Jerzy Malec

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.  

Wincenty Szpor (1796–1856) was a Cracow advocate and the Senator of the Free City of Cracow in the years 1848–1850. Likewise, he lectured on political skills and statistics at the Law Faculty of the Jagiellonian University. In the years 1827, 1830, 1834, 1847 he repeatedly entered the competition for the Heard of the Chair of Political Skills. On the successive competitions he unsuccessfully rivalled with Ferdynand Kojsiewicz. As a result it was only after the Kojsiewicz’s death that he arrived at the position of the deputy professor. After 1848, due to political reasons, the Austrian authorities did not agree to stabilize his position. It was in 1828 that W. Szpor, while fulfilling the competition requirements for the Chair, submitted to the Commission his ample program of the lecture on political skills. The program suggested by Szpor was well prepared and clear in its form and contents. It was based rather on the assumptions of the Enlightenment era and only to a slight extent it drew upon the assumptions of the spontaneously developing administrative sciences. Therefore in such form the lecture doubtless fell short of the expectations of the mid‐19th century which was the time when Szpor eventually started his much desired academic career. That way or another, Szpor’s program – particu‐ larly when viewed from the perspective of the programs prepared at similar time by M. Hoszowski,F. Kojsiewicz and P. Bartynowski – makes up an interesting document illustrative of the history of the world  of  learning and  instruction in  law.  It is also illustrative of the situation of administrative sciences in the first part of the 19th century.