Archiwum Filozofii Prawai Filozofii Społecznej

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

IVRwww.ivr.org.pl

Search Results for: conception

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: 388

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

Traditional and modern conceptions of ethical and professional responsibility

Prof. KUL dr hab. Tomasz Barankiewicz

The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin


English abstract: The main aim of this paper is to emphasize the changes that took place in late 20th century in the thinking about professional responsibility. Today, mainly under the influence of social sciences, the importance of systemic approaches, such as building the so-called ethical infrastructure, is emphasized. This phenomenon should be seen in the perspective of the growing importance of social responsibility, openness, and transparency in public life. The author argues that in the thinking about professional responsibility there has been a shift from individual, internal, and negative responsibility towards social responsibility, usually expressed in the form of ethical infrastructure. The whole discussion is conducted on three planes: 1) the philosophical one, 2) the sociological one, and 3) that of legal sciences.

Kaywords: professional ethics, social responsibility, professional responsibility of lawyers

Language: Polish

Received: 06.06.2017
Accepted: 06.08.2017

Published: Number 1(16)/2018, pp. 8-20.

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Number of downloads: 432

The position of Social Insurance Institution in the perspective of „sovereignty” conception of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler

Dr Arkadiusz Barut


English abstract: The subject of the article is the analysis of a specific feature of contemporary political and administrative power. As analytic categories the author uses Foucaultian concepts of power discourses: sovereignty: the type of individualized power which strives for self-conservation (pre-modern type of power) and governmentality – the type of non-individualized power the aims of which are control and management of the population (modern type of power). Contemporary power – the bureaucratic power described by M. Weber etc. – seems to be the type of governmentality. But in this field emerges a new type of sovereign power legitimized by the discourse of governmentality – management and protection of the population. Its examples are analysed by G. Agemben i J. Butler indefinite detention in Guantanamo. In this articles, the author focuses on symptoms of the new type of sovereignty in day-to day government action – the practice of the polish organ of compulsory social insurance – Social Insurance Institution (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych).

Keywords: Social Insurance Institution, sovereignty, power, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler

Language: Polish

Published: Number 2(11)/2015, pp. 27-41.

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Number of downloads: 437

Leon Petrażycki

Leon Petrażycki (1867–1931) – Polish and Russian scholar, creator of the psychological theory of law. He introduced the conception of intuitive law, of imperative-attributive emotions and of the policy of law, and is among the most internationally recognised Polish legal thinkers.

Texts in the „Archive”

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

Hanna Dębska · Issue 1(38)/2024

A sociological study of Petrażycki’s scholarly career and of the conditions under which his ideas took shape.

See also the Legal Positivism collection.

Maciej Zieliński

Maciej Zieliński (1940–2020) – Polish legal theorist, creator of the derivational conception of legal interpretation, expressed in the maxim omnia sunt interpretanda. Together with Zygmunt Ziembiński he co-founded the Poznań school of legal theory; his conception remains one of the two main paradigms of Polish interpretive theory.

Texts in the „Archive”

Regarding Justification of Interpretive Claims

Agnieszka Choduń · Issue 2(23)/2020

An account of the assumptions of the derivational conception and of the way interpretive claims are justified within it.

Argument from Precedent in Legal Interpretation from the Perspective of the Derivational Conception

Agnieszka Choduń · Issue 3(32)/2022

Can precedent serve as an interpretive argument in a legal culture where it is not a source of law? An answer from the derivational perspective.

Reconstructing Constitutive Rules from Legislative Acts: The Example of Pardon

Karolina Gmerek · Issue 1(46)/2026

An application of the derivational apparatus to reconstructing from a legal text the constitutive rule of a legal conventional act.

See also the Legal Interpretation and Conventionalism and Constitutive Rules collections.

John Finnis

John Finnis (b. 1940) – Australian legal philosopher, the leading representative of the „new natural law theory”. In Natural Law and Natural Rights (1980) he recast classical natural-law thought as a theory of basic human goods and practical reasoning – influential also in the debate with positivism.

Texts in the „Archive”

Legal Reasoning as Practical Reasoning in John M. Finnis’ New Natural Law Theory

Michał Sopiński · Issue 1(21)/2020

The author presents practical reasoning in the light of Finnis’ new natural law theory, taking his conception of basic human goods as the point of departure.

