Mobilia. Inventories of the Chattels of Cracow Burghers up to the End of the 15th Century], ed. Marcin Starzyński, Towarzystwo Miłośników Historii i Zabytków Krakowa, Kraków 2017, XXXII + 155 p. (Fontes Cracovienses, 13)
The reviewed book includes 182 medieval inventories of the chattels of Cracow burghers. It is doubtless a very valuable source for research in the area of the history of personal belongings. The objective of the short report is to show the value of such a source for legal-historical research. The book takes into consideration phenomena in the areas of inheritance and marriage law. But the main part of the review is the analysis of information found in the works of lawyers, which is especially worthwhile for research on the legal culture of medieval Polish towns.
The Creator of the Militarised Administration of the General Headquarters of the Union of Armed Struggle-Home Army. Stanisław Salmonowicz’s book Ludwik Muzyczka „Benedykt” (1900–1977). Materiały historyczne do dziejów Komendy Głównej Armii Krajowej [Ludwik Muzyczka “Benedykt” (1900–1977). The Historical Materials Concerning the General Headquarters of the Home Army], Institute of National Remembrance. Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, Warsaw 1918, 320 p.
Subsequent to his 1992 publication, Professor Stanisław Salmonowicz’s new book is his most recent foray into the presentation of the life of Ludwik Muzyczka. The book acquaints the reader with Muzyczka’s life events, showing the wide range of his activities, from his participation in the Polish Legions during the struggle for Poland’s independence, to his later service in the Polish Armed Forces, fighting to shape the borders of the revived Polish state, to his commitment to social and political issues in the Second Polish Republic, as well as his involvement in various conspiracies during the Second World War and in the Polish People’s Republic, to the final stage of restoring the remembrance of the heroes of the Polish Home Army. The most significant period of Muzyczka’s activity was during the Second World War. The experience he gained working in public administration offices of interwar Poland, including his tenure as starosta – the chief administrative officer of the powiat administrative unit, proved useful in the creation of the administrative structures of the Polish Secret State. Beyond doubt, his greatest achievement in that field was the large-scale enterprise of the organisation and management of Szefostwo Biur Wojskowych Komendy Głównej ZWZ-AK [The Command of Military Offices of the General Headquarters of the Union of Armed Struggle-Home Army]. The publication comprises two parts and an annex. Muzyczka’s biography, divided into five chapters, constitutes the first part. The second part contains several studies concerning selected issues related to Muzyczka’s activities. The annex consists of three papers by Stanisław Salmonowicz, i.a. including a list of Muzyczka’s most important texts, and of four source texts. Stanisław Salmonowicz’s book should be considered obligatory reading for those historians who deal with the history of the Polish Underground State and the conspiracy activities after 1945, as well as for historians of administration.
A review of Jacek Przygodzki’s Monograph Commissions for Improving Public Administration in the Second Republic of Poland. A Historical and Legal Study, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, Wrocław 2019, 393 p.
This text is a review of Dr. Jacek Przygodzki’s book, ‘Commissions for Improving Public Administration in the Second Republic of Poland. A Historical and Legal Study’, which was published by the Publishing House of the University of Wrocław in 2019. This work summarises the author’s previous scholarly research in the field of the organization of public administration in interwar Poland. Dr. Przygodzki elaborates the complete history of all five of the commissions for the modernisation of administration, from the time of Poland’s regaining its independence to the completion of the work of the Jaroszyński Committee in 1933. The review discusses the structure of the monograph and research methods used by the author, and draws attention to a rich base of sources and extensive literature on the subject. In the conclusion, it is stated that Dr. Przygodzki’s book is a scholastically reliable work that gives the reader many interesting bits of information about the organization of public administration in the Second Republic of Poland.
The Celebrations of the Jubilee of the Polish Bicameral Parliament in Piotrków Trybunalski (5th–6th October 2018). The Academic Conference “From Piotrków to Warsaw. The 550th Anniversary of the Parliamentarism of the Republic of Poland”
The commemorative ceremony for the 550th anniversary of the establishment of the Polish bicameral parliament in Piotrków Trybunalski was organised by the Marshal of the Sejm, Marek Kuchciński, and the Deputy Marshal of the Senate Maria Koc. As demonstrated by Prof. Wacław Uruszczak, it was in Piotrków, from the 9th to the 31st of October 1468, that the first Polish bicameral Sejm gathered, with the participation of territorial envoys elected by local legislatures (sejmiki). The jubilee celebrations began with a Holy Mass, which was followed by the unveiling of the plaque in the Castle Square commemorating the event of 550 years prior, and the opening of a special exhibition at the Royal Castle in Piotrków. One of the important elements of the celebrations was the academic conference entitled “From Piotrków to Warsaw. The 550th Anniversary of the Parliamentarism of the Republic of Poland”. During the symposium, speeches were given by scholars from several research centres who deal with the history of Polish parliamentary system. The celebrations in Piotrków were part of a series of national events related to the anniversary. Among these, it is worth mentioning the session of the National Assembly (July 13, 2018) and the academic conference entitled “The Sejm of the First Polish Republic – the Parliament of Many Nations and the European State Representations” (April 27, 2018), which both took place at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.
A review of Jacek Przygodzki’s Monograph Commissions for Improving Public Administration in the Second Republic of Poland. A Historical and Legal Study, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, Wrocław 2019, 393 p.
This text is a review of Dr. Jacek Przygodzki’s book, ‘Commissions for Improving Public Administration in the Second Republic of Poland. A Historical and Legal Study’, which was published by the Publishing House of the University of Wrocław in 2019. This work summarises the author’s previous scholarly research in the field of the organization of public administration in interwar Poland. Dr. Przygodzki elaborates the complete history of all five of the commissions for the modernisation of administration, from the time of Poland’s regaining its independence to the completion of the work of the Jaroszyński Committee in 1933. The review discusses the structure of the monograph and research methods used by the author, and draws attention to a rich base of sources and extensive literature on the subject. In the conclusion, it is stated that Dr. Przygodzki’s book is a scholastically reliable work that gives the reader many interesting bits of information about the organization of public administration in the Second Republic of Poland.
The Celebrations of the Jubilee of the Polish Bicameral Parliament in Piotrków Trybunalski (5th–6th October 2018). The Academic Conference “From Piotrków to Warsaw. The 550th Anniversary of the Parliamentarism of the Republic of Poland”
The commemorative ceremony for the 550th anniversary of the establishment of the Polish bicameral parliament in Piotrków Trybunalski was organised by the Marshal of the Sejm, Marek Kuchciński, and the Deputy Marshal of the Senate Maria Koc. As demonstrated by Prof. Wacław Uruszczak, it was in Piotrków, from the 9th to the 31st of October 1468, that the first Polish bicameral Sejm gathered, with the participation of territorial envoys elected by local legislatures (sejmiki). The jubilee celebrations began with a Holy Mass, which was followed by the unveiling of the plaque in the Castle Square commemorating the event of 550 years prior, and the opening of a special exhibition at the Royal Castle in Piotrków. One of the important elements of the celebrations was the academic conference entitled “From Piotrków to Warsaw. The 550th Anniversary of the Parliamentarism of the Republic of Poland”. During the symposium, speeches were given by scholars from several research centres who deal with the history of Polish parliamentary system. The celebrations in Piotrków were part of a series of national events related to the anniversary. Among these, it is worth mentioning the session of the National Assembly (July 13, 2018) and the academic conference entitled “The Sejm of the First Polish Republic – the Parliament of Many Nations and the European State Representations” (April 27, 2018), which both took place at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.
Iura Masoviae Terrestria: Concerning the Work Itself, and Some Perspectives on Its Continuation
The present paper focuses on Iura Masoviae Terrestria – an unfinished collection of sources for Masovian law. Work on the volume started back in the latter half of the 20th century. Back in 1956, Professor Jakub Sawicki obtained financial support from the Polish Academy of Sciences [PAN] to produce the publication. These funds allowed him to assemble a project team and begin research in the archives. The main goal of the project was to publish all general individual public acts of Masovian law from a period beginning in the 13th century through 1577, i.e. up to the introduction of Polish law in the former Duchy of Masovia. Despite an advanced level of preparation, financial support for the project was withheld in 1958, and progress on its preparation was stopped for a decade. Work was resumed in 1969 with plans for publishing the sources of Masovian law in five volumes, the last with indexes and translation into Polish of the most important Latin acts of the Masovian law. Finally, the first three volumes were published in 1972–1974. Due to health problems and ultimately the passing of Prof. Sawicki, the fourth volume, containing the acts from the 1541–1577 period was never published. Materials for its completion are preserved in Prof. Sawicki’s papers in PAN archives. They are to a great extent ready for publishing, although some additional research seems inevitable. The current paper presents perspectives for completing the fourth volume, as well as for possible continuation of the completion of Iura Masoviae Terrestria.
The Lithuanian Convocation of 1615. Research on the Procedure for Adopting Convocation Resolutions
The article presents the circumstances of the convening of the Lithuanian convocation of 1615, along with the course of the event and the resolutions it considered, with special consideration of the procedure for enacting law in this form of parliamentary assembly. Before the convocation could be convened, deputies had to be elected at pre-convocation sejmiks. Then, the deputies and the senators had to assemble at the time and place specified in the royal legacja. The sessions of the 1615 convocation lasted from May 21st to June 5th and took place in two chambers. There were at least 6 senators and more than 50 deputies. The resolutions passed during the convocation can be divided into 31 issues. They were recorded, and messengers were appointed at the convocation to carry their contents to the king. It was only after the monarch expressed his consent that the tax resolutions and legal standards became the applicable law. Sigismund III rejected three resolutions, modified two, and approved eighteen. The article presents in detail the output of the convocation, both in terms of passing tax laws and enacting other entirely new laws.
* Artykuł powstał w ramach projektu badawczego Narodowego Centrum Nauki SONATA, nr 2016/23/D/HS3/03210 pt. „Rewolucja militarna jako czynnik modernizacyjny skarbowości i organizacji państwa polsko-litewskiego na tle europejskim”.
The aim of this article is to present the status of the Free City of Kraków in the policies of its neighbouring states, i.e. Austria, Prussia, and Russia, in regards to regional security (in areas of Central and Eastern Europe under the legal or real sovereignty of these powers). The main objective of the regional policy conducted by these powers was to protect the status quo and maintain the ancien régime in their respective states, along with upholding security and public order in the region. The article draws attention to the main ideas underlying the cooperation of these counties in this respect, and identifies the conventions and secret agreements that had direct impact on the creation, functioning, and dismantling of the Republic of Kraków. It further discusses the roles of the representatives of the protecting powers in Kraków, and their influence on the activity and reorganization of the city’s administration, police, militia, and judiciary. It offers examples that illustrate the consequences that the inhabitants of the Free City of Kraków suffered due to the legal and factual dependence of the state on the policies of the partitioning powers.
How to Make the Impossible Possible? Reflections on the Unification [see below] of Inheritance Law in 19th Century Switzerland
This article is devoted to the issues around unification of inheritance law in Switzerland in the 19th century. Its objective is to demonstrate the problems confronting the Swiss legislature, the strategy adopted, and methods implemented for taking action in the face of having to reconcile diverse traditions, customs, and expectations under a single act. Eugen Huber, the main architect of the codification, strove to achieve a compromise that would allow the creation of a unified legal system based on the erstwhile legislative thought and technique, without having to forsake everything previously tried and trusted by this very diverse nation, grouped in small communities. He did so by pursuing the idea of universalization of testamentary succession, which had been marginalized in Swiss tradition since medieval times. The cantonal and common inheritance law which obtained till the time of codification was a mosaic of various laws, both with reference to the methods and the purposes of regulations. In this situation unification of the law through broadly understood self-regulating mechanisms of the market was probably the best choice. Implementing the institution of testamentary inheritance into the general legal system resulted in a situation whereby the society could, on the basis of common rules of conduct, independently determine its material situation in the event of a death, while remaining faithful to prevailing traditions and values. Unification through the introduction of common methods of conduct, and not through imposition of common principles and values, allowed the Swiss to harmonize apparently contradictory ideals of social cohesion and individualism, as well as to harmonize state interventionism with the right to self-determination.
* Artykuł powstał w ramach realizacji projektu „Szwajcarski kodeks cywilny z 10 grudnia 1907 roku – cele i metody” nr 2017/26/D/HS5/00625, finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki.
