The author has outlined the essence of legal presumptions on discretion in law enforcement of financial legal provisions as both current legal phenomena and legal regulations. The relationship between presumptions and principles of law, as well as the classification of presumptions has been researched into. Presumptions on discretion in law enforcement of financial legal provisions are formed in relation to a particular legal fact or group of facts or compositions that correspond with a particular law enforcement situation, which is due to the origin, content and purpose of these facts or compositions, the relationship between them. With regard to discretion in law enforcement of financial legal provisions, it could also be argued that there are both legally defined irrefutable presumptions (innocence, “all doubts in favour of the taxpayer”) and rebuttable in a particular case, which does not terminate its effect as a whole. It has been concluded that presumptions on discretion in law enforcement of financial legal provisions are applied due to logical methods of induction or modelling, when the probability of a phenomenon is not high enough.

The development of the “natural law” movement during the Enlightenment era has influenced European legal thought and provoked discussions on the law interpretation method. In the 19th century, French and German legal scholarship developed different methodological approaches referring to some historical, social, and multidimensional aspects and foundations of law. The article explores the evolution of the main scientific positions on the method of interpretation of the law which have appeared in French jurisprudence in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. In France, from the early 19th century, the positivist school of exegesis dominated legal studies. In the half of the century, a new trend of scientific research was developed. The representatives of the current have pondered pluralism of the methods applied in legal research. Then, in France, we observe the rise of the “free scientific research” initiated by François Gény.

The U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence has often delineated the borders of American racial politics. In some way, the Supreme Court decisions reflected economic, political, cultural, and ideological values of the contemporary society. The decision of Plessey v. Ferguson was a symbolic establishment of the separate but equal doctrine. It was also significant from the perspective of American federalism. In the 1950s, several rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court influenced American racial politics and paved the way for changes in the context of the development of civil rights. The decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was victory of the civil rights movement. It was perceived as a model for the subsequent cases. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the right of interposition. It was assumed that the power to declare federal laws unconstitutional applied not to the state but only to federal judiciary.

The Term “Dignity” – the Concept of Dignity – Dignity: On Some Theoretical Aspects of Recognizing Dignity in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland

The study aims at making explicit the three spheres or planes, essential from the point of view of semiotics, on which the discourse regarding dignity takes place, and at clarifying the relations between these planes. The analysis uses the conception of Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz. There are three principal areas in which the discourse on dignity is conducted – the plane of linguistic expressions on which the name “dignity” is used; the plane of meanings on which the notion of dignity is placed; and the plane of objects on which there is dignity itself. There is a relationship of meaning between the different concepts of dignity and the expression “dignity”, a relationship of signification between expression “dignity” and dignity as its referent, and a relationship of apprehension between the concepts of dignity and their referents.