Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej

Journal of the Polish Section of IVR (ISSN:2082-3304)

IVR

A Scholar’s Career and Idea Generation Under Conditions of Fundamental Structural Changes. About Leon Petrażycki Once Again

Dr Hanna Dębska

University of the Commission of National Education in Kraków

English abstract: This paper proposes an approach to scientific biography from the perspective of Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical project. The choice of Leon Petrażycki (1867–1931), a philosopher and sociologist of law, who might be called an icon of the philosophy of law in Poland, results from the fact that his trajectory gives an insight into the interesting processes taking place in the scientific field, as well as in other social fields at the turn of the century up to the 1930s. Thus, L. Petrażycki is a ‘special case of what is possible’, a ‘product’ of the era. An era marked, on the one hand, by strong geopolitical divisions, corresponding to unequal flows of ideas between national scientific fields, on the other hand, characterized by high fluidity of the boundaries of social fields (science, journalism, politics), between which (up to a certain point) L. Petrażycki adroitly ‘moves’. Petrażycki’s trajectory is also interesting research-wise, as it reveals the influence of social structures on scientific positions occupied and positions takings in discourse. Furthermore, it shows how scientific failure is sublimated. Therefore, the article complements previous perspectives and is programmatic in that it can inspire similar endeavours in the future.

Keywords: philosophy of law, sociology of law, Leon Petrażycki, Pierre Bourdieu, scientific capital, biographical trajectory, scientific field theory

Language: Polish

Published: Number 1(38)/2024, pp. 19-33

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2024.1.19

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Number of downloads: 327

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Changes in the Shell of Legal Culture on the Example of Remote Hearings. An Outline of the Problem

Prof. dr hab. Jolanta Jabłońska-Bonca

Kozminski University in Warsaw

English abstract: The aim of the article is to demonstrate that the new form (‘shell’) of legal culture in courts, which is currently taking shape during remote hearings (i.e., hearings held via electronic devices with simultaneous transmission of image and sound), has an impact on the operation of legal and extralegal rules of court proceedings. The article uses some of the results of empirical research on remote civil hearings in Poland (participant observation method).

Keywords: shell of legal culture, judicial culture, remote hearings

Language: Polish

Published: Number 1(38)/2024, pp. 34-47.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2024.1.34

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Number of downloads: 275

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An Analysis of the Distribution of Rights and Duties in Communities in the Face of Complex Compensatory Correlation

Dr hab. Andrzej Stoiński

University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn

English abstract: The article examines the distribution of rights and duties of justice among entities of unequal status in their mutual relations in communities. The analyses are performed from the perspective of complex compensatory correlation, which is a dicaiological modification of the Hohfeldian legal rights correlation model. The first thesis of the article asserts that alignment of the rights and duties of entities in accordance with the compensatory correlation scheme is a necessary condition for justice in community relations. The second thesis states that an increase in the welfarist positive rights of some citizens is accompanied by an increase in the rights of the government. These proposals are juxtaposed with the image of rights and duties within the family and political community. In the case of entities in family relationships and in some political community relations, one can observe a balance between the rights and duties assigned to them. However, there are also interactions in which some entities have double duties and others have double rights, and therefore, we cannot find there a pattern suitable for a complex compensatory correlation. In such cases, there are deficiencies in the sphere of justice.

Keywords: justice, rights, duties, community, Hohfeld, complex compensatory correlation

Language: Polish

Published: Number 1(38)/2024, pp. 71-82.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2024.1.71

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Number of downloads: 285

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State Commission for Counteracting Sexual Abuse of Minors under the Age of 15 as a Form of Satisfying the Sense of Public Justice

Dr Michał Służalec

University of Jan Długosz in Częstochowa

English abstract: The article discusses the actions of the State Commission for Counteracting Sexual Abuse of Minors under the Age of 15, in relation to the public sense of justice. Its aim is to determine whether the regulations adopted in statutory law indeed implement the principle of public sense of justice, as well as whether this principle constitutes an argument in favour of applying new solutions concerning acts committed prior to the date of its entry into force. The research assumptions necessitated an exploration of the meaning of the public sense of justice, as well as justice itself, in conjunction with the response (of the society/state) to human actions. The chosen thematic area has not been previously addressed in legal scholarship, and controversies regarding the instruments available to the Commission should be juxtaposed with its fundamental premise, namely, satisfying the public sense of justice. The article confines itself to juxtaposing the values connected with public justice in the context of selected competencies carried out by the Commission.

Keywords: public sense of justice, Pedophilia Commission, State Commission for Counteracting Sexual Abuse of Minors under the Age of 15

Language: Polish

Published: Number 1(38)/2024, pp. 60-70.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2024.1.60

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Number of downloads: 241

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Hermeneutical Elements in the Derivational Model of Legal Interpretation

Dr Jędrzej Janicki

University of Łódź

English abstract: The aim of this article is to demonstrate the possibility of presenting the derivational theory of legal interpretation as a theory of a hermeneutical nature. In order to achieve this goal, I distinguish five elements that can be found both in the derivational model of legal interpretation and in the hermeneutical way of thinking. These elements are: (1) a specific way of treating dis-cretion in interpreting cultural products; (2) the linguistic nature of understanding; (3) the histo-ricity of understanding; (4) the circularity of understanding, and (5) the problem of pre-understanding. In the article, I try to show that the five hermeneutic elements can be found with-in the derivational model of legal interpretation. The aim of the article is not to unambiguously determine whether the derivational model of legal interpretation is a hermeneutical one (this would require the construction of a precise definition of hermeneutics, which I do not undertake in this article), but only to mark certain elements of this theory of interpretation which can also be found in hermeneutic thinking.