The paper examines the process of the unification of substantive and procedural criminal law in the Yugoslav state during the interwar period. Despite its unitary and centralistic administrative organization, the Yugoslav state at the time was characterized by legal particularism. Among the territories that encompassed the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes there were substantially different legal systems, and hence, considerably diverse sources of law, since they had been parts of different political and territorial units prior to the unification. After the unification, there were six criminal codes and equally as many codes of criminal procedure in force in the territory of the Kingdom. Reformation and unification of substantive and procedural criminal law became an inevitable task, which was regarded as being urgent because achieving the standardization of the legal system was considered as a step forward, which would facilitate and solidify the unity and the proclaimed centralism that the state sought. Despite the initial efforts towards unification of criminal law that were begun by the beginning of 1919, the process was nevertheless turbulent, slow-going, and inefficient. Such circumstances were deeply conditioned by the permanent political instability, which emerged from continuous changes in the person of the Minister of Justice that always occurred in very short periods. The unification of criminal law was finally achieved only after the proclamation of the Dictatorship in 1929.
Crimes Constituting Relics of Local Customs in Soviet Codes
The object of the study presented in Prof. Katarzyna Laskowska’s paper is crimes that constitute relics of local customs, which are regulated in three Soviet codes. Interest in those crimes was due to the fact that acts associated with clan lifestyles of some nations of the USSR were considered to be offenses. Consequently, the research problem was formulated by the following question: “How did the state fight against traditions and customs of some of the nations inhabiting the Soviet Union?” The research hypothesis, in turn, was formulated by the following assumption: “The state fought against traditions and customs of some of the nations inhabiting the Soviet Union by criminalizing them in penal codes.” The source materials used were mostly the penal codes of the RSFSR of 1922, 1926, and 1960, as well as the legal and criminological literature from those periods. Their analysis enabled the researcher to reach the conclusion that Soviet authorities fought against crimes that constituted relics of local customs by use of criminal law in an instrumental manner in order to implement the ideology of the new political system and the authorities.
Matrimonial Law in Works of the Civil Reform Committee (1814–1815). Historical Source Edition
We present three source texts. The first are the writings of father Dhiel, General Superintendent of the Reformed Evangelical Congregations, which dealt with matrimonial laws and divorces. Next is the draft act by A. Bieńkowski concerning property contracts between spouses, and the last are fragments of Civil Reform Committee session minutes regarding these writings. The author of the first text covered three issues of fundamental significance to the Protestants, those being: obstacles to contracting marriage, premises for divorce, and the problems of jurisdiction in divorce cases. The author of the published draft act, in turn, postulated the reinstatement of the separation of assets, which had functioned previously under ius terrestre as the statutory property regime in marriage. This solution was in direct opposition to the one introduced in the Napoleonic Code. The draft act was much shorter than the chapter of the Napoleonic Code that it was to replace: 34 articles as compared to 195. In many aspects it could be deemed fragmentary, written from the perspective of the landed gentry, and omitting many problems that concerned other social strata.
*Niniejsza publikacja została przygotowana w ramach projektu „Kodyfikacja narodowa – fantazmat czy realna alternatywa? W kręgu debat nad rodzimym systemem prawa sądowego w konstytucyjnym Królestwie Polskim” finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki na podstawie umowy nr UMO-2015/18/E/HS5/00762.
A Review of Józef Koredczuk’s Book, Entitled The Inheritance of Real Estate in Light of the Case-law of the Lviv Appellate Circuit Courts in the Second Polish Republic, The E-Wydawnictwo. Prawnicza i Ekonomiczna Biblioteka Cyfrowa. Wydział Prawa, Administracji i Ekonomii Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, Wrocław 2019, 289 p.; ISBN 978-83-66066-57-1 (druk) i ISBN 978-83-66066-58-8 (online)
The reviewed book by Dr. Jozef Koredczuk entitled The inheritance of real estate in light of the caselaw of the Lviv Appellate Circuit courts in the Second Polish Republic is a monograph. It is a pioneer elaboration in the history of Polish law. The theme of the book focuses on cases regulated primarily by the Austrian Civil Code (ABGB) of 1811. This Code was binding in the Polish territory of the so-called Galicia (today, the Malopolska region) for almost 135 years, from 1812 until the end of 1946. The author narrows his research down to the jurisdiction of the Lvi’v appellate courts between 1918 and 1939. The author does not go directly to court records, but to previously published judicial decisions and their justifications. The researcher’s subject of interest is the inheritance of real estate, and thus leaving inheritance of chattels and rights behind.
The Review of Michał Klimecki’s book Sovietisation of Poland in 1920. The Polish Provisional Revolutionary Committee, as well as its Institutions, in the Summer and Autumn, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń 2016, 339 p.
The events of the year 1920 were a unique breakthrough in Polish history, yet now are largely forgotten. The war between the Republic of Poland and the Russian Bolsheviks was, after all, a threat to all of Europe. In Białystok the rulers of red Russia organized their own administration known as the Polish Provisional Revolutionary Committee to govern conquered parts of Polish territory. This body was ultimately going to have transformed itself into the government of a Polish Soviet Republic. This process, as well as the building of the Polish Red Army, is described in the reviewed book. Dr. Klimecki’s work also recounts the social background of Polish collaborators of Polish and Jewish origin from soldiers of the Red Army to Polish members of the Communist Party. Fortunately, Polish forces stopped the Bolsheviks at the battle of Warsaw, after which Poland enjoyed twenty years of independence. The reviewed book is an exceptional example of diligent academic work which also describes a now halfforgotten event in the war of 1920.
Review: S. Salmonowicz, Polnische Preussen oder Westpreussen. Ausgewählte Studien, Instytut Kaszubski: Gdańsk 2018, 159 p.
In 2018, Prof. Stanisław Salmonowicz, published his latest book entitled Polish Prussia or West Prussia. Selected Studies (Kashubian Institute in Gdańsk). It consists of the author’s biography and eight texts published in the last 30 years. The key binding individual works together is the subject of Prussia, in which Prof. Salmonowicz specializes and is an undisputed academic authority. They raise the issue of relations between Royal Prussia and the Crown, the role of Königsberg in the era of Enlightenment, the functioning of the Academic Schools in Prussia and their importance for the identity of its inhabitants, the language in everyday life of early modern Toruń, the culture of Pomerania, and the image of Poland as seen through the eyes of Georg Forster. Assembling these broad elements into a single publication provides a major asset for researchers dealing with Prussian issues in general, and more broadly, with modern history.
Legal-historical Remarks Concerning the Book: Mobilia. Inwentarze mienia ruchomego mieszczan krakowskich do schyłku XV wieku. [Mobilia. Inventories of the Chattels of Cracow Burghers up to the End of the 15th Century], ed. Marcin Starzyński, Towarzystwo Miłośników Historii i Zabytków Krakowa, Kraków 2017, XXXII + 155 p. (Fontes Cracovienses, 13)
The reviewed book includes 182 medieval inventories of the chattels of Cracow burghers. It is doubtless a very valuable source for research in the area of the history of personal belongings. The objective of the short report is to show the value of such a source for legal-historical research. The book takes into consideration phenomena in the areas of inheritance and marriage law. But the main part of the review is the analysis of information found in the works of lawyers, which is especially worthwhile for research on the legal culture of medieval Polish towns.
The Creator of the Militarised Administration of the General Headquarters of the Union of Armed Struggle-Home Army. Stanisław Salmonowicz’s book Ludwik Muzyczka „Benedykt” (1900–1977). Materiały historyczne do dziejów Komendy Głównej Armii Krajowej [Ludwik Muzyczka “Benedykt” (1900–1977). The Historical Materials Concerning the General Headquarters of the Home Army], Institute of National Remembrance. Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, Warsaw 1918, 320 p.
Subsequent to his 1992 publication, Professor Stanisław Salmonowicz’s new book is his most recent foray into the presentation of the life of Ludwik Muzyczka. The book acquaints the reader with Muzyczka’s life events, showing the wide range of his activities, from his participation in the Polish Legions during the struggle for Poland’s independence, to his later service in the Polish Armed Forces, fighting to shape the borders of the revived Polish state, to his commitment to social and political issues in the Second Polish Republic, as well as his involvement in various conspiracies during the Second World War and in the Polish People’s Republic, to the final stage of restoring the remembrance of the heroes of the Polish Home Army. The most significant period of Muzyczka’s activity was during the Second World War. The experience he gained working in public administration offices of interwar Poland, including his tenure as starosta – the chief administrative officer of the powiat administrative unit, proved useful in the creation of the administrative structures of the Polish Secret State. Beyond doubt, his greatest achievement in that field was the large-scale enterprise of the organisation and management of Szefostwo Biur Wojskowych Komendy Głównej ZWZ-AK [The Command of Military Offices of the General Headquarters of the Union of Armed Struggle-Home Army]. The publication comprises two parts and an annex. Muzyczka’s biography, divided into five chapters, constitutes the first part. The second part contains several studies concerning selected issues related to Muzyczka’s activities. The annex consists of three papers by Stanisław Salmonowicz, i.a. including a list of Muzyczka’s most important texts, and of four source texts. Stanisław Salmonowicz’s book should be considered obligatory reading for those historians who deal with the history of the Polish Underground State and the conspiracy activities after 1945, as well as for historians of administration.
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy Nr 285/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 30 maja 2019 r. z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”. The journal was subsidized by Ministry of Science and Higher Education, agreement No. 285/WCN/2019/1 of 30. May 2019, programme „Support for Scientific Journals”.
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji, przez CAN-PACK S.A. oraz przez Uniwersytet Gdańsk. The publication has been sponsored by Jagiellonian University in Krakow by CAN-PACK S.A., and by University of Gdańsk.
The paper discusses a special organisation of the medieval Papal Curia: the personal chapel of the popes, primarily focusing on the activity of its members in Hungary, during the 13th century. The papal subdeacons and chaplains played a significant role in the operation of the Apostolic See, e.g. they functioned as legates in a growing number besides cardinals, and they participated in the work of the papal chancellery, chamber, and penitentiary as well. Nevertheless, papal clerics were also to be found outside the Apostolic Court, such as in Hungary, where they can be classified into two different factions: the first major group was formed by the members of the Papal Chapel, who only visited the certain regions of church with special mandates for various kinds of tasks. In most cases, they had to deal with diplomatic affairs, or with matters of ecclesiastical government and discipline. The second category, on the one hand, consisted a group of clerics with special status, they were the so-called papal subdeacons, while on the other hand, certain members of the Hungarian clergy received the title of (honorary) papal chaplain from the popes as a reward for their services.
*The research was supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (BO/00148/17/2).
Austrian divorce law was in force in the territory of the former region of Galicia until the end of 1945. The possibility of seeking a civil divorce was determined by the internal law of the church that the betrothed couple belonged to on the wedding day. Thus, divorce was outlawed both for people of the Roman Catholic confession [§ 111(1) ABGB] and for married couples where even one of the spouses confessed the Roman Catholic religion at the time of their wedding to a non-Catholic Christian [§ 111(2) ABGB]. Not even a religious conversion on the part of the Catholic after the date of the wedding could create the possibility for the couple to obtain a divorce. In practice, Catholic residents of Małopolska resorted to “divorce migration” to more lenient legal jurisdictions. In any case, a divorce dispute was adjudicated before common courts according to state procedural rules. Divorce proceedings could be initiated in two ways, i.e. by unilateral request of one of the spouses, or by joint request of both spouses. Divorce in Jewish marriage was subject to certain legal differences, and could also be initiated in two ways, i.e. by the voluntary, uncontested request of both spouses [§§ 133–134 ABGB] or by way of a divorce application filed by the husband [§ 135(1) ABGB]. In both cases, the procedures were aimed at terminating the marriage by the husband’s presenting the wife with a so-called bill of divorce. Different civil proceedings regulated divorce disputes in Krakow in the period described (1918- 1945), i.e. the Austrian proceedings until the end of 1932 and the Polish proceedings of 1930 thereafter.
* This publication is a modified and supplemented version of a portion of Chapter 2 of the Polish-language book by Z. Zarzycki, Rozwód w świetle akt Sądu Okręgowego w Krakowie w latach 1918–1945. Studium historyczno-prawne [Divorce in Light of the Krakow District Court files in 1918–1945. A Historical and Legal Study], Krakow 2010, pp. 126–164.
