It was after a long period of the Soviet censorship and reprisals that, upon the gaining of independence and restoring intellectual freedom in their land, the Ukrainian legal historians entered a new era, particularly in the area of publication of normative acts of the medieval and modern epochs. Kyïv and Lviv became the centres in which the research on legal history was made and the editing of historical documents was taken up. Some editing being also made in Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Odessa and Poltava. The editing taken up un that period may be divided into several thematic groups. These were: constitutional and legal history (the acts and documents referring to Galych-Volynian Duchy, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and particularly the Cossack State (Het’manshchyna) of the 17th through 18th centuries; social history (citizens of towns, peasants, nobles); history of the Church (particularly that of the Greek-Catholic Church); history of art and culture. Upon the end of the Soviet era the censorship and particular limitations were lifted, the number of publications considerably increased, the range of studied themes and research publications was broadened, the emphasis was laid on the publishing of comprehensive sets of normative acts. Among the negative tendencies in publishing legal sources one can indicate the absence of large projects which would cover the entire territory of Ukraine, the fact that the publications are not systematic, the occasional weakness of the standard of editing, its poor institutional framework and the absence of specialized journals.

The article includes a comprehensive and accurate picture of the development and hardships of the Science of Legal History from the second half of the 20th century. It is impossible to give a systematic representation of the science of legal history in Hungary; the author’s aim is use snapshots of different problems in order to give a feeling for the changes legal history went through due to the political events of the 20th century. To sum up, it can be said that publication opportunities were affected by both subjective and objective factors in Hungary. It is a happy fact that the number of researchers in the field of legal history constantly increased. The structure of university education and the changes in international relations also affected the transformation of possibilities for publication. After the era of Socialism, the publication of research results in the field of Hungarian law, more specifically, the field of legal history, changed significantly. One must not forget that with the broadening of international relations, further options became available for foreign colleagues to become familiar with the works of Hungarian legal historians.

The present contribution depicts the specific forms of settling disputes on the Polish territories in the 19th and early 20th century as formed in the selected pieces of belles-lettres. The specific settling of disputes assumed above all the form of duels accompanied by honorary negotiations. To reach similar objective to so called courts of honour were employed as well as so called citizens’ courts that passed judgements on infamy of the Poles blamed for being dishonest in public affairs. Likewise, the arbitration courts were resorted to. They applied out-of-courts settlements of private disputes. The duels the honorary negotiations that were bound with them or the courts of honour were the most frequent literary motifs. At first the Polish writers, such as Ferdynand Chotomski and Edward Lubawski, depicted them in a satirical tone. However, Bolesław Prus created realistic images of duels, as well as Stefan Żeromski, who presented a true description of the citizens’ court. Kornel Makuszyński, in his turn, created a model image of the arbitration court. The detailed analysis made in the present contribution allow for the conclusion that literary texts can make up an interesting and valuable source in the research of legal historian.

Krzyżanowski was the son of Stanisław, who was a professor of history at Jagiellonian University, and Wanda, née Studnicka. His younger brother, Witold, was a professor of political economy and dean of the Law Faculty at Jagiellonian University.
After his matura exams at St. Anne’s gymnasium he began to study at the Law Faculty at Jagiellonian University. After graduation he went on to complete a doctoral degree. In the meantime, he spent one term listening to lectures at the University of Vienna. Following which he started to work as a volunteer apprentice in the National Bank of Poland. He also began an apprenticeship as a barrister. After the First World War he worked at the State Treasury Solicitors’ Office, first in Cracow, then in Vilnius.
His work in public administration had its influence on Krzyżanowski’s academic interests. In 1924 he published Trybunał Kompetencyjny. Studium z zakresu polskiego prawa publicznego, which qualified him for UJ’s veniam legendi in 1925. At the same time, due principally to a shortage of scientific staff, a chair of administrative law at the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius sat vacant. Krzyżanowski seemed to be the best candidate, but negotiations between the State Treasury Solicitors’ Office and the University were very long. Krzyżanowski was forced to give lectures as a substitute professor for several years, because the Ministry of Religion and Public Education didn’t permit him to be a titular professor. They treated his work at the University as being extraneous.
Finally, on January 1, 1927 Krzyżanowski was reassigned to the State Treasury Solicitors’ Office in Vilnius and he also received permission to lecture at the University in Vilnius. Unfortunately, he died within a few months after a short illness.
The paper contains a biography of Kazimierz Maria Krzyżanowski, along with an inventory of his scientific output.

The reviewed book is an extensive study devoted to criminal trial as conducted in the towns of Southern Poland of early modern period. The author relied on particularly rich source material composed of norm-setting acts, writings of lawyers engaged in theoretical analysis and a large number of court books referring to penal cases, both those presented in the form of manuscripts as well as those that appeared in print. The significance of the study consists in the exploitation by its author of the sources illustrative of legal practice. The author investigated, with a particular precision, the factual course that the municipal criminal trial used to take in more serious penal cases. He laid a particular emphasis on the fairly well source-supported evidentiary proceedings. Worthy of note is his analysis devoted to the substantial law basis according to which the judgements were passed. The analysis showed that in the 16th through 18th centuries, in the municipal courts the local customary law played significant role, apart from that played by the Saxon and Magdeburg legal systems. On the basis of the research that he made the author suggests a conclusion that, despite the differences detectable in the practice of the respective towns, there functioned a uniform municipal penal procedure. The latter was characterized by certain features. These were: 1) the absence – in general – of individualized inquiry that would precede the judicial part of proceedings; 2) the instituting and conducting the judicial proceedings through ex officio method being regarded as something absolutely exceptional; 3) the proceedings were – as a rule – instituted due to the proposal of the plaintiff although sometimes they were instituted through the handing one of the accused to the court; 4) the varying role of the parties engaged in the trial, this being dependant on the specific court; 5) a significant role played by the defence counsels; 6) the lack of limitations that might be imposed on evidentiary proceedings with respect to the specific stage of the trial; 7) the evaluation of evidence based on common sense and not on rigid rules; 8) a slight significance of the appeal proceedings, this might be due to the influence of inquisitional type of procedure. While highly appreciating the practice of criminal courts, the author arrived at a conclusion that remarkably large number of elements of accusatorial and adversary nature that are found in the discussed proceedings locates the criminal trial conducted in the Polish towns of the modern era on the position of the accusatorial and adversary model, the modern elements of inquisitional origin being also detectable in it.
 

The merging of the Constitutional and Legal History of Poland with the General Constitutional and Legal History into one subject Constitutional and Legal History gave rise to the fear that Polish constitutional and legal institutions may be blurred in the area of general history. The absence of individual subject, whose name reflected Polishness, might contribute to the weakening of the spirit of historical community of Polish society, the spirit being previously moulded by the discussed subject. The essential educational element in the forming of the frame of mind of the lawyer inclined toward humanities is the knowledge of above all the constitutional history of his own country, the evolution of its political institutions and the law applied in courts. The discussed modification of the process of educating future lawyers at the Faculty of Law, Administration and Economy of the University of Wrocław may push to the background questions which laid the emphasis on the vernacular legal culture of the state. It is from the native constitutional and legal history that we obtain the first line experience. The subject that was thus eliminated was the one characterized by rich historiography and the one that emphasized the historical continuity of Polish state and law.