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Zygmunt Tobor

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The Use of the Power of Pardon by the President of the Republic of Poland in Light of Arguments Outside the Text of the Constitution – Legislative Materials and Established Practice (Case Study)

Sławomir Piekarczyk

University of Silesia in Katowice

Zygmunt Tobor

University of Silesia in Katowice

English abstract: The case whereby the President of the Republic of Poland applied the right of pardon towards individuals who had not been validly convicted has revived ongoing discussions regarding whether such an action is consistent with the Constitution. The problematic aspect in this regard is not only the admissibility of so-called individual abolition but also the very manner of granting pardon while bypassing the procedure provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure. Since the contentious nature of the issue arises from ambiguities in the Constitution’s text, this study’s research objective is to present useful tools outside of this text that may assist in its interpretation. To achieve this, an analysis of legislative materials from sessions of the National Assembly’s Constitutional Commission is conducted, and the established practice (constitutional custom) concerning the problematic issues is discussed. The research conclusions warrant the thesis that these extratextual arguments provide strong justifications for specific interpretative hypotheses. Regarding the first issue, the hypothesis is that the right of pardon does not encompass individual abolition. The hypothesis concerning the second issue is the inadmissibility of a procedure that bypasses the Code of Criminal Procedure regulations.

Key words: power of pardon, legislative materials, established practice, legal text interpretation

Language: polish

Published: Number 1(2026), pp. 5–21.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2026.1.5

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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: 326

This text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial – No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Remarks About the Axiological Dimension of the Polish Constitution of 1997 and Its Interpretation in the Light of Works of Professor Piotr Winczorek

Prof. UŚ dr hab. Sławomir Tkacz, Prof. dr hab. Zygmunt Tobor

University of Silesia in Katowice

English abstract: This article is an extended and supplemented version of the address given during the scientific conference dedicated to Professor Piotr Winczorek. The authors made an attempt to reconstruct theory-of-law views based on the statements of Piotr Winczorek. The subject of the research was especially issues related to the axiology of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. In the course of research such issues as the concept of the legal order in the light of constitutional provisions, constitutional values, constitutional principles, and sources of law were taken up. One of the interesting problems emphasized by Piotr Winczorek was whether the basic law should be frugal in terms of manifesting values. The research is supplemented by an analysis of the problems of legal interpretation in the works of Piotr Winczorek. The conducted analyses enable formulating a general conclusion that many problems raised by Piotr Winczorek are referred to in the current constitutional disputes. Therefore, it is worthwhile to refer to the works of Professor Winczorek, whose statements can be treated as an authentic interpretation of the Polish Constitution of 1997.

Keywords: Piotr Winczorek, theory of law, legal interpretation, Constitution of the Republic of Poland, legal values, legal principles

Language: Polish

Published: Number 1(30)/2022, pp. 113-125

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2022.1.113

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Number of downloads: 428

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Linguistic Corpora as a Tool of Statutory Interpretation: American Theory and Practice

Prof. dr hab. Zygmunt Tobor, dr Mateusz Zeifert

University of Silesia in Katowice

English abstract: In American adjudicating practice and theory of statutory interpretation, great attention is paid to the notion of ordinary meaning of legal text. In order to determine the ordinary meaning, judges usually refer to their own linguistic intuition or dictionaries – both these methods give rise to a number of reservations that have been expressed in legal literature for years. In the last few years, courts have also started using linguistic corpora for this purpose. Linguistic corpora are electronic collections of authentic texts in a given language which can be analyzed using IT tools (e.g. searches, frequency lists, concordances, collocations). Corpus research requires considerable linguistic knowledge and technical skills, and in return it offers statistical data that can reveal a lot about the semantic layer of language. The use of corpora by judges – first in state courts, later also in the federal Supreme Court – sparked lively academic discussion. In Polish literature, this issue has not been discussed so far, which is why the article is essentially of a reporting nature. First, an outline of corpus linguistics is presented. Then the history of the use of linguistic corpora by US courts is reconstructed. Finally, the legal discussion about corpora in the US is presented, with particular emphasis on voices approving their use and on critical voices.

Keywords: statutory interpretation, corpus linguistics, linguistic corpora, US case law

Language: Polish

Published: Number 4(25)/2020, pp. 80-90.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2020.4.80

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Number of downloads: 645

Dialogical Concept of Legal Interpretation

Prof. dr hab. Zygmunt Tobor, mgr Konrad Kobyliński

University of Silesia in Katowice

English abstract: The purpose of this text is to present an outline of the dialogical concept of legal interpretation. It involves the need to establish the relationship between the legislature and courts. In the normative dimension, this concept includes an analysis of assumptions about the mutual roles of the legislature and courts in determining the substance of the law. In the descriptive dimension, the authors present tools that enable communication between the legislature and courts in order to improve the interpretation process. The authors describe the requirements for communication between courts and the legislature, and refer to existing solutions in Poland and the United States. In the text the importance of this issue is only signaled, but the authors believe that it is worth further research.

Keywords: legal interpretation, strategies of interpretation, communication theory of legal interpretation

Language: Original printed in Polish, English translation available below

Published: Number 2(23)/2020, pp. 35-48.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2020.2.35ENG

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Number of downloads: 514