The lawsuit of public interest was introduced by the 20th Act of 1931 after the economic crisis in the interwar period special attention to the regulation of cartels in Europe. This Act regulated the unfair economic agreements in Hungary. The Hungarian Cartel Law regulated the supreme organs related to the cartels. In my paper I would like to examine the cases of the Cartel Court and its jurisdiction. By examining the cases, it can be stated that the role of the Cartel Court was strongly administrational in connection to lawsuits of public interest. The Cartel Court and the Cartel Committee become one of the most decisive legal institutions in the Hungarian Economic life up until the middle of the 20th Century. The state intervention appeared in the Hungarian Private Law special attention to the cartel regulation.
The article describes the restitution process that took place after 1945 in Czechoslovakia in relation to the property occupied in 1939–1945 in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia for the creation of German military exercise areas. They were supposed to be used for the Germanization of the Czech lands. To create these spaces, the Nazis abused the legal order of the Czechoslovak Republic from 1918 to 1938. The restitution process subject to this territory after 1945 was governed by the separate Directive of the Settlement Office and the National Renewal Fund of 2 December 1947. It was generally based on the principles contained in the Act No. 128/1946 Coll., on the invalidity of certain propertyright acts from the time of oppression and of some other intervention into property-rights, as amended by the Act No. 79/1948 Coll. This directive was, generally speaking, more favorable to restituents than analogous legal regulations. Attention is paid not only to the content of the Directive of 2 December 1947 and related legislation, but also to its application from the end of World War II to the present. The article also refers to the professional literature, which was devoted to the topic.
Works of the Civil Reform Committee on the Civil Law and Civil Procedure Codification on the Eve of the Establishment of Kingdom of Poland (1814 – 1815) – Historical Source Edition. Part II
As part of the series of source publications commenced in the second fascicule of the 12th volume of “Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa” [Krakow Studies in History of State and Law], we are publishing [Draft] to Replace Title 5 of Book 1 of the French Civil Code and fragments of the minutes of Civil Reform Committee’s sessions concerning this draft. On 23 October of 1814 Antoni Bieńkowski presented at the Committee’s session drafts of marital laws: personal and property. The former of the two drafts is published below, whereas the latter will be printed in the upcoming fascicule of “Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa”. This draft, similarly to the others penned by Committee members, never came into effect as law. The issue of upholding the lay system of marital law, introduced by the Napoleonic Code, remained a contentious one for years to come. In 1825 the Sejm enacted Book One of the Civil Code of the Kingdom of Poland, which implemented a mixed model of marital personal law. Lay elements, however, were a lot stronger there than in the 1814 draft (particularly, also marital issues concerning Catholics were placed within the jurisdiction of common courts of law). Also this law was heavily criticized by the conservative circles.
∗ Niniejsza publikacja została przygotowana w ramach projektu „Kodyfikacja narodowa – fantazmat czy realna alternatywa? W kręgu debat nad rodzimym systemem prawa sądowego w konstytucyjnym Królestwie Polskim” finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki na podstawie umowy nr UMO-2015/18/E/HS5/00762.
Review: Andrzej Nowak, The First Betrayal of the West. 1920 – Forgotten Appeasement, Kraków 2015, 603 p.
What is innovative in this study of the West’s attitude towards the Polish army struggling alone against Bolshevik Russia is the presentation of the discussed issue based on the rich archives of Great Britain, the USA, Russia, Switzerland, and Poland. The extensive basis is the collection of documents and printed sources as well as press articles and studies. The monograph is a very valuable item due to the quotation of many unknown or little-known archival sources, which brings readers closer to the “Polish cause” of the politicians of the great powers, deciding then on the fate of the European continent. The most interesting part of the monograph is the third part, in which the author attempted to reach, based on unused documents, the reasons for the attitude of appeasement, i.e. the attempt by the Entente states to calm down Bolshevik Russia, at the expense of the smaller states of the central-eastern part of the European continent. It is a rich psychological analysis of the motives of attitudes of the most influential politicians of that era, towards a settlement with the new rulers of Moscow. The publication is an exceptional and very carefully published work, which also contains little-known photographs from the era when the fate of the Polish Republic was weighing in the balance. In the event of a defeat in the war with Bolshevik Russia, Poland would have been thrown into the abyss of communist hell, in the cruel Russian variety met by other nations, and would have lost its independence in 1920. It most probably would not have regained it in 1945, even in the much truncated form of the eventual reality of the Polish People’s Republic. Particularly noteworthy is the captivating style of the narrative and, most importantly, the firm assumption of theses, based mostly on quotes from sources, which, naturally, is extremely convincing for the reader. All this makes this academically valuable monograph worth recommending to a wide range of readers.
Over the course of 2018 there were a number of significant developments in the area of legal and constitutional history in France and a large number of academic works were produced. Only the most relevant developments have been considered below. Publication dates have been omitted since this chronicle is by definition restricted to events having taken place in 2018.
In the year 2018, several research projects of the Chairs of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University which are concerned with legal and constitutional history were continued, and an important new one – project IURA – was launched. Apart from these, the faculty members and postgraduates, of the Chairs were engaged in cooperation with other academic centers, including several international conferences, and the preparation of a book devoted to the memory of Prof. Janusz Sondel (1937–2017).1 A very challenging but fruitful event was the 72nd World Congress of SIHDA (Société Internationale Fernand de Visscher pour l’Histoire des Droits de l’Antiquité), organized by the Chair of Roman Law.
2018 was a year of important scholarly events for Ukrainian legal history. During this year Ukrainian scholars published several historical-legal academic works and held three professional conferences.
2018 was a productive and successful year for the study of Hungarian Legal History because among Hungarian legal historians, or foreign historians working in Hungary, there were awarded one D.Sc. degree, one habilitation, and three PhD degrees, along with the publication of 17 books dealing with issues in the sphere of Hungarian legal history. I focused strictly on the scholars and departments of Hungarian and European Legal History, to the exclusion of scholars and departments of Roman Law. This report also reviews scholarly works in legal history published in Hungary, as well as important legal history conferences held in Hungary.
The XXIVth Annual Forum of Young Legal Historians was organized by Faculty of Law and Administration of University of Warsaw from 14th through 17th June 2018. This years’ conference was devoted to the issues of norms and legal practice, what was reflected in most of speeches given dur- ing the conference. The organizers gathered nearly 80 speakers who about 20 countries, including non-European states (United States, Israel). As usually, the biggest group of young legal historians represented the host country. There were 6 representatives of University of Warsaw, 4 from Jagiellonian University and 3 from University of Gdansk. As well University of Bialystok as University of Lodz, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Jan Długosz University in Czestochowa and Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw had one representative during the XXIVth Annual Forum of Young Legal Historians.
Works of the Civil Reform Committee on the Civil Law and Civil Procedure Codification on the Eve of the Establishment of Kingdom of Poland (1814 – 1815) – Historical Source Edition. Part II
As part of the series of source publications commenced in the second fascicule of the 12th volume of “Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa” [Krakow Studies in History of State and Law], we are publishing [Draft] to Replace Title 5 of Book 1 of the French Civil Code and fragments of the minutes of Civil Reform Committee’s sessions concerning this draft. On 23 October of 1814 Antoni Bieńkowski presented at the Committee’s session drafts of marital laws: personal and property. The former of the two drafts is published below, whereas the latter will be printed in the upcoming fascicule of “Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa”. This draft, similarly to the others penned by Committee members, never came into effect as law. The issue of upholding the lay system of marital law, introduced by the Napoleonic Code, remained a contentious one for years to come. In 1825 the Sejm enacted Book One of the Civil Code of the Kingdom of Poland, which implemented a mixed model of marital personal law. Lay elements, however, were a lot stronger there than in the 1814 draft (particularly, also marital issues concerning Catholics were placed within the jurisdiction of common courts of law). Also this law was heavily criticized by the conservative circles.
∗ Niniejsza publikacja została przygotowana w ramach projektu „Kodyfikacja narodowa – fantazmat czy realna alternatywa? W kręgu debat nad rodzimym systemem prawa sądowego w konstytucyjnym Królestwie Polskim” finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki na podstawie umowy nr UMO-2015/18/E/HS5/00762.
Review: Andrzej Nowak, The First Betrayal of the West. 1920 – Forgotten Appeasement, Kraków 2015, 603 p.
What is innovative in this study of the West’s attitude towards the Polish army struggling alone against Bolshevik Russia is the presentation of the discussed issue based on the rich archives of Great Britain, the USA, Russia, Switzerland, and Poland. The extensive basis is the collection of documents and printed sources as well as press articles and studies. The monograph is a very valuable item due to the quotation of many unknown or little-known archival sources, which brings readers closer to the “Polish cause” of the politicians of the great powers, deciding then on the fate of the European continent. The most interesting part of the monograph is the third part, in which the author attempted to reach, based on unused documents, the reasons for the attitude of appeasement, i.e. the attempt by the Entente states to calm down Bolshevik Russia, at the expense of the smaller states of the central-eastern part of the European continent. It is a rich psychological analysis of the motives of attitudes of the most influential politicians of that era, towards a settlement with the new rulers of Moscow. The publication is an exceptional and very carefully published work, which also contains little-known photographs from the era when the fate of the Polish Republic was weighing in the balance. In the event of a defeat in the war with Bolshevik Russia, Poland would have been thrown into the abyss of communist hell, in the cruel Russian variety met by other nations, and would have lost its independence in 1920. It most probably would not have regained it in 1945, even in the much truncated form of the eventual reality of the Polish People’s Republic. Particularly noteworthy is the captivating style of the narrative and, most importantly, the firm assumption of theses, based mostly on quotes from sources, which, naturally, is extremely convincing for the reader. All this makes this academically valuable monograph worth recommending to a wide range of readers.
Over the course of 2018 there were a number of significant developments in the area of legal and constitutional history in France and a large number of academic works were produced. Only the most relevant developments have been considered below. Publication dates have been omitted since this chronicle is by definition restricted to events having taken place in 2018.
In the year 2018, several research projects of the Chairs of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University which are concerned with legal and constitutional history were continued, and an important new one – project IURA – was launched. Apart from these, the faculty members and postgraduates, of the Chairs were engaged in cooperation with other academic centers, including several international conferences, and the preparation of a book devoted to the memory of Prof. Janusz Sondel (1937–2017).1 A very challenging but fruitful event was the 72nd World Congress of SIHDA (Société Internationale Fernand de Visscher pour l’Histoire des Droits de l’Antiquité), organized by the Chair of Roman Law.
2018 was a year of important scholarly events for Ukrainian legal history. During this year Ukrainian scholars published several historical-legal academic works and held three professional conferences.
2018 was a productive and successful year for the study of Hungarian Legal History because among Hungarian legal historians, or foreign historians working in Hungary, there were awarded one D.Sc. degree, one habilitation, and three PhD degrees, along with the publication of 17 books dealing with issues in the sphere of Hungarian legal history. I focused strictly on the scholars and departments of Hungarian and European Legal History, to the exclusion of scholars and departments of Roman Law. This report also reviews scholarly works in legal history published in Hungary, as well as important legal history conferences held in Hungary.
The XXIVth Annual Forum of Young Legal Historians was organized by Faculty of Law and Administration of University of Warsaw from 14th through 17th June 2018. This years’ conference was devoted to the issues of norms and legal practice, what was reflected in most of speeches given dur- ing the conference. The organizers gathered nearly 80 speakers who about 20 countries, including non-European states (United States, Israel). As usually, the biggest group of young legal historians represented the host country. There were 6 representatives of University of Warsaw, 4 from Jagiellonian University and 3 from University of Gdansk. As well University of Bialystok as University of Lodz, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Jan Długosz University in Czestochowa and Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw had one representative during the XXIVth Annual Forum of Young Legal Historians.
The paper discusses a special organisation of the medieval Papal Curia: the personal chapel of the popes, primarily focusing on the activity of its members in Hungary, during the 13th century. The papal subdeacons and chaplains played a significant role in the operation of the Apostolic See, e.g. they functioned as legates in a growing number besides cardinals, and they participated in the work of the papal chancellery, chamber, and penitentiary as well. Nevertheless, papal clerics were also to be found outside the Apostolic Court, such as in Hungary, where they can be classified into two different factions: the first major group was formed by the members of the Papal Chapel, who only visited the certain regions of church with special mandates for various kinds of tasks. In most cases, they had to deal with diplomatic affairs, or with matters of ecclesiastical government and discipline. The second category, on the one hand, consisted a group of clerics with special status, they were the so-called papal subdeacons, while on the other hand, certain members of the Hungarian clergy received the title of (honorary) papal chaplain from the popes as a reward for their services.
