Archiwum Filozofii Prawai Filozofii Społecznej
Journal of the Polish Section of IVR (ISSN:2082-3304)
Language: Polish
Published: Number 2(43)/2025, pp. 168-170.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2025.2.168
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Number of downloads: 192
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English abstract: If we put together and systematize research streams: law in film, law and literature, and aesthetics of law, it is easy to reach the conclusion that we are dealing with related subjects, with a certain overlap in research areas. The broadest term is aesthetics of law, whose scope covers the entire law and literature movement, meanwhile law in film is a more detailed aspect of the latter.
Systematizing the aesthetics of law, we can close it in three aspects: the external one, the internal one, and the one called ‘law as a device for aesthetization’. The aesthetics of law in the external aspect deals with manifestations of law, legal inspirations, legal themes, symbols, signs, which were represented through centuries in fine arts. The subject of the aesthetics of law in the internal aspect is the law itself. The third aspect of the aesthetics of law focuses on law as a device for aesthetization of daily life.
In the law and literature movement, the reflections concern either the inclusion of legislative and legal content in literary works (law in literature), or the literary, including aesthetic, value, of normative instruments, and more broadly, also other acts of applying the law (law as literature). A special case of this research stream is legal cinematography, where a film prepared on the basis of a screenplay is treated as a kind of narrative, justifying the statement that law in film further develops the law and literature movement.
The practical aspect of such research – of legal aesthetics, law and literature, and law in film – concerns mainly the significance and influence on legal awareness, and on shaping the attitudes towards law. The key thing here is approaching the problem of influencing legal awareness through other means than the text of a normative instrument alone.
Keywords: aesthetics of law, law and literature, law in film, legal cinematography, legal awareness
Language: Polish
Published: Number 1(26)/2021, pp. 8-20.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2021.1.8
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Number of downloads: 695
Language: Polish
Published: Number 1(22)/2020, pp. 126-128.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2020.1.126
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Number of downloads: 576
Abstract: In this paper I discuss the apparent similarities between the “literate approach” and the aspiring “visual media approach”. Then, I scrutinize arguments for utility of the second approach. It seems that even though both approaches are founded on similar humanistic considerations, they are nonetheless separate positions; thus the need to justify the application of the second approach independently of the first. As an important task in due course I consider debunking the arguments in support of accusations of the “law and film” movement of being a threat to law and its legitimacy (as related to the “law going pop” argument by Richard K. Sherwin).
Keywords: law and literature, law and film, law and popular culture, narrative, jurisprudence
Language: English
Published: Number 1(26)/2021, s. 21-32.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2021.1.21
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Number of downloads: 616
Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to present a comparative analysis of the use of legislative materials in the process of statutory interpretation in Poland and Spain, by referring to statutes, theoretical literature and case law. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part shows that in difficult cases, when the text is not clear enough as an evidence of the legislator’s intention, other evidence should be sought, including the legislative materials. The second part delivers an analysis of the term ‘legislative materials’, followed by a study of particular examples of legislative materials, including bills and their justifications. It focuses especially on the issue of the Spanish exposiciones de motivos. Moreover, there is a reference to interpretative guidance contained in the legal regulations and to the ways in which legislative materials are used in case law. The third part of the paper responds, on the basis of Polish and Spanish theoretical literature, to some of the objections against the use of legislative materials, underlining its importance for the interpreting the law.
Keywords: legislative materials, legislative history, interpretation, intention, Spanish law, Polish law, ratio legis
Language: Original printed in Polish, English online translation
Received: 13.01.2018
Accepted: 19.04.2018
Published: Number 1(19)/2019, pp. 38-50
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2019.1.38ENG
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Number of downloads: 380
A thematic collection of the “Archive of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy”. Texts in the aesthetics of law – the field studying the relations between law and beauty. All articles are available free of charge in open access.
The aesthetics of law asks about the relations between law and beauty in three perspectives: law as an object of aesthetic evaluation (the language, form and symbolism of law), law in art – from painting and literature to film – and art as an object of legal regulation. In Polish scholarship the research programme of legal aesthetics was developed by Kamil Zeidler (the monograph Estetyka prawa, 2018), and the field – akin to the law and literature movement – has become a recognisable Polish speciality in world legal philosophy.
Classics of Modern Legal Philosophy and Theory · Law and Morality.
The “Archive” publishes articles in legal theory and philosophy – including the aesthetics of law and the law and literature movement – 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.