Keywords: derivational model of legal interpretation, hermeneutics, circularity of understanding, historicity of understanding, problem of pre-understanding

Language: Polish

Published: Number 1(38)/2024, pp. 48-59.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2024.1.48

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Number of downloads: 293

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Beata Polanowska-Sygulska, Harmonia i dysonans. Wokół rozmów z filozofami oksfordzkimi. Remarks about the Book

Prof. dr hab. Andrzej Bator

University of Wrocław

English abstract: The study is an essay on Beata Polanowska-Sygulska’s book Harmonia i dysonans. Wokół rozmów z filozofami oksfordzkimi [Harmony and Dissonance. Around Conversations with Oxford Philosophers]. The essay contains comments on the social and political context in which the various sections of the book were written, on Polanowska-Sygulska’s distinctive writing style, and on the unique nature of sources from which she drew her knowledge about the Oxford philosophers. Of the philosophers presented in the book, here I choose to focus my attention only on selected figures: I. Berlin, L. Kołakowski, and J. Gray. The choice of the first two was determined by the phenomenon of convergence of the two philosophers’ topics of interest. It is the ethical dilemmas taken up by Berlin and Kołakowski that became the guiding idea of the entire book, and, moreover, a challenge whose topicality is felt in a unique way today (e.g., the context of the war in Ukraine). In the essay, I also formulate some critical remarks about the author’s assessment of the theoretical grounding of L. Kołakowski’s philosophy. In the passages devoted to J. Gray and his Feline Philosophy – while agreeing with the author’s critical assessment of the philosophical and social stance outlined there – I additionally attempt to point out its destructive influence on the philosophy of law. A reasonable alternative to Gray’s ethical and legal nihilism may be precisely the BerlinKołakowski movement of value pluralism and the possibility of a ‘pragmatic balance’ perceived by both philosophers, which can be exemplified by the Comprehensive Law Movement. 

Keywords: Oxford philosophers, harmony and dissonance, value pluralism, agonism, legal holism

Language: Polish

Published: Number 1(38)/2024, pp. 5-18.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2024.1.5

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Number of downloads: 300

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Intentional Character of the Interpretation of the Holy Scripture and the Interpretation of Law

Mgr Paweł T. SKOCZYKŁODA

University of Silesia in Katowice

English abstract: The article aims to compare the process of interpreting law with that of interpreting the Holy Scripture. The study focuses on the issue of the interpretative approach adopted for interpretation in both above-mentioned branches of study. An appropriate interpretative approach determines the meaning of the text, which presupposes its correct interpretation. As part of the study, an analysis is undertaken of the interpretative assumptions, expounded in legal scholarship, which assumptions underlie the process of legal interpretation. The concept of interpretation of the sacred text that is recognized in biblical hermeneutics is presented. It turns out that despite the fact that law and the Bible are obviously different from each other, both legal theory and biblical hermeneutics were developed and largely based on the same concept of interpretation – intentionalism – identifying the meaning of utterances with meaning intended by the author of the statement. The conducted analysis enables formulating a general conclusion that only intentionalism makes it possible to discover the full and proper sense of the analyzed utterance.

Keywords: interpretation, statutory interpretation, exegesis, Holy Scripture, intentionalism, textualism

Language: Polish

Published: Number 4(37)/2023, pp. 98-110

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2023.4.98

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Number of downloads: 336

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A Statistical Picture of the Difficulty of Law

Mgr Mikołaj RYŚKIEWICZ

University of Warsaw

English abstract: The incomprehensibility of law is no secret, but the depth of this incomprehensibility has remained insufficiently explored. Previous studies have supported quantitative aspects either superficially or without delving into their method. This work aims to expand the toolkit for analysing legal language in terms of its comprehensibility and demonstrate the results of using these tools. Dozens of Polish laws selected for the study were fully processed and analysed using the Jasnopis application. The results were then reviewed and analysed in the context of linguistic and social studies. The analyses: (1) confirm the profound incomprehensibility of legal language, regardless of the yardstick used; (2) quantify this incomprehensibility in relation to general Polish, providing a picture of how remote legal language is from reality; (3) point to the intrinsic peculiarity of legal language, as manifested in the variation of intelligibility and morphological parameters depending on the branch of law; (4) reveal the potential in studying legal language with indicators other than those commonly used. The research opens
up the field for a broader-than-before discussion of the communicative quality of legislation and, thanks to the context of general Polish, helps outline the socially relevant consequences in the form of linguistic alienation of law recipients.

Keywords: legal language, incomprehensibility of law, nominal style, jurislinguistics

Language: Polish

Published: Number 4(37)/2023, pp. 79-97.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2023.4.79

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Number of downloads: 386

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The Question of Existence of Norms

Prof. dr hab. Wojciech PATRYAS

University of Szczecin

English abstract: First of all, the subject of deliberation are norms understood as expression-types. Such a norm exists, because its quotational proper name is not an empty name. This means that the said norm belongs to the universe of appropriate metalanguage. In other words, this norm is a value of a bound variable of that language. Therefore, there exist not only norms understood as expression-types, but also norms understood as expression-tokens, norms understood as the meanings of expressions, and norms understood as ordered pairs. Moreover, norms understood as expression-tokens exist spatiotemporally because they are things. Meanwhile neither norms understood as expression-types nor norms understood as meanings of expressions, nor norms understood as ordered pairs exist in space or in time, because they are abstract objects. Besides, no norm exists intentionally.

Keywords: norm, to exist, to exist spatiotemporally, to exist intentionally

Language: Polish

Published: Number 4(37)/2023, pp. 68-78.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2023.4.68

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Number of downloads: 324

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