Prawo

Kobiety jako oskarżycielki w rzymskich postępowaniach karnych?

Dobromiła Nowicka — 2022-10-07

The article focuses on the issue of the legal legitimation of Roman women to bring a formal accusation in cases other than their own or regarding — to some extent — their relatives, which is still debatable in Roman law literature. The analysis concerns mostly crimen maiestatis and crimen annonae trials, regarding which sources seem to be particularly disputable. Despite ambivalent conclusions drawn on their basis by various authors, it occurs that women could act as both informers and formal accusers in those cases of a very specific nature, which constituted a serious departure from general rules concerning their legitimation, but was rooted in the utilitas publica concept.

George Joseph Bell (1770–1843): ostatni szkocki pisarz instytucjonalny

Mateusz Szymura — 2022-10-07

The subject of the article is the figure of George Joseph Bell — professor of Scottish law at the University of Edinburgh and author of two final Scottish institutional works: Principles of the Law of Scotland and Commentaries on the Law of Scotland and on the Principles of Mercantile Jurisprudence. The publication of both works in the first half of the nineteenth century marks a unique caesura in the history of Scottish law — both the level of complexity of the legal system and the significant convergence of Scottish law and solutions known to English law resulted in a lack of both need and opportunity for a comprehensive treatment of the Scottish law system in the form of a holistic legal treatise. G.J. Bell’s unfulfilled dream of becoming a judge of the Court of Session enabled him to refine his monograph on insolvency law to the level of just such a treatise, which consequently acquired the status of an institutional work and secured for the author a place in the history of Scottish law which is not given to every judge of even the highest of courts.

O kierunkach rozwoju prawa karnego na ziemiach polskich w dobie średniowiecza wobec tradycji i tendencji europejskich

Paweł Wiązek — 2022-10-07

The publication is an attempt to look at the history of law in Poland from the perspective of the development of European legal culture. The choice of the subject matter to be explored determined the author’s methodological instruments, ultimately prompting him to consider comparative legal studies as the basis for his research. At the outset, emphasizing the topicality of the problem in the context of the progress of European integration, the author strove to present the history of criminal law in medieval Poland, highlighting both the original developmental features and the way in which they fit into universal tendencies, represented in the legal systems of other contemporary countries of the Old Continent. In his final conclusions, he drew attention to the tendencies that emerged at the end of the Middle Ages and at the beginning of the modern era, pointing to the growing discrepancies in the directions of further development of law in Polish lands against the tendencies that began to dominate more and more clearly in the laws of most European countries at that time. The author’s intention was not to discover America a few hundred years after Columbus, but to synthesize a multifaceted problem that could serve historical-legal reflection.

Stosunek biskupa Józefa Kazimierza Kossakowskiego do reform polityczno-prawnych w Polsce doby stanisławowskiej

Józef Koredczuk — 2022-10-11

Józef Kazimierz Kossakowski is one of the best-known figures in the Polish ecclesiastical hierarchy, but, regrettably, he is also one of the most critically assessed. Being exceptionally gifted, he used his talents exclusively for personal and family benefits. Having great political aspirations, he tied their fulfillment with the support of Russia, its successive ambassadors in Warsaw (especially Otto Stackelberg, to whom he owed much). He became a supporter of Russia’s interests in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, remaining such until his death, one of the most subservient Polish politicians towards the Russian ambassadors. The decisions made by Kossakowski in 1772–1781 influenced the gradation of his future goals. After he became Bishop of Livonia he took a seat in the Senate, with an increasingly important role in it. His activism increased in particular as the Four-Year Sejm began its deliberations. Despite his seemingly good relations with the King, he vehemently opposed all proposals for reform, revealing his exceptionally adamant stance in this regard. As a senator, he spoke out against the reform party and the Constitution of 3 May 1791, because, like his family, he belonged to the fanatical proponents of gentry republicanism. He was among the most active leaders of the political opposition, flooding the country with hundreds of political writings opposing the reforms of the Four-Year Sejm. Appeals for respecting the rights of the people and reform of laws made for the government were a constant theme of Kossakowski’s arguments, who repeatedly opposed the bills for new laws which he had the chance to work on while he was a senator. His anti-reform stance intensified during the period of the Targowica Confederation and the Sejm of Grodno. During this time, the Livonian bishop and his brother Szymon practically ruled Lithuania, committing many violations. The result of the Kossakowski brothers’ policies, wanting full state hegemony in Lithuania, was also the aspiration expressed at the Sejm of Grodno for the complete separation of the Grand Duchy from the Crown. The dramatic events that led to the collapse of the Polish state, which were undoubtedly the single strongest highlight in Kossakowski’s life, determined his posthumous infamy, which primarily consisted of his personal traits. In terms of the two-facedness peculiar for the Kossakowski family, the Livonian bishop exceeded them all.

