References to Schools of Legal Thought in the Justifications of Judgments of Polish Courts

Keywords: schools of legal thought, justifications of judgments, Polish courts, judicial argumentation

English abstract: The article presents the results of a quantitative and qualitative study of the Polish case law in terms of the presence of direct references to schools of legal thought in the written justifications of judgments. Although these types of references are very rare, their intensification can be observed in the last decade. In justifications of court decisions, references were made to just a few strands of jurisprudence. Most references relate to jusnaturalism and legal positivism. Courts characterize schools of legal thought in a simplified and exaggerated  manner, and sometimes also incorrectly. The judicature usually disregards the authors’ versions of particular strands of jurisprudence, reaching for the claims derived from these strands in their ‘average’ form. The paper posits that legal philosophy is potentially useful for courts, especially in hard cases. It may help judges to perform the explanatory and persuasive functions of justifications of judgments. The condition for this is that references to the tenets of specific schools of legal thought should not be superficial, shallow or slogan-like. Otherwise, they play only an ornamental role, not an argumentative one.