Czasopismo Prawno-Historyczne, 2010, z. 1

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    Dyskusja na temat reformy ustroju Polskiej Rzeczypospolitej Ludowej w latach 1956-1957.
    (Wydawnictwo Poznańskie sp. z o.o., 2010) Mażewski, Lech
    The discussion on the reforms of the political system of the Polish People’s Republic that was going on in the years 1956-1957 was “chaotic, highly emotional and occasionally demagogic” (Andrzej Burda). The proposals of reforms lacked coherence and were by no means a comprehensive system of views on what the political system of the Polish State should be like. And yet, it was then when practically all possible political-legal institutions were deliberated and at least briefly considered as potential solutions, and some were returned to in subsequent political debates or reflected in the amended Constitution of 1952. The very fact that such a variety of different options was discussed despite the populist opinions praising the fundamental act on the political system then binding in Poland was in itself a positive feature, the basic weakness of the discussion, however, lay in the fact that participants in the debate did not realise the importance of a framework for the post-totalitarian system in which Poland was to function after the transformations of 1956.
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    Koncepcje ustrojowe niemieckiej chadecji w latach 1945-1948.
    (Wydawnictwo Poznańskie sp. z o.o., 2010) Bożek, Michał
    A political formation for post-war Germany that would be based on the fundamental principles of Christian ethics was envisaged by German emigrants and the anti-Nazi movement already during the Second World War. The first Christian Democrat structures emerged immediately after the end of the war, in 1945, but initially they were nothing more than a conglomerate of many small parties which were only loosely related to one another. It therefore took some time before they developed into a largely uniform political party. The political system of the restored German state after the second world war was a widely discussed issue and one of the key programme items of the Christian Democrat party in the allied-occupied West Germany. Those discussions took place during the harmonisation process that was gradually taking place and encompassed different ideas stemming from different party fractions. From those emerged a model of the political system of the future state that was primarily intended to be a parliamentary democracy based on the rule of law, a federal type of state and one respecting the fundamental rights and freedoms of an individual, determined to join, on behalf of its citizens, the international community and be involved in the European integration process. Those general and widely supported goals marginalised the differences and alternative ideas emerging in the discussions of different Christian Democrat leaders. Undoubtedly, the issue of the overall political system of Germany was of primary importance in the first post-war years.
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    Polskie władze administracyjne w procesie wysiedlania ludności niemieckiej w latach 1945-1949.
    (Wydawnictwo Poznańskie sp. z o.o., 2010) Kacprzak, Paweł
    The decision about the displacement of Germans agreed in Potsdam protocols imposed certain obligations on the administrative organs of the states that were to supervise their transfers. Those obligations included adherence to certain standards of how the transfers were to be organised and humanitarian treatment of the persons being displaced. Those and other details were subsequently set out in various bilateral agreements. The execution of the agreed decisions was subject to control by special bodies of military missions. However, full adherence to the prescribed standards required substantial resources (transport, catering, qualified personnel) which only a stable state was capable of providing. Poland, badly damaged and impoverished after the war, did not meet the required standards. Consequently, the actual realisation of the Potsdam decisions and the displacement operation was not quite as expected. Hence the complaints and criticism of organisational inefficiency and non-humanitarian treatment of the population being displaced. It must be noted though that the central authorities tried hard and did their best to secure adequate fulfilment of their obligations, despite the frequently objective difficulties and conditions that rendered the task impossible to fulfil satisfactorily. Therefore, the critical assessment of the performance of the operation by Polish authorities should take into account the mitigating circumstances described above.
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    Statut Organiczny Królestwa Polskiego w latach 1832-1856.
