Years and issues
Table of contents
Hard Times, Hard Cases
Issue page: Issue 3(48)/2026 [PL/ENG]
- Resolving Hard Cases: The Essence of Jurisprudence?The main purpose of this study is to argue that the fundamental tasks of legal education include not only teaching legal skills but also resolving so-called hard cases. After presenting the theory of hard cases, the study identifies four contexts in which this phrase appears in US jurisprudence.
- Cryptoeconomic Mechanisms in Blockchain Arbitration: New Areas of Research in Legal Theory and PhilosophyThe article examines innovative solutions in the field of online dispute resolution (ODR), focusing on the rise of decentralized justice systems based on blockchain technology. Traditional arbitration mechanisms rely on legitimacy derived from professional ethics, fiduciary responsibilities, and the arbitrator’s substantive legal knowledge.
- Mediation in the Face of the Crisis in the Justice SystemThe aim of this article is to analyse those aspects of mediation that have a positive impact on court-centred justice, while providing a critical assessment of the contents of legal provisions that currently regulate mediation and proposed changes to them that reduce the use of the potential of mediation.
- Genetic Privacy Protection as a Challenge for the Rule of LawThe protection of the right to privacy is especially important in view of the dynamic development of genetics and new technologies. The concept of genetic privacy refers to the protection of fundamental rights in the context of the collection, use, and disclosure of human biological material and genetic data (e.g., the right to physical integrity, the right to genetic identity, the right to know, and the right not to know).
- The “Wisdom of Hedgehogs”, or Judge-Hercules, a Practically Wise Judge, and Hard CasesThe objective of this article is to propose an alternative to Ronald Dworkin’s concept of the Judge Hercules. This alternative is based on virtue jurisprudence and the concept of practical wisdom (phronesis).
- Art as a Hard Case on the Example of Dorota Nieznalska’s TrialThe case of Dorota Nieznalska, which was pending before a court in Gdańsk for nine years (2001–2010), is considered the longest and most notorious trial concerning art in the Third Polish Republic, as well as the first trial of an artist in the Third Polish Republic, after the fall of communism, in the conditions of a democratic state.
- Pseudolaw or a Legal Subculture. Two-Level Analysis of the Sovereign Citizen Movement in PolandThis article addresses a taxonomic research question concerning the proper analytical classification of the sovereign citizen movement in Poland. The central argument holds that the two most prevalent analytical categories – pseudolaw and legal subculture – are complementary frameworks operating on distinct levels of analysis.
- Law and Game as Practice: Return to H.L.A. Hart Through the Prism of Contemporary LudologyOver the past two decades, the field of study known as “ludology” or “game studies” has developed significantly. This discipline (which sits at the intersection of sociology, psychology, and cultural studies) provides tools for analysing the social phenomenon of games.
- The Offence of Rape after Amendments: New Wording, Old ProblemsThe aim of the paper is to analyse and criticise the amendment to the Polish Criminal Code’s provisions defining sexual offences, which came into force on 13 February 2025. The first part of the article focuses on the problems which the amendment aimed to resolve.
- 12th Congress of Young Theoreticians and Philosophers of Law, University of Gdańsk, Gdynia, 3–5 September 2025