Kacper Górski

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.

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.

The laws and regulations concerning honey hunters in Poland prior to 1795 were of two kinds, customary and statutory. They regulated the relations between honey hunters and their superiors as well as between honey hunters themselves. Those legal norms not only provided protection to the honey hunters’ rights and possessions, but also regulated various aspects of their professional activities. This article attempts to compile and to produce a comprehensive survey of the sources (fontes iuris oriundi) of the Polish honey hunting law. For that purpose it a distinction needs to be made between honey hunting law sensu largo and sensu stricto. The former category encompasses all of the laws concerning honey hunters, whereas the latter refers to regulatory laws of honey hunters’ communities. The earliest legal rules concerning honey harvesting are of medieval origin. For instance, customary norms concerning bee theft and the ownership of bee swarms can be found in Księga Elbląska (The Book of Elbląg, the oldest extant code of Polish customary law, dating back to 13^th–14^th century) and in the 14^th-century Statutes of Casimir the Great (which, among others, sets down a penalty for destroying trees with beehives). The presence of such provisions indicates the prevalence of honey harvesting in medieval Poland. Indeed, the more important role honey hunting played in the economy of a region, the more numerous and more detailed were the regulations connected with that activity (e.g. Masovia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania). Honey hunting law sensu largo was made by monarchs, the Sejm, local assemblies (sejmiks) as well as by individual landlords. As the economic importance of honey harvesting declined in the early modern age, it was rarely the object of general legislation. The occupation, it seems, needed no further regulation beyond local laws (sensu stricto), i.e. honey hunting laws of local communities in royal, ecclesiastical or noblemen’s domains. These communities observed their old customary laws (some of which was written down in the course of time) as well as the rules laid down by their landlords or, occasionally, by the community itself. The honey hunting law was part of domanial law, and distinct from rural law. This distinction is reflected in the separate status of the honey hunters who were not members of the village community (gromada), even though they were, like other villeins (peasants), the bondsmen of the lord of the manor. The honey hunting law was a foundation of their self-governance.

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.

„Coram iudicio”. Studies of Legal Culture in Towns in Late Medieval Poland, ed. Agnieszka Bartoszewicz, DiG Publishing House, Warszawa 2013, 166 p.
„Coram iudicio”. Studies of Legal Culture in Towns in Late Medieval Poland, edited by Agnieszka Bartoszewicz is composed of four texts, the subject of which is the legal culture in Late Medieval Cracow, Lublin, and Warsaw. In his article entitled Ipsa civitas habundat furibus: Criminals and criminality in Late Medieval Cracow Maciej t. Radomski first presents the organizational structure of judicature in Cracow, then follows with a description of various criminals as individuals, (e.g. thieves, pickpockets, robbers, forgers, and rapists), reviewing their social backgrounds as well as their modus operandi. Krzysztof Mrozowski in his article Suburbanites of Old Warsaw in the latter Middle Ages (1500–1526) offers an insight into the structure of Warsaw’s suburbs. He characterizes the architecture of the places as well as the people who lived there. Miłosz Resztak in his text Studies on legal culture in the Lublin town chancellery’s activity in the Late Middle Ages analyses particular aspects of the city chancellery in Lublin. First, he focuses on status denotations in the examined book. Then he characterized the role of Polish-language words in the books of the records from Lublin. In Wojciech Patronowicz’s article Lublin citizens’ everyday life in the 1408–1532 wilkürs perspective the author presents the aspects of medieval city life regulated by the afore-mentioned wilkürs: administration, security, and trade and craftsmanship, as well as the organizational structure