Koncepcja rehabilitacji sądowej w pracach Komisji Kodyfikacyjnej nad projektem polskiego kodeksu karnego z 1932 roku

Andrzej Pasek — 2022-10-11

The article presents the course of work in the Criminal Law Section of the Codification Commission of the Republic of Poland on the institution of judicial rehabilitation. It has been shown that its concept was carefully developed on the basis of the resolutions of the Criminal Law Section inspired by prof. J. Makarewicz’s report and the discussion developed around this report, taking into account the achievements of foreign legislation and legal doctrine. The solutions based on these resolutions proposed by J. Makarewicz in the preliminary draft of the general part of the Penal Code were subject to further substantive and editorial modifications as a part of the second and third reading of the Polish Penal Code draft, and then at the forum of a specially appointed Ministerial Committee. As a consequence of these activities, the inclusion of judicial rehabilitation in the Polish Penal Code of 1932 respected the latest postulates of the criminal policy and implemented the principle of punishment individualization.

Projekt ustawy o unifikacji prawa w Polsce na tle powojennych koncepcji unifikacyjnych

Karol Wilk — 2022-10-11

Post-war Poland as a result of border changes and the resettlement of millions of citizens from the so-called Eastern Borderlands found itself in a complicated legal situation. The new reality forced the communist authorities to take urgent measures to standardize the various legal systems functioning in the interwar period and resulting from the partitions. As part of the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland of 12 June 1945, activities aimed at the unification of the law were initiated. Complex issues, post-war difficulties and the imposition of very short deadlines were associated with organizational difficulties and, consequently, the necessity to extend the time for the implementation of the unification process by the Ministry of Justice assigned to this task. In the course of the work, other concepts of unifying the law in post-war Poland also appeared. An interesting, and at the same time little-known, alternative proposal in this regard was the Draft Act on the Unification of Law by the Ministry of Administration, aimed at a rapid general unification of the block method. The ministry’s postulates were the subject of arrangements and inter-ministerial conference as well as discussions in the contemporary literature. The final content of the draft as a result of a vote was not adopted by the other ministries. The project was deemed inadequate to the stage of work at that time and it was decided to maintain the current method of detailed unification. As a result, the civil law was unified on the basis of a dozen or so decrees. The Ministry of Justice also adopted decrees unifying court proceedings in civil cases, decrees partly in the field of administrative law and additional decrees. On the occasion of the success of the completion of unification works, on 13 December 1946, a nationwide academy was held with the participation of the highest state authorities. From 1 January 1947, uniform civil law was in force throughout Poland.

Polonizacja nazewnictwa ulic, placów i mostów we Wrocławiu. Etap I, rok 1945. Analiza źródłowa

Tomasz Kruszewski — 2022-10-11

Over the centuries, Wrocław (Breslau) had become a German city, alien to the Poles. In 1945, the Polonization of names was one of the most important undertakings. The changes were applied slowly (perhaps more names could have been translated), but demons of war dictated that Germanness should be erased. The research describes preserved legal acts from 1945, concerning the process of changing the names of German streets, squares and bridges in Wrocław. The study focuses on the figure of the lawyer Andrzej Jochelson. I have never asked Jochelson (the initiator of streets’ naming alteration) why, as a pioneer, he decided to focus on the Polonization of local naming. Jochelson was involved in this process until his death as a long-term head of the Committee of Street Naming of the Society of Wrocław Enthusiasts.

In 1945, 552 names were changed, of which less than half (248) were continuations, in which category I include four types: translations, re-establishing of old names, introducing new names connected with the location of the street, and changing names of commanders from German to Polish ones.