*The research was supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (BO/00148/17/2).
Austrian divorce law was in force in the territory of the former region of Galicia until the end of 1945. The possibility of seeking a civil divorce was determined by the internal law of the church that the betrothed couple belonged to on the wedding day. Thus, divorce was outlawed both for people of the Roman Catholic confession [§ 111(1) ABGB] and for married couples where even one of the spouses confessed the Roman Catholic religion at the time of their wedding to a non-Catholic Christian [§ 111(2) ABGB]. Not even a religious conversion on the part of the Catholic after the date of the wedding could create the possibility for the couple to obtain a divorce. In practice, Catholic residents of Małopolska resorted to “divorce migration” to more lenient legal jurisdictions. In any case, a divorce dispute was adjudicated before common courts according to state procedural rules. Divorce proceedings could be initiated in two ways, i.e. by unilateral request of one of the spouses, or by joint request of both spouses. Divorce in Jewish marriage was subject to certain legal differences, and could also be initiated in two ways, i.e. by the voluntary, uncontested request of both spouses [§§ 133–134 ABGB] or by way of a divorce application filed by the husband [§ 135(1) ABGB]. In both cases, the procedures were aimed at terminating the marriage by the husband’s presenting the wife with a so-called bill of divorce. Different civil proceedings regulated divorce disputes in Krakow in the period described (1918- 1945), i.e. the Austrian proceedings until the end of 1932 and the Polish proceedings of 1930 thereafter.
* This publication is a modified and supplemented version of a portion of Chapter 2 of the Polish-language book by Z. Zarzycki, Rozwód w świetle akt Sądu Okręgowego w Krakowie w latach 1918–1945. Studium historyczno-prawne [Divorce in Light of the Krakow District Court files in 1918–1945. A Historical and Legal Study], Krakow 2010, pp. 126–164.
The lawsuit of public interest was introduced by the 20th Act of 1931 after the economic crisis in the interwar period special attention to the regulation of cartels in Europe. This Act regulated the unfair economic agreements in Hungary. The Hungarian Cartel Law regulated the supreme organs related to the cartels. In my paper I would like to examine the cases of the Cartel Court and its jurisdiction. By examining the cases, it can be stated that the role of the Cartel Court was strongly administrational in connection to lawsuits of public interest. The Cartel Court and the Cartel Committee become one of the most decisive legal institutions in the Hungarian Economic life up until the middle of the 20th Century. The state intervention appeared in the Hungarian Private Law special attention to the cartel regulation.
The article describes the restitution process that took place after 1945 in Czechoslovakia in relation to the property occupied in 1939–1945 in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia for the creation of German military exercise areas. They were supposed to be used for the Germanization of the Czech lands. To create these spaces, the Nazis abused the legal order of the Czechoslovak Republic from 1918 to 1938. The restitution process subject to this territory after 1945 was governed by the separate Directive of the Settlement Office and the National Renewal Fund of 2 December 1947. It was generally based on the principles contained in the Act No. 128/1946 Coll., on the invalidity of certain propertyright acts from the time of oppression and of some other intervention into property-rights, as amended by the Act No. 79/1948 Coll. This directive was, generally speaking, more favorable to restituents than analogous legal regulations. Attention is paid not only to the content of the Directive of 2 December 1947 and related legislation, but also to its application from the end of World War II to the present. The article also refers to the professional literature, which was devoted to the topic.
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy Nr 285/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 30 maja 2019 r. z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”. The journal was subsidized by Ministry of Science and Higher Education, agreement No. 285/WCN/2019/1 of 30. May 2019, programme „Support for Scientific Journals”.
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji. The publication has been sponsored by Jagiellonian University, Krakow.
Iusta causa usucapionis According to Trebatius and the Vatican Fragments
The author of the paper discusses the construct of usucaption as approached by Trebatius and Fragmentum Vaticanum 1 in the context of just cause of usucaption (iusta causa usucapionis). In the sources analyzed in the text, one may find the oldest preserved mentions concerning the prerequisite for usucapio, which, according to the author, is an important element of that legal construct. The article presents the following fragments: D. 41,4,2,7; D. 41,6,4, D. 41,10,4 pr. and Fragmentum Vaticanum 1, giving much thought to the latter – particularly focusing on Labeo’s notion incorporated in the source. His standpoint, included in Fragmentum Vaticanum 1, was presented together with the opinions of earlier (veteres) and later (Sabinus, Cassius, Proculus, Celsus, Julian, and Paul) jurists. The texts indicate that at the turn of the republic and the Principate, usucaption was a well-formed institution, for which the reasonable cause of usucaption was an important premise. The lawyers of those times focused on the analyses of cases which today we would think of as the most difficult ones.
Selected Projects for a Common Peace in Europe from the 15th to the 17th Centuries as a Remedy for the Problem of Wars of Religion
The article is devoted to three projects focused on establishing international organizations whose aim was to bring about a common peace in Europe. The first of them was worked out at the court of the King of Bohemia, George of Podiebrad, most probably in 1462; the second is mentioned in the treatise authored by French monk Émeric Crucé, andedited in 1623, under the telling title LeNouveau Cynée; the third, on the other hand, is Grand Dessein,described in the Memoiresof Duke of Sully Maximilien de Béthune, a minister of Henry IV, the first two volumes of which appeared in 1638. The authors of the present study propose to take a new look at the projects under analysis, perceiving in them an attempt to find a remedy for the problem of wars of religion. Hence, the first of them is shown in the context of the Hussite Wars in Bohemia, whereas the other two are shown in that of the Huguenot Wars in France. The thesis is accepted in the article that George of Podiebrad’s project was primarily meant to be an answer to the current political problems of the day which the “Hussite King” was confronted with. The legal solutions included in the project could – as it seems – offer the Bohemian monarch a handy tool facilitating prevention of both a possible mutiny raised by the internal Catholic opposition, and an attack from outside, which, as a result of Pius II’s repealing of the Compactataand George’s refusal to accept the conditions of agreement proposed by the Holy See, could not be excluded. The acceptance of the thesis of political motives behind the propositions offered by the “Hussite King” does not belittle the value of the very project itself, which, in the history of European political and legal thought, was undoubtedly of paramount importance. Of the three peace plans presented here it is only the project put forward by George of Podiebrad that was invested with legal norms, constituting a ready project of an international contract. It distinguished itself against the other projects with its detailed elaboration and the complexity of the proposed solutions. Moreover, as the only one that was well-known at European courts, it became the subject of diplomatic negotiations which raised considerable interest also among its opponents. The latter were led by the papacy, fighting it, as it eventually turned out, with success. Both George of Podiebrad’s project and the Count of Sully’s proposal took into account the establishment of international organisations of regional character which would associate exclusively Christian states, regarding the fight against the Ottoman Empire as one of the more significant goals of their existence. Only the project by Crucé, which – contrary to the other two was written not by a politician, but by a thinker – assumed bringing peace in a universal dimension, including all the sovereign states of the world. The innovatory approach of Crucé’s proposition consisted in acknowledging as the fundamental one the idea of expected binding the members of the projected organisation by freedom of trade exchange which would be guaranteed in the global dimension”. For the authors of all the aforementioned peace plans the institutional factors uniting the states associated in the organizations to be established were to be commonwealth organs, among which a particular place was to be assigned to organs capable of settling conflicts between states. They can be considered to be a prototype of a contemporary international judiciary. The projects in question were founded on the principle of formal equality of sovereign states, which was accepted as the basis of international relations in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Furthermore, they introduced the principles of renouncing war and accepting the peaceful settlement of conflicts in mutual relations, and of striving for the creation of a system of collective safety. In this way they evidently went beyond the canons of the epochs in which they were created, and some of the ideas lying at their foundations did not materialize until the 20th century.
“This General Diet Has Begun Without a Beginning and Has Ended without an end”. So-called ‘Pacification’ General Diet in 1698 and its Meaning in the Context of liberum veto Evolution
The article presented is devoted to an interesting episode from the legal and political history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the end of the seventeenth century – the “breaking up” of the General Diet in 1698 by liberum veto. This particular session of the General Diet was summoned by the newly-elected king – August II, for the ‘pacification’ of the nation and the legitimization of his reign against the opposition that had gathered around the archbishop of Gniezno – Cardinal Michał Radziejowski in Łowicz. The Diet failed to satisfy the king’s expectations. Poor attendance by envoys and senators, as well as the negative attitude of the Lithuanian delegation, caused a brief ‘breaking up’ of the Diet.
The author of the paper tries to show this episode, not as a political, but as a legal phenomenon, and also as an underestimated precedent in the history of old-Polish ‘deliberative’ democracy. He points out the insufficiency of previously known procedures of negotiation with envoys announcing their vetoes. He also emphasizes that the contradiction of the Lithuanian envoys was completely irrational, and that the acceptance shown for their demands was commonly considered to be obviously illegal. Besides this, the envoys were strictly obliged to ‘break up’ the Diet, which was clearly against the essence of the parliamentary mandate. However, this was not enough to reject contradiction. From this very moment any attempt to limit or restrain liberum veto was not possible.
The Institution of Transfereral of Criminals in the Term of the Polish Penal Procedure Code of 1928
The institution of transferring of criminals, which was regulated in articles 642-650 of the Polish Penal Procedure Code of 1928, was an element of the development of the Polish penal procedure in the interwar period. The Code’s regulation consisted of three elements: regulation on transferring criminals to Poland, transferring of criminals by Poland and transport of prisoners. The regulation contained in the Code were supplementary to regulations of international law and constitutional regulations. In the following paper the roots of the regulation were presented as well as it’s characteristics and the changes of the regulation which occurred during the communist period.
Criminal Case of SS-Oberscharführer Franz Langner, a Member of the KL Auschwitz Garrison, before the Court of Appeal in Cracow (1949–1952)
The aim of the dissertation is to present the course of court proceedings in the criminal case against Franz (Franciszek) Langner, born in 1891, a Polish volksdeutsch, and member of the SS KL Auschwitz crew, who was tried in Poland from 1949 to 1952. During the Second World War Langner renounced his Polish nationality and joined the SS. He was sent to KL Auschwitz, where he served from April 8, 1942 to January 20, 1945. He performed various functions among the watch-keeping troops, achieving the rank of SS-Oberscharführer. After the war, Langner was arrested and criminal proceedings were instituted against him. Initially, this was related to his declaration of belonging to the German nationality, and then - when his service in the SS came to light - to the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The crimes that Langner was accused of changed several times. The trial was held at the Court of Appeal in Cracow. By virtue of a judgment of 5 April 1950, Langner was sentenced to death. After Langner filed an appeal, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Poland partly annulled, in the verdict of November 13, 1950, the verdict of the Court of Appeal in Cracow, and remanded the case for reconsideration. On April 13, 1951, the Provincial Court in Cracow (established in place of the Court of Appeal) sentenced Langner to a joint penalty of 10 years imprisonment. The Supreme Court upheld this judgment in a judgment of January 29, 1952. Langner ultimately died in prison on February 2, 1952. Due to the prisoner’s death, the criminal proceedings were discontinued.
Works of the Civil Reform Committee on the Civil Law and Civil Procedure Codification on the Eve of the the Establishement of Kingdom of Poland (1814–1815) – Historical Source Edition. Part I
The present paper is an introduction to the source edition of 13 documents concerning the organization of the Civil Reform Committee and the Committee’s work on changes in civil law and civil procedure. The Civil Reform Committee was appointed by Tsar Alexander I on 19 May 1814 in connection with the plan to transform the Duchy of Warsaw into the Kingdom of Poland, a Russian client state. Participants of the Committee’s works were Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, Mikołaj Nowosilcow, Tomasz Ostrowski, Stanisław Zamoyski, Tadeusz Matuszewicz, Aleksander Linowski, Józef Kalasanty Szaniawski, Tomasz Wawrzecki, Franciszek Grabowski, Antoni Bieńkowski, Józef Koźmian, and Andrzej Horodyski.The Committee’s goal was to prepare a reform of the administration, the treasury, and the codes of civil and penal law. The Tsar’s guidelines urged the Committee to sever all ties with the French models and to draw from native traditions. As regards civil law and civil procedure, the works reached a moderate degree of advancement. Only outlines of the future codes and fragmentary legislative drafts were prepared. Even though these works may be deemed to have been a beginning of Polish codification of law within the modern meaning of the word, the documents used in this process have been heretofore used sparsely by historians, including historians of law. Thus the need for their publication. At the same time we are publishing fundamental documents concerning the organization of the Committee itself.
