Articles – Page 9

Friedrich A. Hayek’s Evolutionary Concept of Law: Essence and Topicality

Jakub AUGUSTYNIAK

University of Warsaw

English abstract: The paper aims to present the concept of law proposed by F.A. Hayek in Law, Legislation and Liberty. Hayek’s theory is subsequently compared to G. Radbruch philosophy of law, mainly because of the significant difference in both thinkers’ intellectual backgrounds (i.e., liberalism and socialism). The Austrian philosopher’s theory is identified as a so-called third way proposal, an attempt to demonstrate lack of antagonism between positivism and legal naturalism. This thesis results from the fact that this theory is based on the dichotomy
between two sources of law in the form of established social practice subsequently sanctioned by the sovereign, referred to as nomos, and thesis in the form of legal instruments adopted by competent authorities. The first kind are correlated with private law in the broad sense, which law emerged from the activity of individual members of the society. The second kind should only establish norms to enable the state to operate and to safeguard nomos.

Keywords: nomos, thesis, philosophy, law, justice, society

Language: Polish

Published: Number 4(37)/2023, pp. 5-14.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2023.4.5

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Number of downloads: 414

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Normative and Situationist Conception of General Clause of the Principles of Community Coexistence

Prof. dr hab. Józef NOWACKI (1923–2005)

University of Silesia in Katowice

English abstract: Polish law uses the general clause of the principles of community coexistence. In the legal literature, the concept of principles of social coexistence is understood in various ways. Some people understand the principles of social coexistence in a normative way, associating with them a set of norms to which these clauses refer. Others perceive them situationistically, which means the right to make an assessment in a particular case under consideration. The author argues that the source of controversy in this regard is the unconscious adoption of different understandings of morality. Due to this, the use of each of these understandings (normative and situationist) is legitimate in equall way. For this reason, disputes about the normative and situationist understanding of the principles of social coexistence are empirically unsolvable.

Keywords: Józef Nowacki, general clause, situationalist and normativist conception, the principles of community co-existence

Language: Polish

Published: Number 3(36)/2023, s. 9-21.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2023.3.9

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Number of downloads: 381

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Situationist and Normative Concepts of General Clauses. Disputes About the Accuracy of Two Approaches to General Clauses in the Light of Józef Nowacki’s Views

Prof. UŚ dr hab. Sławomir TKACZ

University of Silesia in Katowice

English abstract: The aim of the study is to analyse Józef Nowacki’s views on the characteristics of general clauses. The author focuses on the most important issues that are the subject of disputes in legal scholarship. In particular, the subject of considerations is the situationist and normative concepts of general clauses as these concepts are understood by Józef Nowacki. In the first part of considerations, the author addresses the issue of vagueness (fuzziness) of general clauses. The main part of the considerations relates to the understanding of general clauses as references in the light of their situationist and normative understanding. In the last part of the considerations, the author analyses the problem of the objects to which general clauses refer. In the light of the presented considerations, the general conclusion is that each general clause may be applied in a situationist or normative manner. In the latter case, we can speak of a reference to a certain set of norms. It is also appropriate to speak about nontextual references. The proposed terminology is the result of the convention adopted by each individual author.

Keywords: Józef Nowacki, general clause, situationalist concept of general clauses, normative concept of general clauses, reference, legal requirement of evaluating

Language: Polish

Published: Number 3(36)/2023, s. 78-92.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2023.3.78

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Number of downloads: 354

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Situationist and Normative Concepts of General Clauses. The Context of Differences and Common Grounds

Prof. dr hab. Leszek LESZCZYŃSKI

Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin

English abstract: The purpose of the study is to analyse the concept of general clause formulated by Józef Nowacki in its basic form in the 1980s. It focuses on several issues that are most important for the shape of the concept. The first is the very notion of a clause as an indeterminate phrase that is part of a legal provision. It corresponds to the crucial components of the situationist concept of the clause – the negation of the referential character of clauses (reference to general norms or values) in favour of treating the clause as an imperative of evaluating, implemented by the law-applying entity in the form of concrete and situational evaluation. The analysis of Nowacki’s concept leads, in the final sections of the study, to a demonstration of its theoretical implications, which, although not within the mainstream, do not prevent the search for common grounds with the normative concept of the clause, negated by the author.

