“May the Polish Sejm be Tranquil, may the Polish Sejm be Quiet”. Building and Phasing out the Legal State in the Second Polish Republic

The inter-war period played the key role in the process of realizing the idea of the legal state in Poland. It brought the uninhibited opportunity to establish a new the form of government based on solid democratic standards and the rule of law for the first time since the country had lost its independence in the late 18th century. It was expressed in the legal instruments of the March Constitution of 1921. Practical enforcement of the legal state concept in the Second Polish Republic was far from ideal though. It resulted from various political, social, economic and international challenges. The March Constitution, not always clearly worded, was subject to widespread criticism and its cumbersome regulations were ignored. Moving gradually away from the rule of law, marked by the Sanacja elites becoming more authoritarian after 1926, was expressed on three levels: creating law, including subsequent constitutional regulations, it’s interpretations and enforcement. Gradual transformation of the parliamentary-cabinet system of the March Constitution into authoritarian state was the result of these processes. The article attempts to analyze the inter-war experience from the point of view of growing degradation of the rule of law and the reasons for its instability in the Second Polish Republic.

The last slaves in modern Europe – relics of serfdom in Spisz and their abolition in the 1930s

In Polish Spiš, incorporated on 28 July 1920 into the Second Polish Republic, there were three villages (Niedzica, Falsztyn and Niżne Łapsze) which belonged to two related families (the Salamons and the Jungenfelds). These villages were relics of feudalism in the form of serfdom of one of the categories of local peasants referred to as “żelarze”. This problem, solved in two stages in Hungary in 1848 and 1896, in Polish Spiš was not eliminated until 20 March 1931 when a legal act led to enfranchisement of “żelarze” by way of purchase over the next three years.

The main purpose of this article is to attempt to show the collective biography of Polish women parliamentarians of the interwar period through an insight into their emotions and feelings, to show the “emotional communities” presented by Barbara Rosenwein. In this text I will focus on the main problems of the political activity of Polish women parliamentarians in the interwar period. Source materials produced by women, mainly ego-documents and public documents created by them, will be used to develop this topic. The study will analyze the individual experiences of women parliamentarians. Their emotions, opinions and reflections on parliamentary work will be taken into account. The paper will also discuss selected biographical aspects of the women parliamentarians, such as their age, education and political views, which undoubtedly had an impact on their opinions and emotions. Polish women parliamentarians of that time had to struggle with many problems. Reluctance to place women on candidate lists was a common occurrence. Moreover, women had to meet numerous social expectations. First of all, they were required to be mothers and wives who were responsible for family life, that is, the private sphere. Furthermore, women were seen more as social activists than as politicians. At the same time, men considered women’s issues less important, which was evident in parliamentary discussions. The main research questions were: How did women perceive their own political activity? political activity? What problems did politically active women face?

The Current Legal Status of the Communities of Old Believers in Poland

The paper discusses the legal status of two communities of ‘old believers’ currently existing in Poland – Eastern Old Believers Church and Old Orthodox Church of Old Believers. The first part of the paper focuses on the controversy surrounding the Presidential Decree regulating the Eastern Old Believers Church of 1928. The widespread opinion concerning the expiry of the norms of the said decree is being challenged in this part. The second part focuses on the characteristics of the Old Orthodox Church of Old Believers, including a discussion of the case underlying the separation of the Old Orthodox Church of Old Believers from the structures of the Eastern Old Believers Church. In the last part, the position taken by the state regarding the dispute between the two mentioned religious denominations will be assessed in the perspective of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.

The Bar, as a professional group dealing with defence and representation, has been developing on Polish lands at least since the beginning of the XVI century. However, only in the second half of the XIX century, so already after Poland was partitioned, the Bar association acquired its first self-government organization. The particularly intensive period of development of the Bar took place during the existence of the Second Polish Republic. The issue of legal basis of its functioning was regulated at the time. The old, unsystematic and post partition legislation was replaced with uniform and more modern law created by the Polish legislator. The rules which constitute the basis of the Bar association system were specified. The rule of equality of the legal profession as well as the rule of freedom and independence of the Bar association were the ones which gained the most importance. Furthermore, the issues connected with performing the legal profession were regulated and specified. Among the aforementioned issues were the following: the essential requirements necessary to perform the profession, the forms in which it is performed, the range of legal activities and the possibility of combining the legal profession with other activities, the rights and duties of a lawyer as well as disciplinary responsibility. Consequently, the interwar period was a short, albeit extremely important stage of the legal corporation’s development.