Czasopismo Prawno-Historyczne (CPH) to czołowy polski recenzowany periodyk naukowy poświęcony historii prawa, w szczególności badaniom nad historią ustroju i prawa oraz historią doktryn politycznych i prawnych, dziejami prawa rzymskiego i kanonicznego, prawem wyznaniowym i historią prawa jako nauki. W CPH publikowane są teksty autorstwa naukowców z kraju i zagranicy w językach polskim i angielskim. Periodyk ukazuje się w wersji elektronicznej a wszystkie teksty są objęte polityką otwartego dostępu. CPH to najstarsze polskie czasopismo z zakresu historii prawa – ukazuje się nieprzerwanie od 1948, a założone zostało przez prof. Zygmunta Wojciechowskiego. Zgłoszenie artykułu, proces recenzyjny oraz publikacja w CPH są bezpłatne. Wydawcą CPH jest Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, Wydział Prawa i Administracji. Od 2021 r. wersja elektroniczna jest pierwotną wersją czasopisma. Indeksowanie CPH DOAJ, ERIH PLUS, Crossref, CEEOL, EBSCO Historical Abstracts with Full Text, CEJSH, Sherpa Romeo, Dimensions, System Informacji Prawnej Legalis, Google Scholar, POLONA, <a href="https://academica.edu.pl/search?query=Czasopismo+Prawno-Historyczne&advancedSearch=false&searchType=DOCS&sectionType=&sortField=&sortOrder=&resultsLimit=10&page=1&highlight=false&fullTextSearch=false&advancedOp=&advancedField=fulltitle&advancedValue=&advancedValueFrom=&advancedValueTo=&advancedInputType=STRING&advancedOp=AND&advancedField=fullmeta&advancedValue=&advancedValueFrom=&advancedValueTo=&advancedInputType=STRING">Academica, Arianta, ROAD, Biblioteka Nauki, Infona, NUKAT, WorldCat, PUBMED, THE KEEPERS, WIKIPEDIA PL (POLISH), WIKIDATA, SUDOC, OPENALEX, EZB, FATCAT Wskaźniki oceny czasopisma Ministerstwo Edukacji i Nauki (2024): 70 h5-index: 5 ISSN (Online): 2720-2186 ISSN (Print): 0070-2471 Tytuł równoległy w ISSN: Annales d'Histoire du Droit Prace publikowane w CPH dostępne są na licencji Creative Commons: 2016-2020 2021-2022 od 2023 ARCHIWIZACJA Platforma PRESSto archiwizuje zawartość tego czasopisma w PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), co zapewnia tworzenie elektronicznej kopii zapasowej i bezpieczeństwo dostępu do treści czasopisma. "Czasopismo Prawno-Historyzne" jest zgodne ze standardami I40C dotyczącymi otwartych cytowań. WYDAWCA Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Tomasz Szczygieł, Prace nad kodyfikacją prawa karnego materialnego Polski Ludowej (1947–1969), Katowice 2025
Review of monograph: Tomasz Szczygieł, Prace nad kodyfikacją prawa karnego materialnego Polski Ludowej (1947–1969), Katowice 2025.
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Przemysław Piątek https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Ogólnopolska konferencja naukowa „Bohdan Winiarski i jego poglądy na tle nauki prawa międzynarodowego w XX wieku”, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, 8 września 2025 r.
Report on conference on ‘Bohdan Winiarski and his views against the background of international law of the 20th century’, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, 8 September 2025.
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Maciej Jońca https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
XXX Zjazd Historyków Prawa i Ustroju oraz Doktryn Polityczno-Prawnych „Wielość kultur z perspektywy historii prawa”, Poznań, 15–16 września 2025 r.
Report of the XXX Congress of Historians of Law, State, and Political and Legal Doctrines ‘Cultural Diversity from the Perspective of Legal History’, Poznań, 15–16 September 2025.
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Piotr Alexandrowicz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Uroczystość nadania auli wykładowej imienia Profesora Wiesława Kozuba-Ciembroniewicza (1944–2015)
Report of the naming ceremony for the ‘Professor Wiesław Kozub-Ciembroniewicz Lecture Theatre.’
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Maria Zmierczak https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Sędziowie a prawo – debata XIX- i XX-wiecznych teoretyków i filozofów prawa o sędziach twórcach prawa
The article reviews various theses advanced by philosophers and theorists of law from the 1860s onwards, which challenged Montesquieu’s famous theses that judges are only ‘the mouth of the law’ and that the judicial power is almost null. These theses, connected with the idea of the separation of powers, underpinned legal positivism, a theory that dominated the nineteenth century. Soon, however, the question arose whether every legal act or decree is law. The question was addressed by Rudolf Stammler (law must be just), Leon Duguit (law is law only if it accepts the principle of solidarity) and Hermann Kantorowicz (Gnaeus Flavius), who argued for free judicial decision-making: judges should be free to decide whether a decree or legal act should be treated as law. After World War II and the experience of legislation in the Third Reich, Gustav Radbruch argued that intolerably unjust laws should not be regarded as legally valid, even if properly promulgated. Many philosophers returned to the idea of natural law. The result was the introduction into many constitutional texts and into international law of such notions as human rights and equality before the law; this phenomenon was often called a legalisation (positive formulation) of natural law. Consequently, through the development of constitutional courts, judges became indirect legislators, since they can rule that the norms are not law because they contradict the constitution. The idea that judges are only the ‘mouths of the law’, with no possibility of denying or questioning the legal character of decrees or norms enacted by the legislature, has been practically rejected.
