Znaczenie myśli prawnej i prawniczej II Rzeczypospolitej dla współczesnej nauki i praktyki prawa

Authors:

• Hubert Izdebski

Abstract

The centenary of Poland regaining independence provides a particular opportunity to attempt answering the question which of the achievements of legal and juristic thought of the Second Polish Republic (i.e. the Polish state reborn after the First World War) remain important after almost a century. It is necessary to ask ‘which”, rather than ‘whether’, because tradition is the very essence of law. It is also indispensable because an obvious characteristic feature of the Polish nation is a strong attachment to history and, therefore, a tendency to examine history in search for answers to questions relating to the present and to the future. These two facts alone are sufficient to assume, when asking such a question, that in the Third Polish Republic (i.e. Poland after 1989) there is a continuation of, or at least reference to the pre-war law and legal studies, and to its practice as well, considering the lapse of time and lack of political continuity caused by external circumstances. The article attempts to indicate what – in the law and juristic thought of the Third Polish Republic – represented a continuation, and what represented a reference to the acquis of the Second Republic. The general conclusion is that, independently of the obvious need to apply the standards of the ‘new constitutionalism’ after 1989, the importance of the acquis is easily identifiable.