Jagiellonian University in Krakow

English abstract: This article is intended as a systematic, quantitative study of the occurrence of emotion-related terms in the discourse of Polish case law on personal injury. My purpose is to show the scale (prevalence) and range (variety) of references to terms related to feelings and affect in the decisions of Polish courts, and to compare this data with rudimentary psychological nomenclature. I am interested not only in how often Polish courts refer to affective phenomena in general, but also how they distinguish various kinds of emotions and, to some extent, what role they assign to them in their reasoning about personal injury. This data is placed in the context of basic psychological models. This is supplemented by preliminary remarks on what roles most notable emotions fulfill, aiming at creating a rudimentary taxonomy of emotions in Polish case law on personal injury. In this way the study aims to answer the questions whether Polish courts notice emotions while adjudicating on non-pecuniary harm, what range of emotions they refer to, and how this data shows the perceived function of affect-related terms in case law. In short, the aim of this article may be described as drawing up a tentative “map” of the affective legal terrain, as well as a taxonomy of functions that emotions may play in personal injury law.

Keywords: Law and Emotion, civil law, emotions, tort law, Polish law, non-pecuniary harm, damages.

Language: English

Published: nr 2(39) 2024, pp. 59-80.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2024.2.59

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Number of downloads: 180

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University of Silesia

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: 327