Obraz sędziów w historii i w kulturze w świetle wybranych dzieł operowych z końca XVIII i XIX wieku
Almost from the birth of opera, law has been an inspiration for its creators, in terms of libretto and music, as well as interpretation and reception. With the development of this stage genre and the expansion of the audience, which occurred from the end of the eighteenth century, the image of representatives of the justice system evolved dynamically. This article attempts to characterise judges and the justice system they represent within their historical and ideological contexts, and to present this subject through the lens of selected operatic works from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Using historical and legal analysis, and related multi-level and interdisciplinary methods from musicology and opera studies proposed by, among others, Filippo Annunziata and Giorgio Fabio Colombo, the article examines the image of judges and the judicial apparatus, including trials. The analysis considers selected operatic works in their legal, historical, and cultural contexts, with reference to the main layers of opera: music, libretto, interpretation, and reception. Analysing serious, semiseria, and comic operas, such as Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Salieri’s L’Axur re d’Ormuz, Mayr’s L’amore coniugale, Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Pacini’s L’ultimo giorno di Pompei, Kuhlau’s Elverhøj, Bellini’s La straniera, Donizetti’s Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal, Auber’s La Muette de Portici, Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots, Halévy’s La Juive, Wagner’s Lohengrin, Verdi’s Aida, Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, and Puccini’s Tosca, the article identifies changes in the image of judges and law depending on the historical and cultural period, and argues that a diverse image of the justice system, often though not exclusively drawing on stereotypical ideas about the law and its representatives, depends on the historical and cultural period of the operas.
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Przemysław Krzywoszyński https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Powstanie sądów apelacyjnych w 1990 r. na przykładzie Sądu Apelacyjnego w Białymstoku
The article presents the circumstances of the establishment of the Court of Appeal in Białystok in 1990. It is one of the ten Courts of Appeal established at that time. The Court was established in connection with the major systemic transformation that took place in Poland after 1989, following the fall of the communist system. The purpose of establishing the Court was to reduce the Supreme Court’s workload and to shorten the duration of court proceedings. The establishment of the Court in Białystok was the result of a broad campaign by local communities, which saw the establishment of the Court as an opportunity for Białystok’s civilisational advancement. One of the arguments in favour of creating the Court was the existence of the Faculty of Law in Białystok, which was expected to provide a staffing base for the new institution. The thirty-six years of operation of the Court of Appeal in Białystok to date have confirmed that the decision to establish it was justified. They have also confirmed the correctness of the decision to return to the three-instance model (appeal, cassation) of court proceedings, as it existed until 1950, and replaced the two-instance communist model (revision).
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Piotr Fiedorczyk https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Zasady procesowe w Formula processus iudiciarii: prawo i praktyka w XVI–XVII wieku
The Formula processus iudiciarii, adopted by the Diet in 1523, was a reform court procedure in the law of the Polish nobility. Although the term ‘principle of court procedure’ is a modern one, it may be applied to analyse provisions of this act. Doing so allows us to better understand the origins and evolution of the civil process. Despite the different legal, social, and economic frameworks, many of the aims of the sixteenth-century legislator remain relevant today: creating a court procedure that would guarantee the parties’ procedural rights, while also seeking to improve and expedite the existing process. The article analyses the text of the act in the light of present-day procedural rules, taking into account the old legal literature and legal practice as well. It concludes that the Formula processus iudiciarii aimed to reduce procedural formalism and to introduce an appeal, which established the principle of reviewing judgments. While maintaining principles of publicity and adversarial litigation, it also reduced the inequality between the parties. Moreover, the degree to which these principles were developed may be regarded as distinctive of the Polish process in the European context. These efforts indicate the existence of certain more universal frameworks within noble society, which sought a model of the fair conduct of court trials. In legal practice, however, the trial became more formalised than had originally been intended, and the development of various appellate measures led to abuse of the law. Hence the procedure reformed by the Formula processus iudiciarii may be described as a fair trial only in part. While capturing the process through principles can be useful, it is equally important to consider the limitations of such an approach. A full understanding of the old Polish civil process therefore requires further research focusing on local practices of applying the Formula processus.
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Adam Moniuszko https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Koncepcja, geneza i normatywne uwarunkowania organizacji adwokatury w Bułgarii – druga połowa XIX i pierwsze lata XX wieku (do 1914 r.)
