SPIS TREŚCI / CONTENTS / ЗМІСТ

Global competition and the fate of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the world

China’s contemporary Belt and Road Initiative (the “New Silk Road”) as the leading idea of China’s foreign policy in the President’s Xi Jinping era is an attempt to continue the unique tradition of the historical Silk Road. However, in the conditions of the present day, the great ideas of the Silk Road have to face in reality the challenges of the modern global world. The author shows the contemporary challenges (internal and external) facing international projects of the Belt and Road Initiative, and becoming their typical problems. The article could be used to formulate many multi-threaded conclusions, but in the end, the hope preveils that if the ideas of the Belt and Road were liberated from the context of global political competition, humanity would gain enormously. The conditions for accelerated economic growth would be created, promoting the idea of expansion based on peaceful cooperation, which – in the current era of tensions, unrest and a number of war outbreaks in the world – is particularly needed.

The legal platform for combating terrorism in Poland

This article addresses the issue of terrorism and its counteraction in Polish legislation. Its aim is to demonstrate how Polish law is prepared to prevent terrorist incidents and which agencies and authorities are responsible for these actions. The article applies the method of institutional-legal analysis. Based on it, conclusions can be drawn that Polish legislation is relatively well-prepared to combat terrorism.

Why can’t it be done differently? Limited voter representation in provincial assemblies (sejmiki) in the period of 2014–2024

The problem of distorting the representativeness of elections to provincial assemblies in Poland is widely noted. The local government elections in 2024 confirm the indicated state of affairs. In many situations, the natural electoral threshold significantly exceeds the statutory threshold, and large groups of citizens do not have their representation in the sejmiks, while the largest groupings are overrepresented. The authors of this article set out to compare the number of voters without representation in provincial assemblies after the introduction of the Electoral Code, i.e. in the 2014, 2018 and 2024 local elections, despite having voted for groupings that exceeded the statutory electoral threshold. The authors, using institutional-legal analysis and classical systemic analysis, also propose a simple way to solve the pointed out significant problem for the representativeness of the elections, which is the abandonment of the division of provinces into smaller electoral districts.

Attitudes of school youth towards homosexuality and adoption of children by homosexual couples

In our considerations, we address two issues in the social narrative: homosexuality and adoption of children by homosexual couples. The basis for these diagnoses are the results of nationwide surveys and sociological research carried out in the two decades of the 21st century. Especially in the second decade of the 21st century, the views of school youth on bioethical issues were subject to progressive liberalization (secularization of morality). In nationwide research at the turn of 2022–2023, conducted among secondary school students, it was found that homosexual relationships were rated as permissible by 50.7% of the surveyed school youth, “it depends” – 12.0%, unacceptable – 24.4%, hard to say – 12.9%; adoption of children by homosexual couples (respectively) – 41.0%, 17.6%, 29.9%, 11.5%.

Scholarly research of Mykola Bytynsky in Canada

The character of Mykola Bytynsky and his activities have not yet been sufficiently studied and analyzed, although they undoubtedly deserve it. Mykola Bytynsky is an expert in the field of heraldry and the author of a number of articles and surveys devoted to the problems of city and land heraldry in the historical and ethnographic regions of Ukraine. Due to the fact that the works of M. Bytynsky are scattered in various journals of public and religious associations of the Ukrainian community abroad, his scientific heritage has not become the object of special research. The article examines and analyzes the activities of M. Bytynsky in the field of Ukrainian heraldry and vexillology in Canada. M. Bytynsky was one of the organizers of the Ukrainian Genealogical and Heraldic Society, which contributed to the popularization of heraldry among the Ukrainian community in emigration. In his scientific activity, M. Bytynsky, first of all, devoted himself to the study of the city and territorial coats of arms of Ukraine, as evidenced by the huge number of publications during the years 1953-1972. M. Bytynsky was also engaged in the study of Ukrainian heraldic terminology, in particular the divisions of the shield, the peculiarities of the use of helmets, mottos, mantles, tents and crowns. Along with explanations, he gave examples of blazoning (description) of coats of arms. Due to the ideological commitment and political motivation of the city heraldry of the time in the Ukrainian SSR, the majority of city coats of arms were created in gross violation of the basic prescriptions of theoretical heraldry. M. Bytynsky, who was a leading specialist and practical specialist in the production of coats of arms, developed a number of recommendations that have not lost their relevance to this day and are an important evidence of the strength of the coat-of-arms tradition of Ukraine. For the first time, M. Bytynsky drew attention to the problems that objectively arose during the study of Ukrainian city symbols. The elaborated epistolary of M. Bytynsky also made it possible to analyze the creative ideas and directions of the researcher’s scientific activity, as well as the socio-cultural factors that had an impact on his life and activity. First of all, attention is drawn to the correspondence of M. Bytynsky with the famous heraldist R. Klymkevich, in which the researchers discussed a number of topical problems of Ukrainian city and land heraldry. Let’s note that the letters are carriers of versatile and unique information, which contributes to the understanding of a wide range of topical issues. Due to the lack of many sources, the letters will contribute to filling in the white spots in the study of scientific activity. In view of this, they are important sources for the reconstruction of the scientific activity of researchers of auxiliary historical disciplines.

Report from the Conference “Sustainable development of the EU: best practices for Ukraine” (Lviv, February 22, 2024)

Report from the 1st International African Congress (Toruń, February 21–23, 2024)