A review of Piotr Z. Pomianowski’s book, entitled “Divorce in the Central Polish Lands in the 19th Century. The Napoleonic Code in the Practice of Polish Courts (1808–1852)”, The Campidoglio Publishing House, Warsaw 2018, 449 p.
Piotr Pomianowski’s book is the first monograph in Polish historical-legal literature, which verifies the previous views on the number of adjudicated divorces in the territory of Poland between 1808 and 1852. It results from the analysis of the court records that show that a little over two thousand divorces were adjudicated in the area of the Duchy of Warsaw and Congress Poland, as well as in the Republic of Cracow pursuant to the Napoleonic Code. Up till now the literature had included erroneous information that there were only several or a few dozens of such divorces adjudicated.
The facts established by the book’s author show that in the first half of the 19th century divorce proceedings were more frequently initiated by women than by men (70% to 30% in Kalisz and Kielce, as well as 59% to 41% in Warsaw). The average divorcéwas 38.7 years old and the divorcée was 30.8; in about 80% of the cases the husband was older than the wife, and in 20% it was vice versa; however, the average age difference between divorcees was 10 years. The average marital period of divorcees in Warsaw communes was 8.5 years, and 12 years for those in Płock. The representatives of the following professions dominated among divorcees: factory owners, craftsmen, and those earning a living in industry (23.6%), next came government officials, teachers, and representatives of liberal professions (22.5%), and then heirs of landed estates and tenants (10%). Servants, journeymen, and peasants made up about 13.6% of the defendants.
Pomianowski’s book merits a very positive assessment. The analysis of the institution and the phenomenon of divorce, as well as the description of the research results are on a high level. The elaboration should interest not only historians of law but also scientists of other specializations, for instance researchers of the history of demography and population statistics, social culture and morals, population migrations, women’s rights, etc.
Iusta causa usucapionis According to Trebatius and the Vatican Fragments
The author of the paper discusses the construct of usucaption as approached by Trebatius and Fragmentum Vaticanum 1 in the context of just cause of usucaption (iusta causa usucapionis). In the sources analyzed in the text, one may find the oldest preserved mentions concerning the prerequisite for usucapio, which, according to the author, is an important element of that legal construct. The article presents the following fragments: D. 41,4,2,7; D. 41,6,4, D. 41,10,4 pr. and Fragmentum Vaticanum 1, giving much thought to the latter – particularly focusing on Labeo’s notion incorporated in the source. His standpoint, included in Fragmentum Vaticanum 1, was presented together with the opinions of earlier (veteres) and later (Sabinus, Cassius, Proculus, Celsus, Julian, and Paul) jurists. The texts indicate that at the turn of the republic and the Principate, usucaption was a well-formed institution, for which the reasonable cause of usucaption was an important premise. The lawyers of those times focused on the analyses of cases which today we would think of as the most difficult ones.
Selected Projects for a Common Peace in Europe from the 15th to the 17th Centuries as a Remedy for the Problem of Wars of Religion
The article is devoted to three projects focused on establishing international organizations whose aim was to bring about a common peace in Europe. The first of them was worked out at the court of the King of Bohemia, George of Podiebrad, most probably in 1462; the second is mentioned in the treatise authored by French monk Émeric Crucé, andedited in 1623, under the telling title LeNouveau Cynée; the third, on the other hand, is Grand Dessein,described in the Memoiresof Duke of Sully Maximilien de Béthune, a minister of Henry IV, the first two volumes of which appeared in 1638. The authors of the present study propose to take a new look at the projects under analysis, perceiving in them an attempt to find a remedy for the problem of wars of religion. Hence, the first of them is shown in the context of the Hussite Wars in Bohemia, whereas the other two are shown in that of the Huguenot Wars in France. The thesis is accepted in the article that George of Podiebrad’s project was primarily meant to be an answer to the current political problems of the day which the “Hussite King” was confronted with. The legal solutions included in the project could – as it seems – offer the Bohemian monarch a handy tool facilitating prevention of both a possible mutiny raised by the internal Catholic opposition, and an attack from outside, which, as a result of Pius II’s repealing of the Compactataand George’s refusal to accept the conditions of agreement proposed by the Holy See, could not be excluded. The acceptance of the thesis of political motives behind the propositions offered by the “Hussite King” does not belittle the value of the very project itself, which, in the history of European political and legal thought, was undoubtedly of paramount importance. Of the three peace plans presented here it is only the project put forward by George of Podiebrad that was invested with legal norms, constituting a ready project of an international contract. It distinguished itself against the other projects with its detailed elaboration and the complexity of the proposed solutions. Moreover, as the only one that was well-known at European courts, it became the subject of diplomatic negotiations which raised considerable interest also among its opponents. The latter were led by the papacy, fighting it, as it eventually turned out, with success. Both George of Podiebrad’s project and the Count of Sully’s proposal took into account the establishment of international organisations of regional character which would associate exclusively Christian states, regarding the fight against the Ottoman Empire as one of the more significant goals of their existence. Only the project by Crucé, which – contrary to the other two was written not by a politician, but by a thinker – assumed bringing peace in a universal dimension, including all the sovereign states of the world. The innovatory approach of Crucé’s proposition consisted in acknowledging as the fundamental one the idea of expected binding the members of the projected organisation by freedom of trade exchange which would be guaranteed in the global dimension”. For the authors of all the aforementioned peace plans the institutional factors uniting the states associated in the organizations to be established were to be commonwealth organs, among which a particular place was to be assigned to organs capable of settling conflicts between states. They can be considered to be a prototype of a contemporary international judiciary. The projects in question were founded on the principle of formal equality of sovereign states, which was accepted as the basis of international relations in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Furthermore, they introduced the principles of renouncing war and accepting the peaceful settlement of conflicts in mutual relations, and of striving for the creation of a system of collective safety. In this way they evidently went beyond the canons of the epochs in which they were created, and some of the ideas lying at their foundations did not materialize until the 20th century.
“This General Diet Has Begun Without a Beginning and Has Ended without an end”. So-called ‘Pacification’ General Diet in 1698 and its Meaning in the Context of liberum veto Evolution
The article presented is devoted to an interesting episode from the legal and political history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the end of the seventeenth century – the “breaking up” of the General Diet in 1698 by liberum veto. This particular session of the General Diet was summoned by the newly-elected king – August II, for the ‘pacification’ of the nation and the legitimization of his reign against the opposition that had gathered around the archbishop of Gniezno – Cardinal Michał Radziejowski in Łowicz. The Diet failed to satisfy the king’s expectations. Poor attendance by envoys and senators, as well as the negative attitude of the Lithuanian delegation, caused a brief ‘breaking up’ of the Diet.
The author of the paper tries to show this episode, not as a political, but as a legal phenomenon, and also as an underestimated precedent in the history of old-Polish ‘deliberative’ democracy. He points out the insufficiency of previously known procedures of negotiation with envoys announcing their vetoes. He also emphasizes that the contradiction of the Lithuanian envoys was completely irrational, and that the acceptance shown for their demands was commonly considered to be obviously illegal. Besides this, the envoys were strictly obliged to ‘break up’ the Diet, which was clearly against the essence of the parliamentary mandate. However, this was not enough to reject contradiction. From this very moment any attempt to limit or restrain liberum veto was not possible.
The Institution of Transfereral of Criminals in the Term of the Polish Penal Procedure Code of 1928
The institution of transferring of criminals, which was regulated in articles 642-650 of the Polish Penal Procedure Code of 1928, was an element of the development of the Polish penal procedure in the interwar period. The Code’s regulation consisted of three elements: regulation on transferring criminals to Poland, transferring of criminals by Poland and transport of prisoners. The regulation contained in the Code were supplementary to regulations of international law and constitutional regulations. In the following paper the roots of the regulation were presented as well as it’s characteristics and the changes of the regulation which occurred during the communist period.
Criminal Case of SS-Oberscharführer Franz Langner, a Member of the KL Auschwitz Garrison, before the Court of Appeal in Cracow (1949–1952)
The aim of the dissertation is to present the course of court proceedings in the criminal case against Franz (Franciszek) Langner, born in 1891, a Polish volksdeutsch, and member of the SS KL Auschwitz crew, who was tried in Poland from 1949 to 1952. During the Second World War Langner renounced his Polish nationality and joined the SS. He was sent to KL Auschwitz, where he served from April 8, 1942 to January 20, 1945. He performed various functions among the watch-keeping troops, achieving the rank of SS-Oberscharführer. After the war, Langner was arrested and criminal proceedings were instituted against him. Initially, this was related to his declaration of belonging to the German nationality, and then - when his service in the SS came to light - to the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The crimes that Langner was accused of changed several times. The trial was held at the Court of Appeal in Cracow. By virtue of a judgment of 5 April 1950, Langner was sentenced to death. After Langner filed an appeal, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Poland partly annulled, in the verdict of November 13, 1950, the verdict of the Court of Appeal in Cracow, and remanded the case for reconsideration. On April 13, 1951, the Provincial Court in Cracow (established in place of the Court of Appeal) sentenced Langner to a joint penalty of 10 years imprisonment. The Supreme Court upheld this judgment in a judgment of January 29, 1952. Langner ultimately died in prison on February 2, 1952. Due to the prisoner’s death, the criminal proceedings were discontinued.
Works of the Civil Reform Committee on the Civil Law and Civil Procedure Codification on the Eve of the the Establishement of Kingdom of Poland (1814–1815) – Historical Source Edition. Part I
The present paper is an introduction to the source edition of 13 documents concerning the organization of the Civil Reform Committee and the Committee’s work on changes in civil law and civil procedure. The Civil Reform Committee was appointed by Tsar Alexander I on 19 May 1814 in connection with the plan to transform the Duchy of Warsaw into the Kingdom of Poland, a Russian client state. Participants of the Committee’s works were Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, Mikołaj Nowosilcow, Tomasz Ostrowski, Stanisław Zamoyski, Tadeusz Matuszewicz, Aleksander Linowski, Józef Kalasanty Szaniawski, Tomasz Wawrzecki, Franciszek Grabowski, Antoni Bieńkowski, Józef Koźmian, and Andrzej Horodyski.The Committee’s goal was to prepare a reform of the administration, the treasury, and the codes of civil and penal law. The Tsar’s guidelines urged the Committee to sever all ties with the French models and to draw from native traditions. As regards civil law and civil procedure, the works reached a moderate degree of advancement. Only outlines of the future codes and fragmentary legislative drafts were prepared. Even though these works may be deemed to have been a beginning of Polish codification of law within the modern meaning of the word, the documents used in this process have been heretofore used sparsely by historians, including historians of law. Thus the need for their publication. At the same time we are publishing fundamental documents concerning the organization of the Committee itself.
A review of Piotr Z. Pomianowski’s book, entitled “Divorce in the Central Polish Lands in the 19th Century. The Napoleonic Code in the Practice of Polish Courts (1808–1852)”, The Campidoglio Publishing House, Warsaw 2018, 449 p.
Piotr Pomianowski’s book is the first monograph in Polish historical-legal literature, which verifies the previous views on the number of adjudicated divorces in the territory of Poland between 1808 and 1852. It results from the analysis of the court records that show that a little over two thousand divorces were adjudicated in the area of the Duchy of Warsaw and Congress Poland, as well as in the Republic of Cracow pursuant to the Napoleonic Code. Up till now the literature had included erroneous information that there were only several or a few dozens of such divorces adjudicated.
The facts established by the book’s author show that in the first half of the 19th century divorce proceedings were more frequently initiated by women than by men (70% to 30% in Kalisz and Kielce, as well as 59% to 41% in Warsaw). The average divorcéwas 38.7 years old and the divorcée was 30.8; in about 80% of the cases the husband was older than the wife, and in 20% it was vice versa; however, the average age difference between divorcees was 10 years. The average marital period of divorcees in Warsaw communes was 8.5 years, and 12 years for those in Płock. The representatives of the following professions dominated among divorcees: factory owners, craftsmen, and those earning a living in industry (23.6%), next came government officials, teachers, and representatives of liberal professions (22.5%), and then heirs of landed estates and tenants (10%). Servants, journeymen, and peasants made up about 13.6% of the defendants.
Pomianowski’s book merits a very positive assessment. The analysis of the institution and the phenomenon of divorce, as well as the description of the research results are on a high level. The elaboration should interest not only historians of law but also scientists of other specializations, for instance researchers of the history of demography and population statistics, social culture and morals, population migrations, women’s rights, etc.