Keywords: general clause, situationist and normativist concepts, reference, imperative of evaluating, situational assessment

Language: Polish

Published: Number 3(36)/2023, s. 66-77.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2023.3.66

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Number of downloads: 348

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Legal Certainty and the Interpretatio Retro Non Agit Principle

Prof. UŚ dr hab. Agnieszka BIELSKA-BRODZIAK, dr Marek SUSKA

University of Silesia in Katowice

English abstract: Referring to Józef Nowacki’s research on the principle of non-retroactivity of law [lex retro non agit], the authors of this study focus on the relationship between legal certainty and retroactive changes in the prevailing interpretation of legal provisions. The main topic of the study is the expression ‘interpretatio retro non agit‘, which is already well-known in the legal culture, but not widely used. The objectives of the study were: (1) to determine the content related, or potentially related, to the statement above in case law and literature; (2) to examine whether there are grounds to consider this principle as binding in adjudication; and (3) to explain why changes in the prevailing interpretation of legal provisions are perceived as a necessary evil. The research gave the authors a basis to distinguish between two understandings of the interpretatio retro non agit principle: the narrow one and the broad one. Moreover, the broad understanding contains four sub-types of the thus understood principle. The narrow approach prohibits recognizing a change in the prevailing interpretation as a circumstance that would allow legally valid court judgments or final administrative decisions to be challenged. On the other hand, the broad approach introduces a presumption that legal effects should not be ascribed solely because of a change in the prevailing interpretation that occurred after the legal fact took place. Four possible justifications for the interpretatio retro non agit principle were also considered: formal, natural, cultural, and instrumental justification. The authors found that the instrumental justification, which connects the principle with the value of legal certainty, seems to be the most appropriate. However, some elements of the principle can also be convincingly justified formally. Retroactive interpretation changes are only briefly discussed in literature, which the authors regard as an unfavourable state of affairs. However, the fundamental differences between law-making and the application of law allow us to understand that protecting the addressees of the law in practice is much more complicated in cases of applying the law.

Keywords: legal certainty, legal interpretation, consistent line of case law, interpretatio retro non agit, ex post facto laws

Language: Polish

Published: Number 3(36)/2023, s. 51-65.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2023.3.51

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Number of downloads: 357

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Law and Values Other Than Moral. On Searching for Tropes in Józef Nowacki’s Works

Prof. dr hab. Kamil ZEIDLER

University of Gdańsk

English abstract: In his article, the author asks the question to what extent considerations in the field of axiology regarding the relationship between law and morality can be useful for the development of the legal-philosophical trend known as legal aesthetics, where the subject of interest is, most generally, the relationship between law and beauty. The starting point for reflections is the issue of axiology in the context of the works left by Józef Nowacki, including, first of all, his article “Valuing in the science of law”. Thus, the subject of the article is axiology, but in a sense that covers both ethics and aesthetics. The author distinguishes four types of description used by legal science: normative description, empirical description, theoretical description and – distinguished by the author – axiological description, which can be justified within the framework of axiological subjectivism. It involves evaluating values and either adding or subtracting them, as well as valuing, that is, comparing and weighing values. The author considers what inspiration in this regard can be drawn from axiological inquiries in general, and Nowacki’s works in particular.

