Volume 18, Zeszyt 4

Volume 18 (2025)

Publication date: 12.05.2026

Description

The publication was funded by the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University granted within the Priority Research Area Heritage under the program “Excellence Initiative – Research University” at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

Cover design: Paweł Bigos

Licence: CC BY 4.0

Editorial team

Editor-in-Chief Prof. dr hab. Krystyna Chojnicka

Deputy Editor-in-Chief Dr hab., Prof. UJ Maciej Mikuła

Secretary Dr Kacper Górski

Editors of the Issue 4 Dr hab., Prof. UJ Maciej Mikuła, Dr Kacper Górski, Dr Jakub Pokoj

Issue content

Articles

Kodeks Napoleona jako źródło rozstrzygania sporów z zakresu prawa pracy w Wolnym Mieście Krakowie (1815–1846)

Mateusz Mataniak, Paulina Kamińska

Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History, Volume 18, Zeszyt 4, Volume 18 (2025), pp. 611-631

https://doi.org/10.4467/20844131KS.25.037.23074

The article presents the issue of resolving disputes between “employers” and “employees” by the courts of the Free City of Cracow (1815–1846). This was based on the regulations of the newly implemented Napoleonic Code of 1804. It is shown that due to the scarcity of the provisions relating to contracts of lease of labor (Articles 1708–1711, 1779–1781), Cracow judges and advocates were very keen to refer to the regulations on contractual relations (Title III of Book 3 of the Code Civil). The analysis covered several cases concerning various forms of work services (lease of services). The findings were based on court files from the Tribunal of First Instance, the Court of Appeal, the Court of Third Instance and the Higher Court, stored in the National Archives in Kraków. The article is a contribution to research on the beginnings of labor law on Polish lands in the first half of the 19th century.

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Restrykcje administracyjne i karno-sądowe w Galicji w czasie powstania styczniowego

Ryszard Tomczyk

Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History, Volume 18, Zeszyt 4, Volume 18 (2025), pp. 633-657

https://doi.org/10.4467/20844131KS.25.038.23075

The outbreak of the January Uprising in the Russian partition awakened hopes in patriotic circles in Austrian Galicia. Some of the inhabitants of Galicia crossed the border and took part in the uprising, others were involved in clandestine activities to provide supplies for the insurgents. Noticing this process, the Austrian authorities took restrictive measures based on existing law. Mass inspections and searches, not only in the border zone, but also in the interior of Galicia, resulted in numerous arrests. They covered wider circles of Galician society – landed noblemen, intelligentsia and craftsmen. Participants in the uprising and conspiratorial activists in Galicia were tried, initially in civil courts, and, with a state of emergency being declared, in military courts. After the fall of the uprising, the Austrian authorities began to gradually lift the restrictions. Finally, on April 18, 1865, the state of emergency in Galicia ended. The restrictive actions taken by the Austrian authorities significantly limited the possibilities of supporting insurgent activities in the Russian partition. They reduced the possibilities of conducting a broader mobilization of volunteers to fight and supplying insurgent units with weapons and ammunition. They also limited the propaganda impact on the spirit of patriotism and revolution on the Polish society in Galicia.

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The Evolution of Joint-Stock Company Law in the Czech Lands: From Habsburg Codification to Post-Communist Reform

Petr Dostalík

Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History, Volume 18, Zeszyt 4, Volume 18 (2025), pp. 659-677

https://doi.org/10.4467/20844131KS.25.039.23076

This article examines the legal regulation of joint-stock companies in Czechoslovakia, focusing particularly on the Joint-Stock Companies Act (No. 243/1949 Coll.) and its historical development. It offers a comparative analysis between the socialist-era framework and its predecessors rooted in Austrian commercial law, especially the General German Commercial Code of 1861 (ADHGB) and the Austrian Commercial Code of 1861 (AHGB). The study traces the evolution of joint-stock company law from the Austro-Hungarian Empire through the interwar Czechoslovak Republic and the communist era, culminating in the post-1989 reforms and the current Czech legal framework under the Commercial Corporations Act (No. 90/2012 Coll.). The paper highlights the ideological and political shifts that shaped the transformation from state-controlled economic models to a modern market-oriented corporate structure, while emphasizing the continuity and adaptation of legal traditions throughout these changes.

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Review articles

A Missed Opportunity: The Edition of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, Paul Pierre Lemercier de la Rivière, Les lumières au chevet de la Pologne. Les projets de Rousseau, Mably et Lemercier de la Rivière à la veille du premier partage (1772), avec les observations de Wielhorski et d’autres contributeurs de la Confédération de Bar. Présentation, analyse et transcription par Thérence Carvalho et Bernard Herencia, Genève: Slatkine, 2024

Anna Grześkowiak-Krwawicz

Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History, Volume 18, Zeszyt 4, Volume 18 (2025), pp. 679-689

https://doi.org/10.4467/20844131KS.25.040.23077

The article offers an analysis and assessment of the critical edition of the advice for Poland prepared by three well-known philosophers of the Enlightenment (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, and Paul Pierre Lemercier de la Rivière), as well as of the manuscripts preserved in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw that were prepared for these philosophers by Michał Wielhorski, together with the record of the discussion between Mably and the Bar Confederates. The author of the article emphasizes that the texts included in the reviewed volume are of great value for research on the political thought of the Enlightenment and bringing them together in a single publication was a highly valuable scholarly initiative. However, in her view, the editors failed to meet this challenge. Their undertaking is burdened by very serious gaps and errors, both in terms of their knowledge of the relevant literature – including the fundamental studies of Jerzy Michalski – and in their editorial work on the source texts themselves. The author presents in detail the technical and substantive mistakes made by the editors and ultimately concludes that they disqualify the work as a reliable scholarly resource.

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Editions of primary sources

Feuerordnung königlicher stadt Conitz. Ordynacja przeciwpożarowa królewskiego miasta Chojnice z 1748 r.

Andrzej Gierszewski, Piotr Kitowski

Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History, Volume 18, Zeszyt 4, Volume 18 (2025), pp. 691-702

https://doi.org/10.4467/20844131KS.25.041.23078

Both large and small Prussian cities enacted numerous laws regulating fire protection. Similar provisions can be found in the Willkür, ordinances and other regulations. The subject of this article is the ordinance of one of the most important towns of the former Pomeranian Palatinate, namely, Chojnice. This document, preserved at the Max Planck Institut für Rechtsgeschichte und Rechtstheorie in Frankfurt am Main, represents one of the few preserved acts of this kind related to small early modern Pomeranian municipalities demonstrating efforts to safeguard the town against the unpredictable element of fire.

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