Czasopismo zostało dofinansowane ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego na podstawie umowy Nr 285/WCN/2019/1 z dnia 30 maja 2019 r. z pomocy przyznanej w ramach programu „Wsparcie dla czasopism naukowych”. The journal was subsidized by Ministry of Science and Higher Education, agreement No. 285/WCN/2019/1 of 30. May 2019, programme „Support for Scientific Journals”.
Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Jagielloński ze środków Wydziału Prawa i Administracji. The publication has been sponsored by Jagiellonian University, Krakow.
Richard Baxter and the Republica Christiana Project
Richard Baxter was one of the most prominent religious writers of the English Civil War period. His theological works greatly infl uenced the birth of English Reformed theology. As the author points out, Baxter was also a sophisticated political writer of great importance to the right-wing Presbyterians. To this day, he is also recognized as one of the fathers of the concept of a social contract. However, as the author argues, Baxter’s vision of the Christian state was his most important contribution to the field. He ultimately propones the theocracy, where the state and the church are joined together by the elements of the institutional structure that leads citizens to salvation.
Renunciation of Parental Assets in Light of the Records of the Borough of Przemyśl of 1651–1657
The act of abrenunciation (renunciation) was a commonly practiced legal action before the Polish courts for nobles, conducted by a woman upon contracting marriage, or entering a convent. It consisted of acknowledgment receipt of a dowry by the husband or convent, and of the woman’s renunciation of any further rights to the family estate. The statement, according to the chancellery standards, was to be presented orally for the record in the court for nobles. The legal effect of abrenunciation was the surrender of any and all further claims to the inheritance against the current owners of the family estate.
Potioritas or Subhastatio? Between Traditional Polish Law and French Law in Enforcement Proceedings in the Duchy of Warsaw and the Kingdom of Poland
The French code of civil procedure of 1806 that was established in the Duchy of Warsaw in 1808 brought the institution of the sale of immovable property by auction (subhastatio) to the Polish legal system as a principal feature of enforcement proceedings. However, it was widely criticised as contradictory to the Polish traditional law that knew only exdivisione (potioritas). Exdivisione was based on granting the creditor possession of seized land, but without the loss of ownership by the debtor. French rules of enforcement proceedings in the Kingdom of Poland in 1823 were modified while the new institution that referred to exdivisione was introduced, that is, the bidding lease of the immovable property. Nevertheless, the new institution did not replace subhastatio entirely; exdivisione had been present in judiciary practice before, but with no legal ground.
Competencies of the Directorate of the Krakow Police and Their Implementation in Light of Official Correspondence of the Government of Galicia from the Period of Constitutional Rule in Austria (1867–1914)
The article reconstructs the relations between the C. K. Directorate of the Krakow Police and the Galician Government during the period of constitutional rule in Austria (1867–1914). It presents how this Directorate handled tasks of the Galician Government in those matters related to security, peace, and public order, which were carried out by the government’s individual departments. It goes on to present the competencies of the Police Director, regarding the organization and activity of its subordinate structures, provision of equipment, uniforms, accommodation, etc., and also supervision of police officers (councilors, high-commissioners, commissioners, adjuncts, and official servants). It deals with military-police and civil-police guards, police departments, and police stations. In light of correspondence with the Galician Government it reconstructs in detail the competencies of the Directorate of the Police, including its roles of public safety, monitoring of social moods, supervising the conduct of ceremonies, controlling associations (including political parties) and the press, combating espionage, and prosecuting deserters, but also performing ordinary police activities such as prosecution of crimes, and combating prostitution, vagrancy, and begging. The work was based to a large extent on rich source materials stored in the national archives in Krakow, the Public Central Historical Archive of Ukraine in Lviv, and also the Public Archive of the Lviv Region.
Remarks on the Book by Michał Gałędek, Concepts and Projects of the New Administrative System for the Future Kingdom of Poland. Studies on the History of Administrative Thought (Sopot 2017, 544 pp.)
The work discussed here fiils in an important gap in the research on the history of administrative thought in the Polish territory from the 18th to the 20th century. It must be emphasised that the book offers a competent and comprehensive study of the years 1813–1815. The goal of the author of the dissertation was to analyse the views on the form of the newly created administrative system, expressed along the progress of works – partially official – performed under the authorisation of Alexander I in 1813–1815, that is until the moment of providing constitutional regulations to the Kingdom. In accordance with the principles followed by the author, with which I entirely agree, the scientific analysis has comprised all the projects which had been drafted in that time (in particular: normative acts) as well as the opinions of the administrative system reform creators formulated in the course of works. In fact, this is how administrative thought should be interpreted, to be differentiated from the analysis of specific system solutions accepted as binding legislation. The source base constitutes a very strong point of the reviewed monograph. The author has used materials which had never been explored before. One must agree with the research conclusions included in the final passage. In his thesis, the author has confirmed the earlier ascertainments of legal historians: namely, stating that the works performed in 1813–1815 referred mostly to the solutions and experiences from the period of the Duchy of Warsaw, whereas references to the administrative system of the 18th-century Poland were visible only in a small minority of the reform creators.
Remarks on Piotr Zbigniew Pomianowski’s The Beginnings of Polish Legal Literature. The First Seria of “Themis Polska”, Warsaw 2015, 279 pp.
The article is a review of a book which is dedicated to Themis Polska – a Polish periodical that appeared in the years 1829–1830. The book being reviewed is the published version of a doctoral thesis defended at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw in 2012. The author of the review conducted a meticulous and critical discussion of chapters of the book. In the summary he concluded that the work is a discussion of the content of the journal and a compilation of the views of its authors. In addition, the reviewer poses a rhetorical question about the scientific usefulness of this kind of works, in particular as regards their financing from public funds.
Remarks after Reading Andrzej Korytko’s Book ‘Those the Polish Republic Leans upon’. The Senators of the Crown during Władysław IV Vasa’s Reign, Olsztyn 2015, 484 pp.
The review’s author regards the reviewed book as an important attempt to study the senators of the Crown as a ‘sejmujący’ class. The monograph presents a large quantity of details about the senators’ participation in the parliament’s works. However, Korytko focusses much more on the senators’ political activities than on their legislative undertakings e. g. the author devotes much consideration to the problems of the senators’ participation during the parliamentary and local assemblies’ sessions. One would expect to pay much more attention to the role of the senators in the procedure of convening the General Sejm by deliberatoria and in the legislative and control functions of the Polish-Lithuanian parliament.
Review of Anna Krochmal’s Book Historical Archives of the Przemyśl Eparchy, Warszawa–Przemyśl 2016, 620 pp.
The review discusses and evaluates the book, which was written by Anna Krochmal and devoted to the historical archives of the Przemyśl eparchy which are deposited in the State Archives in Przemyśl, Poland. This book described the history of the eparchy, first as an Orthodox institution, and later as a Uniate one, along with its organs of government and structure. The author informs us about the chancery of the eparchy over the centuries especially its structure and methods of work. The contents of the records are also presented in the reviewed publication.
A Short Discussion of Miriam Laclavíková and Adriana Švecová’s Monograph Dejiny právnického vzdelávania na Trnavskej univerzite v Trnave, Praha: Leges 2017, 160 pp.
The monograph is an introduction to the history of the teaching of law in Trnava during the existence of the university (1667–1777, and subsequently since 1998) and during the functioning of the Royal Law School (1777–1784). Among the issues analyzed were the circumstances of the establishment of the Faculty of Law at the University of Trnava in 1667, curricula with particular emphasis on the study of Hungarian law, and the significance of the juridical works of the university’s professors. The work emphasized how Corpus Iuris Hungarici, a two-volume collection of Hungarian law (vol. 1 contains Tripartitum by Štefan Werbőczy), was developed and published in Trnava (1696), where advanced studies in the area of criminal law were also conducted.
Remarks on the Book by Michał Gałędek, Concepts and Projects of the New Administrative System for the Future Kingdom of Poland. Studies on the History of Administrative Thought (Sopot 2017, 544 pp.)
The work discussed here fiils in an important gap in the research on the history of administrative thought in the Polish territory from the 18th to the 20th century. It must be emphasised that the book offers a competent and comprehensive study of the years 1813–1815. The goal of the author of the dissertation was to analyse the views on the form of the newly created administrative system, expressed along the progress of works – partially official – performed under the authorisation of Alexander I in 1813–1815, that is until the moment of providing constitutional regulations to the Kingdom. In accordance with the principles followed by the author, with which I entirely agree, the scientific analysis has comprised all the projects which had been drafted in that time (in particular: normative acts) as well as the opinions of the administrative system reform creators formulated in the course of works. In fact, this is how administrative thought should be interpreted, to be differentiated from the analysis of specific system solutions accepted as binding legislation. The source base constitutes a very strong point of the reviewed monograph. The author has used materials which had never been explored before. One must agree with the research conclusions included in the final passage. In his thesis, the author has confirmed the earlier ascertainments of legal historians: namely, stating that the works performed in 1813–1815 referred mostly to the solutions and experiences from the period of the Duchy of Warsaw, whereas references to the administrative system of the 18th-century Poland were visible only in a small minority of the reform creators.
Remarks on Piotr Zbigniew Pomianowski’s The Beginnings of Polish Legal Literature. The First Seria of “Themis Polska”, Warsaw 2015, 279 pp.
The article is a review of a book which is dedicated to Themis Polska – a Polish periodical that appeared in the years 1829–1830. The book being reviewed is the published version of a doctoral thesis defended at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw in 2012. The author of the review conducted a meticulous and critical discussion of chapters of the book. In the summary he concluded that the work is a discussion of the content of the journal and a compilation of the views of its authors. In addition, the reviewer poses a rhetorical question about the scientific usefulness of this kind of works, in particular as regards their financing from public funds.
Remarks after Reading Andrzej Korytko’s Book ‘Those the Polish Republic Leans upon’. The Senators of the Crown during Władysław IV Vasa’s Reign, Olsztyn 2015, 484 pp.
The review’s author regards the reviewed book as an important attempt to study the senators of the Crown as a ‘sejmujący’ class. The monograph presents a large quantity of details about the senators’ participation in the parliament’s works. However, Korytko focusses much more on the senators’ political activities than on their legislative undertakings e. g. the author devotes much consideration to the problems of the senators’ participation during the parliamentary and local assemblies’ sessions. One would expect to pay much more attention to the role of the senators in the procedure of convening the General Sejm by deliberatoria and in the legislative and control functions of the Polish-Lithuanian parliament.
Review of Anna Krochmal’s Book Historical Archives of the Przemyśl Eparchy, Warszawa–Przemyśl 2016, 620 pp.
The review discusses and evaluates the book, which was written by Anna Krochmal and devoted to the historical archives of the Przemyśl eparchy which are deposited in the State Archives in Przemyśl, Poland. This book described the history of the eparchy, first as an Orthodox institution, and later as a Uniate one, along with its organs of government and structure. The author informs us about the chancery of the eparchy over the centuries especially its structure and methods of work. The contents of the records are also presented in the reviewed publication.
A Short Discussion of Miriam Laclavíková and Adriana Švecová’s Monograph Dejiny právnického vzdelávania na Trnavskej univerzite v Trnave, Praha: Leges 2017, 160 pp.
The monograph is an introduction to the history of the teaching of law in Trnava during the existence of the university (1667–1777, and subsequently since 1998) and during the functioning of the Royal Law School (1777–1784). Among the issues analyzed were the circumstances of the establishment of the Faculty of Law at the University of Trnava in 1667, curricula with particular emphasis on the study of Hungarian law, and the significance of the juridical works of the university’s professors. The work emphasized how Corpus Iuris Hungarici, a two-volume collection of Hungarian law (vol. 1 contains Tripartitum by Štefan Werbőczy), was developed and published in Trnava (1696), where advanced studies in the area of criminal law were also conducted.
Richard Baxter and the Republica Christiana Project
Richard Baxter was one of the most prominent religious writers of the English Civil War period. His theological works greatly infl uenced the birth of English Reformed theology. As the author points out, Baxter was also a sophisticated political writer of great importance to the right-wing Presbyterians. To this day, he is also recognized as one of the fathers of the concept of a social contract. However, as the author argues, Baxter’s vision of the Christian state was his most important contribution to the field. He ultimately propones the theocracy, where the state and the church are joined together by the elements of the institutional structure that leads citizens to salvation.