Keywords: axiology, values, valuing, law and morality, principles of law, aesthetics, aesthetics of law

Language: Polish

Published: Number 3(36)/2023, s. 44-50.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2023.3.44

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Number of downloads: 337

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Legality as Compliance with the Intention of the Legislator. The Understanding of Legality in Józef Nowacki’s Works

Prof. dr hab. Zygmunt TOBOR

University of Silesia in Katowice

English abstract: The issue of legality is one of the most important threads in the scientific achievements of Professor Józef Nowacki. He distinguished two ways of understanding legality: a stronger one, which boils down to determining the compliance of behaviour with the contents of a duly enacted provision, and a weaker one, when the only legal basis is an obligation to employ a specific kind of evaluation. In the author’s opinion, Nowacki’s idea does not adequately take into account the fundamental problems with determining the meaning of a legal provision, i.e., problems of interpretation. The proposition that legality means compliance with the contents of a provision transfers the burden of making findings in this respect onto the subject interpreting it. The author discusses two approaches to statutory interpretation, i.e., the eclectic approach, in which there is no universal criterion for the correctness of interpretation, and the categorical approach, in which it is assumed that such a criterion exists. He points out that only a categorical approach can be reconciled with the idea of the rule of law and the role of judges as faithful agents of the legislator. Therefore, he proposes that compliance with the intention of the legislator should be taken as a criterion for the correctness of the interpretation. When legality is approached this way, the need to distinguish its stronger and weaker versions disappears. The qualification of a behaviour as legal or illegal will be based on the criterion of compliance with the intention of the legislator.

Keywords: legality, rule of law, statutory interpretation, intention of the legislator

Language: Polish

Published: Number 3(36)/2023, s. 34-43.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2023.3.34

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Number of downloads: 322

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An Ideal of Scientific Jurisprudence. Józef Nowacki Against Ideological Influences on Jurisprudential Claims

Prof. dr hab. Tomasz PIETRZYKOWSKI

University of Silesia in Katowice

English abstract: Methodological assumptions underpinning Józef Nowacki’s research were one of the most original and intriguing aspects of his approach to legal theory. An extremely rigorous conception of what kind of legal claims may be regarded as scientific can be reconstructed based on his various writings about legal norms, general clauses, dispositive provisions of law, legal principles or the practical application of the constitutional notion of the rule of law. His relentless efforts to uncover and eliminate from scientific discourse any evaluative judgments served to defend legal theory against ideological influences and subjective wishful thinking disguised as scientific claims. In these respects, it not only was an unquestionably valuable position then, but it remains so nowadays. At the same time, it begs numerous questions and doubts that still permeate central methodological debates in jurisprudence.

Keywords: law, methodology, valuing, legal theory, science

Language: Polish

Published: Number 3(36)/2023, s. 22-33.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2023.3.22

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Number of downloads: 352

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Proceeds of Crime, Punishment, and Libertarianism

Łukasz Dominiak

Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland

English abstract: In his recent publication, Walter Block claims that disgorgement of indirect proceeds of crime is incompatible with libertarianism. The present paper argues that Block’s claim is incorrect. In support of this position two general arguments are offered. The first one builds on the distinction between restitution and punishment, showing that forfeiture of assets derived indirectly from crime would not – contra Block – result in unequal punishment under retributive justice. The second one refers to libertarian principles of distributive justice and demonstrates that indirect proceeds of crime are owned by the aggrieved parties. Put together, these arguments conclusively show that the idea that indirect proceeds of crime should be forfeited is compatible with libertarianism.

Keywords: proceeds of crime, libertarianism, restitution, punishment

Language: English

Published: Number 2(35)/2023, pp. 20-33.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280//AFPiFS.2023.2.20

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Number of downloads: 286

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Jakub AUGUSTYNIAK

University of Warsaw

Prof. dr hab. Józef NOWACKI (1923–2005)

University of Silesia in Katowice

Prof. UŚ dr hab. Sławomir TKACZ

University of Silesia in Katowice

Prof. dr hab. Leszek LESZCZYŃSKI

Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin

Prof. UŚ dr hab. Agnieszka BIELSKA-BRODZIAK, dr Marek SUSKA

University of Silesia in Katowice

Prof. dr hab. Kamil ZEIDLER

University of Gdańsk

Prof. dr hab. Zygmunt TOBOR

University of Silesia in Katowice

Prof. dr hab. Tomasz PIETRZYKOWSKI

University of Silesia in Katowice

Łukasz Dominiak

Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland

Bartosz Janik

University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland