The aim of this study is to reconstruct (1) the ethics and the philosophy of law and the state contained in The Eloquent Peasant, in particular in the Peasant’s nine complaints, and (2) the elements of procedural law of the Heracleopolitan monarchy according to the version presented in the story, and (3) to define the concept of Ma’at as it is used in the tale. The Eloquent Peasant is a piece of ancient Egyptian widsom literature piece, composed during the First Intermediate Period, picking up the theme of law, public administration and corruption.

In the paper, an attempt of eliminating a certain supposed internal contradiction in the concept of Janusz Bieniak concerning the role and position of junior members of the Piast dynasty in the territorial governance of the so called second Polish monarchy (ca 1040–1177) was undertaken. As the result of the conducted reasoning, three probable and one hypothetic model of engaging the junior Piasts in the management of provinces were discerned, two of which (1. and 2.) included co-existence in a given province of a Piast duke and a noblemen appointed by the “grand duke” (princeps), and two: officiating of sole members of the dynasty as governors or rulers in the provinces of the monarchy. All those models must be taken into account in further research on the constitutional and political history of the Piast state in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Extant editions of municipal criminal court records from the 16th–17th century provide ample evidence of the proceedings that relied heavily on of written law and of attorneys often invoking the authority of lawyer authors. These observations add extra weight to the postulate of preparing new, critical editions of sources for the study of municipal law in medieval and Early Modern Poland. They should encompass both the German and the Polish text of the Magdeburg Weichbild, the Sachsenspiegel, urban statutes known as wilkierze (Willkür), and the records of judgements (ortyle, Urteile) of the Higher Court of German Law at the Wawel Royal Castle. The texts of the Magdeburg Weichbild, the Sachsenspiegel should be reprinted in extenso – at best by selecting one text representative of each of the main versions (MS branches) to be identified in the course of preliminary researches. To ensure that all the texts are readily available to interested scholars equipped with up-to-date research tools it is recommended that paper or e-book editions be supplemented with matching database online editions.

The paper analyzes the procedural position of an approver in English criminal trial between the 12th and 16th centuries. The medieval prototype of King’s evidence was the approver – a self-confessed felon who accused his accomplices for their involvement in his crime. He was required to prove the truth of his accusation, either in trial by battle or by verdict of the jury. In the later fifteenth century approvers seem to have become increasingly uncommon. During the sixteenth century developed the practice referred to by historians as appeachment. Unlike accusation by approver, appeachment did not involve trial by battle and nor did it require conviction of accomplices.

The interwar period brought with it a wider interest in the question of uniforms, especially in the context of services acting in the interests of public order and safety. Uniforms for civilian clerks received less attention. The first attempts to introduce uniforms for civil clerks were taken by the temporary administration in the Eastern Borderlands. The move came about as an effort at building respect for Polish government officials among the local people, above all, members of the national minorities, in consideration of the frequent contact between the clerks and the military. In central Poland, where the positions of the first starostas were filled by representatives of the local elites, the introduction of separate uniforms served to show the difference between governmental officials (including local) and civil society. The civil service law of 1922 aimed to settle the question of uniforms. It allowed for the introduction of separate uniforms for clerks, but left the details to subsequent regulation. As a result, regulations governing civil clerks’ uniforms (e.g. railwaymen, customs officials, diplomats, etc.) were left to successive administrations. Talk of uniforms for clerks in the general administration continued, though up until the end of the Second Republic the problem remained unsolved. Among the biggest problems was a lack of money, whether in the state budget or the clerks’ own pockets.

The Marian Zyndram-Kościałkowski Government, was the first appointed cabinet after the entry into force of the April constitution of 1935. Deputy Prime Minister Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski played a decisive role in many of the government’s economic cases. The government concentrated on the economic recovery of the country. A certain economic recovery took place in the agricultural sector; a rise in the prices of plants grown for industrial purposes was registered, as well as of animals, and, from the spring of 1936, cereal crops. After a certain stagnation, the department of agriculture hastened the completion of agricultural reform. As a result of the rise in the incomes of agricultural producers and the increases in purchases of manufactured goods by the population of the villages, a growth in industrial manufacturing accelerated automatically. Apart from that the Council of Ministers decided to introduce a reform of the income tax system (including the extraordinary payroll tax), as a measure to increase the income of the state treasury. This brought additional earnings of 288 m PLN into the state treasury. The budget balance for 1935/1936 amounted to a deficit of 263 m PLN, but the budget for the following year was drawn up in such a way that the deficit was liquidated entirely (!) since the cuts in expenditures, and the limited reform of taxes made up for more than 100 m PLN. The government’s announcements of anticipated rapid improvements in the economic situation of the society in the autumn of 1935 turned out to be a big mistake. When the expected recovery failed to materialize, a wave of protests poured over the country in the spring of 1936. Admittedly, the government, through increased taxes and quite drastic cuts in state expenditures, succeeded in reducing the country’s budget deficit, but it simultaneously produced universal dissatisfaction in the society which had to incur serious costs due to such policies. As a result, in spite of the growth in industrial production and a reduction in unemployment, the population started withdrawing its deposits on a large scale, and exchanging them for gold and foreign currencies. In the spring of 1936 the government implemented a ban on the transport of mottos, as well as one on trade in foreign currencies and gold. It also put sharp restrictions on the exchangeability of Polish currency into gold and mottos, and suspended the transfer of foreign loans. All these measures were admittedly necessary, but they came too late to save the country from hemorrhaging foreign exchange. In commercial litigation cases, however, this was the first government to overcome a profound economic crisis.

Arnaldo Momigliano, an Italian historian and an internationally renowned professor of classics and Roman law in particular, in the late sixties of the twentieth century, expressed the view about the end of the history of law as a discipline independent from positive law. This opinion led to the formation of two different approaches towards the study of Roman law: researchers practicing pure history of the ancient world (the so-called “antiquisti”), who combine historical and philological sciences and are detached from the contemporary law; and legal historians, who regard dialogue between legal historians, including Romanists, and representatives of various legal dogmatics as necessary. The first approach undoubtedly marginalises Roman law in the context of disciplines taught at universities, while the second one allows a discursive cooperation with other disciplines of law, especially positive law and legal comparatistics, or even theory and philosophy of law. According to supporters of the second approach, modern law dates back to Roman law which provides the basis for agreement between academics.
From time to time reformers of legal studies have stressed the need for such model of legal studies which would equip graduates with knowledge that prepares them in the best way for their future profession, which undoubtedly is of paramount importance for the proper functioning of society. Lectures on Roman law, in its ancient and subsequent incarnations, make sense when the taught materia is associated with problems disputed in the current curriculum studiorum. What is more, the search for cross-references between various scientific materiae is a rational postulate on the level of scientific research, especially that its strength is reflected by the quality of research.
The presented review of ‘Amne Adverso’. Roman Legal Heritage in European Legal Culture (Leuven University Press, 2015), the book by Laurent Waelkens, not only discusses the content, but addresses as well such issues as the presence and shape of law in Roman antiquity and its topicality for subsequent generations of lawyers - representatives of different historical schools. Finally, the review presents a possible rational model of the presence of Roman law in modern academic reality, particularly in today legal education.

The text is the continuation of a polemic between Prof. dsc. Dr. Jacek Matuszewski and Dr. dsc. Karol Łopatecki, which was printed in issue 3, vol. 9 (2016) of „Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History”.