    (Wydawnictwo Poznańskie sp. z o.o., 2010) Demidowicz, Tomasz
    The Organic Statute of 26 February 1832 signed by tsar Nicholas I of Russia in the aftermath of the November Uprising 1830/31 replaced the autonomy of the Kingdom of Poland resulting from its personal union with the Russian Empire and reduced the Kingdom to one province of the Empire, leaving it, however, a certain separate political system. The Statute was of fundamental importance from the point of view of the functioning of the Kingdom of Poland and set out, in Articles 22-29 and 39-41, its ‚final organisation’ as well as its head, central and local authorities. The judiciary was constituted pursuant to Article 1 and Articles 55-67, while Articles 31-33 gave rise to such institutions as Department for the Matters of the Kingdom of Poland and the Secretariat of the State of the Kingdom of Poland. Article 18 set grounds for the formation of the Land Credit Society and the Bank of Poland. The provisions of Article 11 were referred to in the declaration of martial law in 1833, and those of Article 12 were relied on in the legalisation of the practice of sequestration and forfeiture. Article 13, in turn, gave the possibility to impose stricter censorship and culturally isolate the Kingdom of Poland, Articles 14-15 were used to justify free economic exploitation, while similar exploitation but of human material (such as 15-years of compulsory military service) was possible owing to the provisions of Article 20. Further, Articles 31 and 68 were referred to by the Imperial authorities in their attempts to implement in the Kingdom of Poland a social system similar to that in the Russian Empire, by inter alia, the imposition of the Laws on Nobility and the matrimonial Law of 1836. Pursuant to the provisions of Article 68, a special policy was developed at the end of the 1830s to unify and centralise the Kingdom of Poland with the Russian Empire, and the formation in 1839 of the Warsaw Scientific Society, the District Board of Communication District Board in 1846 and the Post District Board in 1852 are but a few examples. This anti-Polish policy pursued by the Russian Empire was temporarily stopped by Aleksander Wielopolski’s reforms.
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    Jurysdykcja sądu konsystorskiego w świetle przepisów prawa małżeńskiego z 1836 roku.
    (Wydawnictwo Poznańskie sp. z o.o., 2010) Fastyn, Arkadiusz
    The paper discusses jurisdiction of the Consistory in matrimonial matters in the central part of Poland between 1919-1939, where, pursuant to the matrimonial law of 1836, jurisdiction in matters such as separation, divorce and nullification of marriage was vested in certain church courts. Decisions issued by those churches were recognised as binding and effective decisions in civil law as well. The main considerations focus of the scope of civil jurisdiction of church courts, and, in particular, their jurisdiction as demarcated by the law. Under that law, matrimonial matters were submitted to a church court that was relevant for the religious faith of the spouses in question. Where spouses were of two different denominations, proper jurisdiction for them was determined by the interdenominational matrimonial law of 1836. However, adjudications of church courts other than RC church court were not always accepted by the dominant RC church. This led to frequent disputes regarding their recognition by civil courts. The key subject of the research is the denominational aspect of the jurisdiction of a church court. The paper also includes different interpretations of the interdenominational provisions formulated by leading theoreticians of the interwar period. As can be seen, the differences of their opinions as well as incoherent jurisdiction of the Supreme Court created many doubts with regards to the enforcement of a decision in a matrimonial matter issued by a church court with improper jurisdiction. And so, in its decision of 8 November 1926 the Supreme Court adjudicated that a state court was empowered to investigate the jurisdiction of a church court which has issued a decision in a matrimonial matter. At the same time, however, it took a stance that the provisions of the state interdenominational law should be absolutely binding. And yet, in some other cases it tended to marginalise the state law and allowed to base civil jurisdiction of a RC court entirely on canon law. These examples illustrate a tendency of the Supreme Court to favour broad construction of the principle laid down in Article 114 of the Constitution that the Roman Catholic Church in Poland should be governed by its own laws.
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    Pozycja prawna państwowego Kościoła Szkocji.
    (Wydawnictwo Poznańskie sp. z o.o., 2010) Zieliński, Tadeusz
    The Church of Scotland, alongside the Church of England, is one of the two state, or established churches in Great Britain. The legal status of the Church of Scotland is of particular nature, not encountered in other European states, as it combines a religious institution with public authority. Its present shape was constituted in the Church of Scotland Act 1921 and followed an agreement it concluded with the British state. The Church of Scotland enjoys complete independence from the state in spiritual matters and its position is generally more privileged in comparison to that of other religious communities. The latter fact may be criticised by those who postulate equality before the law, and in particular the equal treatment of all religious communities. And yet, the Scottish model seems to find fewer critics than the Church of England model prevailing in England. Therefore, if Great Britain is to experience a revision of the relationship between the public authority and religion, such changes will most probably first happen in the southern part of the UK. Thus the future of the Church of Scotland depends on the developments in the Church of England.
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    Toskańskie reformy kościelne na synodzie w Pistoi w 1786 roku.
    (Wydawnictwo Poznańskie sp. z o.o., 2010) Kwiecień, Marcin
    The Synod of Pistoia was the central point of the Tuscan reforms that aimed to regulate the relations between the State and the Church under the reign of Peter Leopold, the great duke of Tuscany 1765-1790. The wide reform programme supported by the bishops of Prato and Pistoia, and headed by Bishop Scipione de Ricci, encountered huge opposition of those who wanted to protect the old Roman Catholic Church order. The reformers went further and demanded fundamental changes in the theological doctrine, the liturgy and the organisation of church structures (the 57 point programme). Their claims incorporated some demands made by the Jansenists clergy. Some of those demands (missa dialogata, the use of the vernacular in the liturgy, or removal of Baroque influences from the Church) were far ahead their times, and some were recognised only later, and implemented by the Second Vatican Council. Although the Synod of Pistoia approved the reformers’ postulates, they failed to be implemented throughout the whole of Tuscany and the new Synod-accepted legislation came to a spectacular end.
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    O pojęciu „Rzeczpospolita” (res publica) w polskiej myśli politycznej XVI wieku
    (Wydawnictwo Poznańskie sp. z o.o., 2010) Pietrzyk-Reeves, Dorota
    The paper argues that the concept of rzeczpospolita (commonwealth) can be seen as the key to the understanding of the main theories formulated by Polish political thinkers of the sixteenth century, and in particular such prominent writers as Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, Wawrzyniec Goślicki, Sebastian Petrycy of Pilzno and Stanisław Orzechowski. The term res publica is closely connected with the classical republican tradition. Therefore the analysis of the concept rzeczpospolita presented in the paper begins with that tradition and its early modern revival before it goes on to examine Polish political thought of the sixteenth century and its potential affinity with the republican insight. One of the main theses of the paper is that the Polish reflection on rzeczpospolita includes the major categories of political philosophy that concern the nature and goals of a political community, its order and the arrangement of its political institutions, as well as the role and duties of its citizens and rulers. Examined from this perspective, Polish political thought of the sixteenth century can be seen as a valuable contribution to the modern republican tradition as it delineates the theoretical basis of the reflection on the political and legal order. Despite the fact that these categories were not strong enough to become a foundation for a strong state, they turned out to be the common ground and moral cement of Polish society in later periods.
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    Następstwo tronu w Księstwie Krakowsko-Sandomierskim i Królestwie Polskim (1180-1370)
    (Wydawnictwo Poznańskie sp. z o.o., 2010) Uruszczak, Wacław
    In the Kingdom of Poland, the election of a king as a successor to the throne had a long tradition dating back in the Piast dynasty. During the Piast period in Kraków, and more specifically in the Kraków-Sandomierz Duchy, also the ruling prince was elected. The first so elected Kraków ruler, called the princeps, was Kazimierz Sprawiedliwy (Casimir the Just) (1180-1194), followed by his minor son Leszek called Biały (the White). Subsequent rulers were also elected, but the election was kept within the Piast dynasty and was, as a rule, merely a confirming election. In 1291 the throne was offered to Vaclav II of the Czech dynasty of the Przemyslids, who defeated in a military battle his rival, the Cuiavian prince Władysław Łokietek (Ladislaus, the Elbow-High). Following the death of Vaclav II and his successor Vaclav III (died on 4 August 1306), Władysław Łokietek, supported by the Hungarians, conquered Kraków and the whole Kraków-Sandomierz Duchy and was subsequently granted , by the baronial caste (możnowładztwo), the power over the Duchy. That act by Kraków barons could also be recognised as an election. Łokietek was the first ruler who introduced the titles „pan i dziedzic” (dominus et haeres) and used his succession rights, with the Papal support, in his struggle to coronation in 1320. Following his death in 1333, the throne was passed to his only son Kazimierz. According to Jan Dlugosz, a chronicler, the convention of the Kraków barons and knights once again confirmed Kazimierz’s right to the throne in an act that might be recognised as a confirming election again. However, his successor, the Hungarian king Louis of Anjou, came to the throne following the succession agreement in Vyshegrad in 1339 and Buda in 1355, which were at least formal attempts to end the electoral system and replaced in with the written principle of the succession to the throne by inheritance of the title. And yet, in the light of an absence of male successors, the issue of an election of a successor to the Polish throne was soon back.
Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Biblioteka Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego