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.