Renunciation of Parental Assets in Light of the Records of the Borough of Przemyśl of 1651–1657
The act of abrenunciation (renunciation) was a commonly practiced legal action before the Polish courts for nobles, conducted by a woman upon contracting marriage, or entering a convent. It consisted of acknowledgment receipt of a dowry by the husband or convent, and of the woman’s renunciation of any further rights to the family estate. The statement, according to the chancellery standards, was to be presented orally for the record in the court for nobles. The legal effect of abrenunciation was the surrender of any and all further claims to the inheritance against the current owners of the family estate.
Potioritas or Subhastatio? Between Traditional Polish Law and French Law in Enforcement Proceedings in the Duchy of Warsaw and the Kingdom of Poland
The French code of civil procedure of 1806 that was established in the Duchy of Warsaw in 1808 brought the institution of the sale of immovable property by auction (subhastatio) to the Polish legal system as a principal feature of enforcement proceedings. However, it was widely criticised as contradictory to the Polish traditional law that knew only exdivisione (potioritas). Exdivisione was based on granting the creditor possession of seized land, but without the loss of ownership by the debtor. French rules of enforcement proceedings in the Kingdom of Poland in 1823 were modified while the new institution that referred to exdivisione was introduced, that is, the bidding lease of the immovable property. Nevertheless, the new institution did not replace subhastatio entirely; exdivisione had been present in judiciary practice before, but with no legal ground.
Competencies of the Directorate of the Krakow Police and Their Implementation in Light of Official Correspondence of the Government of Galicia from the Period of Constitutional Rule in Austria (1867–1914)
The article reconstructs the relations between the C. K. Directorate of the Krakow Police and the Galician Government during the period of constitutional rule in Austria (1867–1914). It presents how this Directorate handled tasks of the Galician Government in those matters related to security, peace, and public order, which were carried out by the government’s individual departments. It goes on to present the competencies of the Police Director, regarding the organization and activity of its subordinate structures, provision of equipment, uniforms, accommodation, etc., and also supervision of police officers (councilors, high-commissioners, commissioners, adjuncts, and official servants). It deals with military-police and civil-police guards, police departments, and police stations. In light of correspondence with the Galician Government it reconstructs in detail the competencies of the Directorate of the Police, including its roles of public safety, monitoring of social moods, supervising the conduct of ceremonies, controlling associations (including political parties) and the press, combating espionage, and prosecuting deserters, but also performing ordinary police activities such as prosecution of crimes, and combating prostitution, vagrancy, and begging. The work was based to a large extent on rich source materials stored in the national archives in Krakow, the Public Central Historical Archive of Ukraine in Lviv, and also the Public Archive of the Lviv Region.
Wydanie specjalnego zeszytu czasopisma: „Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa” obejmującego przekład na język angielski wyboru najlepszych tekstów opublikowanych w roku 2016” finansowane w ramach umowy 508/P-DUN/2016 ze środków Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę.
Redakcja numeru: prof. dr hab. Dorota Malec, prof. dr hab. Wacław Uruszczak, dr Maciej Mikuła, mgr Kacper Górski
W artykule omówiono problemy związane z początkami kancelarii miejskiej i wczesną praktyką rejestracji aktów prawnych w Zgorzelcu, opierając się na pierwszej części najstarszej księgi miejskiej, tzw. Czerwonej Księgi. Wpisy zostały sklasyfikowane jako resignationes, orzeczenia, obligationes albo recognitiones. Zwrócono uwagę na fragmenty Czerwonej Księgi, które można uznać za elementy systemu zarządzania miastem. Zaproponowano także kilka wniosków dotyczących najwcześniejszego okresu rozwoju kancelarii miejskiej. Postawiono hipotezę, że przed 1342 r., kiedy powstała druga księga miejska, powinny były już istnieć: (1) protokoły do Czerwonej Księgi; (2) księgi albo przynajmniej składka zawierająca zapiski dotyczące spraw podobnych do rejestrowanych później w drugiej księdze miejskiej (prowadzonej od 1342 r.), przynajmniej dla lat 30. XIV w.; (3) jakaś dokumentacja własna rady miejskiej, nieznana pomimo wysokiego stopnia zachowania archiwów miejskich w Zgorzelcu.
Artykuł zawiera wyniki porównania miejskiej praktyki prawnej Krakowa i Zgorzelca w latach 1300–1343 w świetle najstarszych ksiąg miejskich. Przedmiotem analizy były zapiski ilustrujące gwarancje dla pewności obrotu prawnego. Swoboda alienacji majątku rodzinnego doznawała w średniowieczu ograniczeń przez wzgląd na interesy majątkowe rodziny. Bliżej zanalizowane zostały przypadki zgody udzielanej przez członków rodziny na alienacje majątku poza krąg najbliższych krewnych, gwarancje zapewniane przez zbywcę spokojnego posiadania nabytych dóbr do czasu upływu terminu przedawnienia ewentualnych roszczeń członków rodziny (rok i jeden dzień), a także sytuacje zrzeczenia się takich roszczeń przez członków rodziny na przyszłość. W tym ostatnim aspekcie stwierdzono, że w świetle praktyki zgorzeleckiej zrzeczenia członków rodziny do konkretnych składników majątkowych mogły mieć skutek także w zakresie roszczeń z tytułu prawa bliższości w formie Beispruchrecht. W Krakowie z kolei rezygnacje z uprawnień do konkretnych dóbr, zwłaszcza działy spadku, odbywały się poza urzędem miejskim. Praktyka prawna w obu miejscowościach ukazuje harmonijne współistnienie zasady ochrony interesów majątkowych rodziny oraz wolności alienacji, niezbędnej w aktywności zawodowej mieszczan.
Artykuł wprowadza do zagadnienia stanowisk prawnych dotyczących zwyczaju (prawa zwyczajowego) i ich miejsca w systemie źródeł prawa w okresie późnonowożytnym. Zwrócono uwagę zwłaszcza na cechy i funkcje zwyczaju oraz wyjaśniono relację między zwyczajem a prawem stanowionym (lex, ustawa) jako odrębnymi źródłami prawa. Węgierski okres nowożytny cechuje symbioza zwyczajów i prawa stanowionego oraz ich specyficzne wzajemne relacje. Autorzy artykułu omawiają znaczenie derogacyjnej funkcji zwyczaju oraz rolę kodyfikacji jako wyrazu wzmacniania znaczenia lex jako źródła prawa. W tym samym czasie zwyczaj tracił swój „ludowy charakter” i uzyskiwał nowe formy (zwyczaj spisany w formie orzeczeń sądowych). W węgierskiej historii prawa zwyczaj miał niezastąpioną pozycję, a teoretyczne zasady określone w Opus Tripartitum (1514) były rozwijane lub przeredagowane przez uczonych prawników dobry nowożytnej (J. Szegedi, S Huszty, E. Kelemen, A. Kövy, P. Szlemenics, I. Frank i in.).
Polish criminal law of the post-war period was often used by the new Communist authorities as a tool for dismantling and replacing the prior legal and social structure”. One of the legal acts which functioned as the state authority’s instrument, and simplified the construction of a social and economic system based on Soviet examples, was the decree of 13 June 1946, commonly referred to as the “small” penal code, on crimes which were particularly dangerous during the period of reconstruction in the country. Article 22 of the decree penalised the crime of so-called ‘whispering campaigns’. The case law of the District Court in Cracow in the period of 1946-1950 covers a number of proceedings conducted on the basis of article 22 of the small penal code. Herein, over twenty cases are presented among which fourteen defendants were convicted, six were acquitted, and three proceedings were annulled, including two amnesties. The most serious penalty was a sentence of imprisonment for three years and six months, and the mildest was a two-month detention. The analysis of the cases leads to a conclusion that, on the basis of article 22 of the decree, people were convicted for different statements which, though quite often neutral, were perceived by the law enforcement authorities as an attack against the new political, social, and economic reality. The imprecise attributes of what constituted criminal acts as described in article 22 of the small penal code enabled the authorities to pursue criminal prosecution for almost any statement concerning the above mentioned spheres. The social origin of those convicted for whispering campaigns varied. Defendants varied from those who were illiterate to those who were well-educated.
The conference was held in Warsaw on November 9th, and it touched upon the subject of the 1917 Pio-Benedictine Code. It was organised by the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. The participants were greeted by the Rev. Prof. Stanisław Dziekoński (Rector) and the Rev. Prof. Henryk Stawniak (Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University). The symposium was divided into two sessions. The conference gathered 9 lecturers who work at universities in Poland, Italy, and the Czech Republic. The papers focused on the origins of the Pio-Benedictine Code and some selected legal institutions.
In 2017 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law of 1917 the Faculty of Canon Law at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow organized a conference entitled “Limits of the right to the sacraments”. It was held in Krakow on the 16th of November 2017. The speeches, delivered in two sessions, concerned criteria for allowing children to first Holy Communion, and psychological conditions for receiving the sacraments of Confirmation, Holy Orders, and Holy Matrimony, as well as requirements for receiving the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.
In 2018, there are significant anniversaries for the history of statehood and the Polish nation. Apart from celebrating the centenary of independence (11 November 1918), the 550th anniversary of the bicameral Polish parliament is also celebrated. The impetus for this second anniversary is the result of a study by professor Wacław Uruszczak, who proved that as early as 1468 the principle of deputies’ representation functioned: each ‘land’ (ziemia) sent two deputies to the Sejm. These studies were published in the memorial book of Janusz Kurtyka (The oldest bicameral parliament in Piotrków in 1468 [in:] The Birth of the Polish Republic. Studies on the History of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times, ed. W. Bukowski, T. Jurek, vol. II, “Societas Vistulana”, Kraków 2012, pp. 1033–1056) During the session, 12 papers were presented by researchers from Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and Hungary.
The report contains a brief summary of the 2nd project workshop of the “Fontes Iuris Lusatiae Superioris Vetustissimi” research project, which was held in Zgorzelec on 5th–6th September, 2018. The proceedings on September 5th were held in Polish in the Jacob Böhme House and on September 6th in German in the Municipal Culture House (MDK). Partnering institutions of the workshop were the Lusatian Museum in Zgorzelec and the Martin-Luther University in Halle/Wittenberg.
W artykule omówiono problemy związane z początkami kancelarii miejskiej i wczesną praktyką rejestracji aktów prawnych w Zgorzelcu, opierając się na pierwszej części najstarszej księgi miejskiej, tzw. Czerwonej Księgi. Wpisy zostały sklasyfikowane jako resignationes, orzeczenia, obligationes albo recognitiones. Zwrócono uwagę na fragmenty Czerwonej Księgi, które można uznać za elementy systemu zarządzania miastem. Zaproponowano także kilka wniosków dotyczących najwcześniejszego okresu rozwoju kancelarii miejskiej. Postawiono hipotezę, że przed 1342 r., kiedy powstała druga księga miejska, powinny były już istnieć: (1) protokoły do Czerwonej Księgi; (2) księgi albo przynajmniej składka zawierająca zapiski dotyczące spraw podobnych do rejestrowanych później w drugiej księdze miejskiej (prowadzonej od 1342 r.), przynajmniej dla lat 30. XIV w.; (3) jakaś dokumentacja własna rady miejskiej, nieznana pomimo wysokiego stopnia zachowania archiwów miejskich w Zgorzelcu.
Artykuł zawiera wyniki porównania miejskiej praktyki prawnej Krakowa i Zgorzelca w latach 1300–1343 w świetle najstarszych ksiąg miejskich. Przedmiotem analizy były zapiski ilustrujące gwarancje dla pewności obrotu prawnego. Swoboda alienacji majątku rodzinnego doznawała w średniowieczu ograniczeń przez wzgląd na interesy majątkowe rodziny. Bliżej zanalizowane zostały przypadki zgody udzielanej przez członków rodziny na alienacje majątku poza krąg najbliższych krewnych, gwarancje zapewniane przez zbywcę spokojnego posiadania nabytych dóbr do czasu upływu terminu przedawnienia ewentualnych roszczeń członków rodziny (rok i jeden dzień), a także sytuacje zrzeczenia się takich roszczeń przez członków rodziny na przyszłość. W tym ostatnim aspekcie stwierdzono, że w świetle praktyki zgorzeleckiej zrzeczenia członków rodziny do konkretnych składników majątkowych mogły mieć skutek także w zakresie roszczeń z tytułu prawa bliższości w formie Beispruchrecht. W Krakowie z kolei rezygnacje z uprawnień do konkretnych dóbr, zwłaszcza działy spadku, odbywały się poza urzędem miejskim. Praktyka prawna w obu miejscowościach ukazuje harmonijne współistnienie zasady ochrony interesów majątkowych rodziny oraz wolności alienacji, niezbędnej w aktywności zawodowej mieszczan.