English abstract: The aim of this article is to analyse the possibility of the existence of a perfect state in the light of Blaise Pascal’s reflections on justice and law. The work juxtaposes utopian visions of ideal states, based on the moral perfection of citizens, as well as modern concepts derived from natural law or the social contract, with Pascal’s critical perspective, which emphasized the sinful human nature and the inevitable link between law and force or coercion. The analysis is based on seventeenth-century philosophical and political literature as well as on interpretations of Pascal’s texts. The main focus is on his reflections on the limitations of human justice and the need for law to maintain order and ensure security. The article argues that a perfect state in the earthly sense is impossible, and that true justice belongs only to the divine sphere. The originality of the study lies in presenting Pascal as a critic of rationalist utopias, one who showed that the state cannot be perfect, even though its existence ultimately has its source in God.
Key words: state, law, justice, order, reason
Language: polish
Published: Number 2(47)/2026, pp. 7–21.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2026.2.7
DownloadNumber of downloads: 67
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English abstract: One of the most important issues recently addressed in the literature is the threat to democracy and the rule of law. It is pointed out that the necessity of verifying the role and tasks of key political institutions, primarily the state, is determined by the nature and dynamics of changes occurring in the modern world. The issue of threats to democracy and the crisis of the rule of law has frequently been discussed in Polish theoretical and doctrinal legal works produced after 1926. Authors such as Sz. Rundstein and Sz. Starzewski often raised concerns about the dangers associated with phenomena referred to as “anti-constitutional tendencies.” Their published studies addressed both internal threats and the dangers arising from the formation of fascist states and the Soviet state. The findings made at that time remain highly relevant today. Therefore, in the context of the challenges faced by legal practice and legal science today, it seems justified to recall the conclusions formulated nearly 100 years ago.
Key words: Fascism, democracy, rule of law, total state, authoritarianism, civil rights, Nazi and Soviet totalism
Language: polish
Published:Number 4(2025), pp. 58–76.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2025.4.58
Number of downloads: 209,926
This text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
English abstract: One of the most important issues recently addressed in literature is the threats to democracy and the rule of law. It is pointed out that the need to verify the role and tasks of key political institutions, primarily the state, is determined by the nature and dynamics of changes in the modern world. The issue of threats to democracy and the crisis of the rule of law has frequently been discussed in Polish theoretical and doctrinal legal works produced after 1926. Authors such as Szymon Rundstein and Maciej Starzewski often raised concerns about the dangers associated with phenomena referred to as “anti-constitutional tendencies”. The studies they published addressed both internal threats and the dangers arising from the formation of fascist states and the Soviet state. The findings made back then remain highly relevant in the present day. Therefore, in the context of the challenges faced by legal practice and legal science today, it seems justified to recall the conclusions formulated nearly 100 years ago.
Keywords: Fascism, democracy, rule of law, total state, authoritarianism, civil rights, Nazi and Soviet totalisms
Language: English
Published: Number 3(44)/2025, pp. 38-54.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2025.3.38
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Number of downloads: 225
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English abstract: The aim of the article is to present a synthesis of the technological and social framework of the new, disruptive technology of human digital twins (HDT) and to outline the most important philosophical and legal issues related to it. The latter include ontological and phenomenological aspects in relation to the problem of legal personality and the status of HDT. Due to the universality of the technology and the breadth of issues related to it, the scope of the discussion was limited to examples of the use of technology in health care and medicine. The article presents the possibilities and threats of using HDTs in this area. Selected, most important examples of potential ethical and legal problems posing a challenge to future and current regulations in areas such as privacy and data protection, data quality and ownership, and patient autonomy were also analyzed. The conclusions of the article, point that the changes resulting from this disruptive technology go beyond purely practical aspects and touch the philosophical foundations of the legal order. HDT technology itself, at its early stage of development, does not clearly determine the direction of evolution of legal humanism paradigm towards inclusive posthumanism or technological transhumanism. The need to consider the phenomenological perspective of the HDT experience was emphasized. It may become the most important factor determining possible conceptual changes in law and jurisprudence. In addition to the discussion, the article provides an extensive review of the existing computer science literature on HDT. There have been no studies on the issue of HDT from the perspective of jurisprudence in the legal literature so far.
Key words: Human digital twin, personalized medicine, artificial intelligence, new technology law, medical law, transhumanism, digital clone.
Language: Polish.
Published: no. 1(42)/2025, pp. 93-111.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2024.4.93
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Number of downloads: 245
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