Classics of Legal Theory and Philosophy

Profiles of the classics of legal philosophy and theory — the figures who shaped modern jurisprudence — with references to the texts devoted to them published in the “Archive of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy”. All articles are available in open access; most of the linked texts are published in Polish, some in English.

World classics of legal philosophy and theory

John Austin (1790–1859)

Founder of analytical positivism. In The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832) he portrayed law as the command of a sovereign backed by sanctions, setting the point of departure for all later disputes about the nature of law. Stanley L. Paulson discusses Austin’s place in the positivist tradition in the study Sedno idei pozytywizmu prawniczego.

Gustav Radbruch (1878–1949)

Neo-Kantian legal philosopher and Minister of Justice of the Weimar Republic. He conceived the idea of law as the unity of justice, purposiveness and legal certainty (Rechtsphilosophie, 1932), and after the experience of National Socialism formulated the famous formula that statutory lawlessness must yield to supra-statutory justice (1946). The antinomies of Radbruch’s idea of law are examined in Bartosz Szyler’s study O pojęciu antynomii idei prawa Gustawa Radbrucha.

Hans Kelsen (1881–1973)

Creator of the Pure Theory of Law and of normativism, and co-architect of the European model of constitutional review. He conceived law as a hierarchical order of norms whose unity is grounded in the basic norm.

Adolf Reinach (1883–1917)

A phenomenologist of Edmund Husserl’s Göttingen circle. In Die apriorischen Grundlagen des bürgerlichen Rechtes (1913) he presented a theory of social acts and of the a priori structures of civil law, anticipating speech act theory by decades; he fell in the First World War. The phenomenological tradition in legal philosophy is documented in Krzysztof Goździalski’s essay Prawo jako przedmiot kulturowy w filozofii prawa Carlosa Cossio.

Alf Ross (1899–1979)

Danish legal philosopher, the leading representative of Scandinavian realism; a student and later empiricist critic of Kelsen. In On Law and Justice (1958) he analysed the validity of law as a prediction that courts will apply the norm, and in the famous essay Tû-tû (1951) he showed the role of intermediary concepts in legal language. A kindred programme of sociological jurisprudence is presented in Aleksander Olaf Szpojankowski’s text on Roscoe Pound.

Herbert L.A. Hart (1907–1992)

Author of The Concept of Law (1961), the most important work of post-war positivism, portraying law as the union of primary and secondary rules crowned by the rule of recognition. The “Archive” published a Polish translation of Hart’s essay Nowe wyzwanie dla pozytywizmu prawniczego, Andrzej Grabowski’s study of the genesis of Hart’s Postscript, and Urszula Anna Kosielińska-Grabowska’s English-language analysis of the rule of recognition.

Jürgen Habermas (1929–2026)

A leading social philosopher of our time, creator of the theory of communicative action. In Faktizität und Geltung (1992) he presented a discourse theory of law and deliberative democracy, tying the legitimacy of law to procedures of rational public debate. Habermasian themes are taken up by Mariola Żak in her study of communicative rationality and good governance and by Paweł Skuczyński in his article on the crisis of law and the claim to correctness.

Ronald Dworkin (1931–2013)

The most prominent critic of Hartian positivism. On his account law comprises principles alongside rules, and is an interpretive practice governed by the ideal of integrity.

Joseph Raz (1939–2022)

Hart’s most distinguished student and the leading representative of exclusive positivism. He developed the service conception of legal authority and a theory of practical reasons (The Authority of Law, 1979; The Morality of Freedom, 1986). His moral philosophy is analysed by Beata Polanowska-Sygulska in a two-part cycle: part I and part II.

John Finnis

The most eminent contemporary representative of natural law theory. In Natural Law and Natural Rights (1980) he presented an account of basic goods and the requirements of practical reasonableness, renewing the natural law tradition in dialogue with analytical jurisprudence. His thought is analysed by Michał Sopiński.

Robert Alexy

Creator of the theory of principles as optimisation requirements and of the weight formula, and of a non-positivist conception of law linking it with the claim to correctness. His theory is reconstructed by Milena Korycka in Robert Alexy’s Theory of Legal Principles, also available in Polish.

Polish classics of legal philosophy and theory

Leon Petrażycki (1867–1931)

Creator of the psychological theory of law, professor in St Petersburg and Warsaw. He analysed law as imperative-attributive emotional experiences, distinguished intuitive from positive law and formulated a programme of the scientific policy of law. Hanna Dębska’s study O Leonie Petrażyckim raz jeszcze is devoted to his life and ideas.

Jerzy Lande (1886–1954)

Professor at the Jagiellonian University, student and systematiser of Petrażycki’s thought, to which he devoted his Studia z filozofii prawa. He educated the post-war Kraków school of legal theory — Kazimierz Opałek and Jerzy Wróblewski were among his students.

Czesław Znamierowski (1888–1967)

Professor at the University of Poznań, author of Podstawowe pojęcia teorji prawa (1934). His account of constructive norms and thetic acts made him a precursor of the analysis of conventional acts in law. This strand is continued in the “Archive” by Karolina Gmerek in Identification of Conventional Acts in Law.

Czesław Martyniak (1906–1939)

Legal philosopher of the Catholic University of Lublin, the leading Polish representative of Thomistic legal philosophy. In Moc obowiązująca prawa a teoria Kelsena (1938) he offered a classic natural-law critique of normativism. He was murdered by the German occupiers in 1939.

Stanisław Ehrlich (1907–1997)

Professor at the University of Warsaw and long-time editor-in-chief of “Państwo i Prawo”; a pioneer of research on pluralism, interest groups and group norms, opening Polish legal theory to political and sociological perspectives.

Grzegorz Leopold Seidler (1913–2004)

Theorist of state and law and historian of political and legal doctrines, long-time rector of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin.

Kazimierz Opałek (1918–1995)

Co-founder of the Kraków school of legal theory, professor at the Jagiellonian University. Zagadnienia teorii prawa (1969), written with Jerzy Wróblewski, shaped post-war Polish legal theory; he developed the theory of directives and norms and studies of rights.

Zygmunt Ziembiński (1920–1996)

Founder of the Poznań school of legal theory, author of Logika praktyczna and of the conception of coupled norms; his analyses of legal language shaped the methodological toolkit of several generations of Polish lawyers.

Józef Nowacki (1923–2005)

The leading representative of the Silesian school of legal theory, author of classic studies on the rule of law, general clauses and the “corresponding” application of provisions; a consistent analytical positivist.

Jerzy Wróblewski (1926–1990)

Co-founder of the Łódź school of legal theory and author of the clarificative theory of interpretation; his works on the judicial application of law are among the most internationally cited achievements of Polish jurisprudence. His discussion with Kelsen is reconstructed by Monika Zalewska in Historia pewnego przypisu.

Maciej Zieliński (1940–2020)

Creator of the derivational conception of legal interpretation (omnia sunt interpretanda), set out in the monograph Wykładnia prawa. Zasady, reguły, wskazówki. In the “Archive” he presented the conception together with Agnieszka Choduń in Uzasadnianie twierdzeń interpretacyjnych.