Artykuł wprowadza do zagadnienia stanowisk prawnych dotyczących zwyczaju (prawa zwyczajowego) i ich miejsca w systemie źródeł prawa w okresie późnonowożytnym. Zwrócono uwagę zwłaszcza na cechy i funkcje zwyczaju oraz wyjaśniono relację między zwyczajem a prawem stanowionym (lex, ustawa) jako odrębnymi źródłami prawa. Węgierski okres nowożytny cechuje symbioza zwyczajów i prawa stanowionego oraz ich specyficzne wzajemne relacje. Autorzy artykułu omawiają znaczenie derogacyjnej funkcji zwyczaju oraz rolę kodyfikacji jako wyrazu wzmacniania znaczenia lex jako źródła prawa. W tym samym czasie zwyczaj tracił swój „ludowy charakter” i uzyskiwał nowe formy (zwyczaj spisany w formie orzeczeń sądowych). W węgierskiej historii prawa zwyczaj miał niezastąpioną pozycję, a teoretyczne zasady określone w Opus Tripartitum (1514) były rozwijane lub przeredagowane przez uczonych prawników dobry nowożytnej (J. Szegedi, S Huszty, E. Kelemen, A. Kövy, P. Szlemenics, I. Frank i in.).
Polish criminal law of the post-war period was often used by the new Communist authorities as a tool for dismantling and replacing the prior legal and social structure”. One of the legal acts which functioned as the state authority’s instrument, and simplified the construction of a social and economic system based on Soviet examples, was the decree of 13 June 1946, commonly referred to as the “small” penal code, on crimes which were particularly dangerous during the period of reconstruction in the country. Article 22 of the decree penalised the crime of so-called ‘whispering campaigns’. The case law of the District Court in Cracow in the period of 1946-1950 covers a number of proceedings conducted on the basis of article 22 of the small penal code. Herein, over twenty cases are presented among which fourteen defendants were convicted, six were acquitted, and three proceedings were annulled, including two amnesties. The most serious penalty was a sentence of imprisonment for three years and six months, and the mildest was a two-month detention. The analysis of the cases leads to a conclusion that, on the basis of article 22 of the decree, people were convicted for different statements which, though quite often neutral, were perceived by the law enforcement authorities as an attack against the new political, social, and economic reality. The imprecise attributes of what constituted criminal acts as described in article 22 of the small penal code enabled the authorities to pursue criminal prosecution for almost any statement concerning the above mentioned spheres. The social origin of those convicted for whispering campaigns varied. Defendants varied from those who were illiterate to those who were well-educated.
The conference was held in Warsaw on November 9th, and it touched upon the subject of the 1917 Pio-Benedictine Code. It was organised by the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. The participants were greeted by the Rev. Prof. Stanisław Dziekoński (Rector) and the Rev. Prof. Henryk Stawniak (Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University). The symposium was divided into two sessions. The conference gathered 9 lecturers who work at universities in Poland, Italy, and the Czech Republic. The papers focused on the origins of the Pio-Benedictine Code and some selected legal institutions.
In 2017 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law of 1917 the Faculty of Canon Law at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow organized a conference entitled “Limits of the right to the sacraments”. It was held in Krakow on the 16th of November 2017. The speeches, delivered in two sessions, concerned criteria for allowing children to first Holy Communion, and psychological conditions for receiving the sacraments of Confirmation, Holy Orders, and Holy Matrimony, as well as requirements for receiving the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.
In 2018, there are significant anniversaries for the history of statehood and the Polish nation. Apart from celebrating the centenary of independence (11 November 1918), the 550th anniversary of the bicameral Polish parliament is also celebrated. The impetus for this second anniversary is the result of a study by professor Wacław Uruszczak, who proved that as early as 1468 the principle of deputies’ representation functioned: each ‘land’ (ziemia) sent two deputies to the Sejm. These studies were published in the memorial book of Janusz Kurtyka (The oldest bicameral parliament in Piotrków in 1468 [in:] The Birth of the Polish Republic. Studies on the History of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times, ed. W. Bukowski, T. Jurek, vol. II, “Societas Vistulana”, Kraków 2012, pp. 1033–1056) During the session, 12 papers were presented by researchers from Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and Hungary.
The report contains a brief summary of the 2nd project workshop of the “Fontes Iuris Lusatiae Superioris Vetustissimi” research project, which was held in Zgorzelec on 5th–6th September, 2018. The proceedings on September 5th were held in Polish in the Jacob Böhme House and on September 6th in German in the Municipal Culture House (MDK). Partnering institutions of the workshop were the Lusatian Museum in Zgorzelec and the Martin-Luther University in Halle/Wittenberg.
Redakcja zeszytu :
Wacław Uruszczak, Dorota Malec, Maciej Mikuła
Czasopismo obejmuje artykuły i rozprawy naukowe historyków prawa oraz historyków doktryn politycznych i prawnych z polskich i zagranicznych ośrodków naukowych. Zamierzeniem redaktorów i pomysłodawców wydawnictwa było umożliwienie publikacji rezultatów badań z zakresu szeroko pojętej historii prawa, historii państwa oraz historii doktryn politycznych i prawnych. Czasopismo zawiera także dział recenzji oraz kronikę wydarzeń naukowych.
Redakcja numeru: prof. dr hab. Dorota Malec, prof. dr hab. Wacław Uruszczak, dr Maciej Mikuła
Redaktorzy tomu:
Wacław Uruszczak, Dorota Malec, Maciej Mikuła
Czasopismo obejmuje artykuły i rozprawy naukowe historyków prawa oraz historyków doktryn politycznych i prawnych z polskich i zagranicznych ośrodków naukowych. Zamierzeniem redaktorów i pomysłodawców wydawnictwa było umożliwienie publikacji rezultatów badań z zakresu szeroko pojętej historii prawa, historii państwa oraz historii doktryn politycznych i prawnych. Czasopismo zawiera także dział recenzji oraz kronikę wydarzeń naukowych.
Redakcja numeru: prof. dr hab. Dorota Malec, prof. dr hab. Wacław Uruszczak, dr Maciej Mikuła
Redaktorzy tomu:
Wacław Uruszczak, Dorota Malec, Maciej Mikuła
Czasopismo obejmuje artykuły i rozprawy naukowe pracowników naukowo-dydaktycznych oraz doktorantów w katedrach historycznoprawnych Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Zamierzeniem redaktorów i pomysłodawców wydawnictwa było umożliwienie publikacji rezultatów badań z zakresu szeroko pojętej historii prawa, historii państwa oraz historii doktryn politycznych i prawnych.
Redakcja numeru: prof. dr hab. Dorota Malec, prof. dr hab. Wacław Uruszczak, dr Maciej Mikuła
Piąty tom „Krakowskich Studiów z Historii Państwa i Prawa” dedykujemy Profesorowi Stanisławowi Grodziskiemu, wybitnemu historykowi prawa polskiego i polskiej kultury prawnej. Jest to wyraz najwyższego uznania dla Profesora, którego zasługi na niwie naukowej są nie do przecenienia.
Redakcja numeru: prof. dr hab. Dorota Malec, prof. dr hab. Wacław Uruszczak, dr Maciej Mikuła
Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa,
Tom 4,
Tom 4 (2011), s. 137 - 140
Samorząd terytorialny w Polsce Ludowej. Uwagi po lekturze książki Joanny Olejniczak Wybory do Sejmu i rad narodowych w województwie bydgoskim w okresie tzw. małej stabilizacji (1956–1970), Toruń 2010
Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa,
Tom 4,
Tom 4 (2011), s. 141 - 152
Nieprofesjonalna profesjonalizacja (Piotr Górski, Profesjonalizacja administracji państwowej w Polsce 1918–1939. Uwarunkowania społeczne i kulturowe, Kraków 2011)
Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa,
Tom 4,
Tom 4 (2011), s. 137 - 140
Samorząd terytorialny w Polsce Ludowej. Uwagi po lekturze książki Joanny Olejniczak Wybory do Sejmu i rad narodowych w województwie bydgoskim w okresie tzw. małej stabilizacji (1956–1970), Toruń 2010
Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa,
Tom 4,
Tom 4 (2011), s. 141 - 152
Nieprofesjonalna profesjonalizacja (Piotr Górski, Profesjonalizacja administracji państwowej w Polsce 1918–1939. Uwarunkowania społeczne i kulturowe, Kraków 2011)
Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa,
Tom 3,
Tom 3 (2010), s. 17 - 25
Parlamentaryzm to termin określający system organizacji państwa, w którym jego fundamentem są instytucje reprezentujące naród2. Chodzi tu nie tyle o wspólnotę etniczną, ile o wspólnotę polityczną, a więc zbiorowość osób wyposażoną w prawa polityczne. Współczesny parlamentaryzm został ukształtowany zgodnie z modelem Monteskiuszowskiego podziału władzy. Reprezentacja narodu stanowi w nim organ władzy ustawodawczej, istniejący obok organów władzy wykonawczej i sądowej. Ich wzajemna relacja winna odpowiadać modelowi równowagi, co dobitnie wyraża amerykańska formuła check and balance. We współczesnych demokracjach parlamentaryzm to standard organizacji państwa. Nie ma zapewne dzisiaj na kuli ziemskiej kraju, w którym nie byłoby instytucji parlamentarnych. Parlamentaryzm, zarówno jako doktryna, jak i system polityczny, jest owocem rozwoju historycznego, którego poznanie ma doniosłe znaczenie także dla współczesności.
Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa,
Tom 3,
Tom 3 (2010), s. 223 - 236
One of the features characteristic of the development of the western legal culture in the previous century were extensive changes of the family law. A reform of the matrimonial property relations was necessary, as the legislation of the most of the European states at the beginning of the 20th century retained old property systems and institutions, very often derived from the customary laws of the Middle‐Ages. The paper analyses two main tendencies appearing in the first half of the 20th century. The first one aimed at making equal the legal positions of the husband and wife in relation to property. The second tendency aimed at giving them freedom to shape the property relations during the marriage. The analysis of the reforms conducted in the period demonstrates that the changes were very slow and introduced not without difficulties, which makes relevant the question whether they were inspired by the changes of the society or rather because the state decided on the form of the reforms and tried to promote and enforce specific customs and standards of behavior.
Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa,
Tom 3,
Tom 3 (2010), s. 17 - 25
Parlamentaryzm to termin określający system organizacji państwa, w którym jego fundamentem są instytucje reprezentujące naród2. Chodzi tu nie tyle o wspólnotę etniczną, ile o wspólnotę polityczną, a więc zbiorowość osób wyposażoną w prawa polityczne. Współczesny parlamentaryzm został ukształtowany zgodnie z modelem Monteskiuszowskiego podziału władzy. Reprezentacja narodu stanowi w nim organ władzy ustawodawczej, istniejący obok organów władzy wykonawczej i sądowej. Ich wzajemna relacja winna odpowiadać modelowi równowagi, co dobitnie wyraża amerykańska formuła check and balance. We współczesnych demokracjach parlamentaryzm to standard organizacji państwa. Nie ma zapewne dzisiaj na kuli ziemskiej kraju, w którym nie byłoby instytucji parlamentarnych. Parlamentaryzm, zarówno jako doktryna, jak i system polityczny, jest owocem rozwoju historycznego, którego poznanie ma doniosłe znaczenie także dla współczesności.
Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa,
Tom 3,
Tom 3 (2010), s. 223 - 236
One of the features characteristic of the development of the western legal culture in the previous century were extensive changes of the family law. A reform of the matrimonial property relations was necessary, as the legislation of the most of the European states at the beginning of the 20th century retained old property systems and institutions, very often derived from the customary laws of the Middle‐Ages. The paper analyses two main tendencies appearing in the first half of the 20th century. The first one aimed at making equal the legal positions of the husband and wife in relation to property. The second tendency aimed at giving them freedom to shape the property relations during the marriage. The analysis of the reforms conducted in the period demonstrates that the changes were very slow and introduced not without difficulties, which makes relevant the question whether they were inspired by the changes of the society or rather because the state decided on the form of the reforms and tried to promote and enforce specific customs and standards of behavior.