See also the Natural Law and Legal Positivism collections.

Robert Alexy

Robert Alexy (b. 1945) – German legal philosopher and one of the most widely discussed theorists writing today. He is known for his theory of principles as optimisation requirements, his procedural theory of legal discourse, and his non-positivist conception of law resting on the claim to correctness.

Texts in the „Archive”

Robert Alexy’s Theory of Legal Principles

Milena Korycka · Issue 1(1)/2010

A reconstruction of Alexy’s theory of legal principles, built on an analysis of constitutional norms and on the idea of weighing principles as optimisation requirements.

The Problem of Recognition of Human Rights: Does Explicative-Existential Justification Really Work?

Martin Hapla · Issue 2(27)/2021

A critical analysis of Alexy’s explicative-existential justification of human rights – does the argument actually work?

See also the Principles of Law and Law and Morality collections.

Józef Nowacki

Józef Nowacki (1923–2005) – Polish legal theorist, professor at the University of Silesia and one of the foremost representatives of analytical legal theory in Poland. A consistent positivist, he studied the notion of legality, general clauses and the methodological foundations of jurisprudence, defending conceptual rigour against ideologisation.

Texts in the „Archive”

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

Tomasz Pietrzykowski · Issue 3(36)/2023

On Nowacki’s methodological assumptions and his opposition to the ideologisation of jurisprudential claims – a defence of the scientific ideal in legal scholarship.

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

Zygmunt Tobor · Issue 3(36)/2023

A reconstruction of the two senses of legality in Nowacki’s work and their significance for today’s disputes over the rule of law.

Situationist and Normative Concepts of General Clauses

Sławomir Tkacz · Issue 3(36)/2023

An analysis of Nowacki’s distinction between the situationist and the normative conception of general clauses, and of the dispute over which is the more accurate.

Law and Values Other than Moral: On Searching for Inspiration in Józef Nowacki’s Works

Kamil Zeidler · Issue 3(36)/2023

Kamil Zeidler examines in Nowacki’s writings the theme of the relation of law to values other than moral ones – aesthetic, cognitive and practical.

See also the Principles of Law and Legal Positivism collections.

Joseph Raz

Joseph Raz (1939–2022) – British legal philosopher of Israeli origin, a pupil of H.L.A. Hart and a leading representative of exclusive positivism. Best known for his service conception of legal authority, he treated the philosophy of law, moral philosophy and political philosophy as parts of a single practical philosophy.

Texts in the „Archive”

Around Selected Themes in the Moral Philosophy of Joseph Raz. Part I

Beata Polanowska-Sygulska · Issue 1(42)/2025

An introduction to the side of Raz’s practical philosophy less familiar to Polish readers – the moral and political themes that in his view form one whole with the philosophy of law.

Around Selected Themes in the Moral Philosophy of Joseph Raz. Part II

Beata Polanowska-Sygulska · Issue 2(43)/2025

The second part of the analysis of Raz’s position in moral philosophy and of his place in contemporary debates in practical philosophy.

See also the Legal Positivism and Law and Morality collections.

Conventionalism and Constitutive Rules

A thematic collection of the “Archive of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy”. Texts on the conventional foundations of law: from the dispute over conventionalism in legal theory to the analysis of conventional acts and constitutive rules. All articles are available free of charge in open access.

Conventions and constitutive rules in law

Does law ultimately rest on social convention? Conventionalist readings of Hart’s rule of recognition – and their critique – are among the most heated disputes of contemporary positivism. In parallel, the analysis of conventional acts and constitutive rules develops, reaching in the Polish tradition to Czesław Znamierowski’s conception, and in the international one to John Searle’s theory of speech acts and social ontology.

Selected texts

See also

Classics of Modern Legal Philosophy and Theory · Legal Positivism. Profiles: Czesław Znamierowski · Maciej Zieliński.

For authors

The “Archive” publishes articles in legal theory and philosophy – including conventionalism and the ontology of law – in Polish and English, in open access with no publication charges and with double-blind peer review. The journal is indexed in Scopus, DOAJ and ERIH PLUS (100 points on the Polish ministerial list). See the guidelines for authors.

An editorial collection. Last updated: July 2026.

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