The development of the Bulgarian bar was inextricably linked to the establishment of the Principality of Bulgaria following the Treaty of Berlin (1878), which concluded the Russo-Turkish War. This period marked a transition from Ottoman structures to a modern national legal framework. This study aims to identify the formative stages of the legal profession in Bulgaria, encompassing the most important ideological factors that shaped its beginnings in the country, and to establish the key legal acts that provided the foundations of the profession’s activity. It employs a historical-legal analysis, centred on the concept of legal transplantation, examining how Russian judicial models were adapted to the socio-political realities of the newly formed Bulgarian state. The study finds that the Bulgarian judicial system was modelled primarily on the 1864 judicial reforms of Tsar Alexander II. Significant progress occurred with the 1880 regulations on legal representation and the landmark legislation of November 1888, which formally institutionalised the roles of advocates and advocates’ assistants. The emergence of bar councils, though initially limited in scope, is identified as a crucial manifestation of modernisation. These institutions laid the groundwork for professional self-governance and the alignment of the Bulgarian legal system with European standards.
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Mikołaj Tarkowski https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Ewolucja historyczna przymusowej detencji psychiatrycznej jako wyłącznego środka reakcji społecznej na czyny zabronione popełnione przez niepoczytalnych sprawców na przykładzie Wielkiej Brytanii w XIX i XX wieku
Although involuntary psychiatric admission serves a protective function, guarding against the threat posed by an offender and helping to prevent them from committing crimes, it is always highly burdensome and constitutes a deprivation of liberty (basic human and civil rights). People with mental disorders are confined to a highly restricted and closed environment, physically isolated from the outside world, and required to follow a top-down treatment plan. The article aims to examine the reality of British psychiatric hospitals and prisons from a historical perspective. This paper also examines the British regulations and provides an analysis of legal matters connected with the evolution of control procedures designed to prevent violations of the rights of patients, the legal status of offenders with mental disorders, therapeutic conditions, and existing oversight mechanisms. It also points out other procedural consequences of different legal instruments regulating the treatment of persons suffering from mental disorders. The main methods were a dogmatic-legal and a historical approach. The analysis was theoretical and was based on normative materials, legal doctrine, court rulings, and newspaper articles. The article concludes that (i) in the Victorian era, involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation was highly repressive, long-term, and violated fundamental rights and freedoms of persons with mental disorders. Persons with mental disorders were confined in prisons as well as in private and public psychiatric institutions, where conditions were absolutely unacceptable; (ii) the development of academic psychiatry and advances in the understanding and treatment of mental disorders contributed to greater respect for human rights and to the enactment of more humane legislation in this area. The conditions and quality of care for hospitalised patients improved significantly.
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Izabela Jankowska-Prochot https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Uczeń i Mistrzowie. Więzi profesora Tadeusza Silnickiego z lwowskimi uczonymi
The article looks at the scholarly and professional relationship between Professor Tadeusz Silnicki, a distinguished historian of law, and his two Lviv mentors, Professor Oswald Balzer and Professor Władysław Abraham. The purpose of the study is to illuminate the bonds forged between a young aspirant to scholarship and two eminent legal historians active at the turn of the nineteenth century. By tracing the successive stages of Silnicki’s academic trajectory, the reader is introduced to the origins and further development of these relationships, from his undergraduate years through his tenure at Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv. This picture is further augmented by Silnicki’s own reminiscences and testimonies, in which he expresses not only his profound esteem for his mentors but also recounts their seminar methods, the research problems they addressed, and the scholarly ethos and normative framework that prevailed within the academic milieu. The resulting account offers insight not merely into their mutual connections but also addresses the question of what the future Poznań historian of law and ecclesiastical law ultimately inherited from his illustrious predecessors, and to what extent Professors Balzer and Abraham became a source of lasting inspiration for his subsequent scholarly activity. The study draws upon archival materials and the relevant literature, employing the historical-legal method.
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Magdalena Pyter https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Prawnicze batalie o (nie)karanie oficera za pojedynek w Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej – kazus ppłk. Zygmunta Dzwonkowskiego z 1924/1925 r.
For a Polish Army officer in the Second Polish Republic, duelling always gave rise to a moral dilemma: whether to stand on the field of honour, weapon in hand, or to refuse to participate in such a ‘meeting’ and thus risk expulsion from the officer corps. The article, drawing on previously undisclosed archival materials held in the Central Military Archives at the Military Historical Office in Warsaw, presents the case of Lt. Col. Dzwonkowski in the context of the (non-)punishment of Polish Army officers for duelling, which was a matter of debate within the military judicial corps. This issue even reached the military justice system, which, in considering the case of Lt. Col. Zygmunt Dzwonkowski’s 1924 duel, entered into a judicial dispute. This was primarily due to the different approaches to the duelling of a Polish Army officer taken by the prosecutor’s office, which strictly adhered to the regulations, and the judges, who always ruled in the accused’s favour. The court case, or rather three trials of Lt. Col. Dzwonkowski, became a platform (unprecedented in the history of Polish military justice in the Second Polish Republic) for a dispute over the (non-)punishment of an officer who, in defence of honour, sought satisfaction with a gun in his hand. The final decision was made only by the President of the Republic of Poland, who exercised his power of pardon in favour of Lt. Col. Dzwonkowski, thereby effectively bringing the matter to a close.
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Grzegorz Kulka https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Rozwód w praktyce Sądu Okręgowego w Lublinie w latach 1939–1944
The article presents the practice of the District Court in Lublin in applying the law in divorce cases during the period of the General Government, that is, under German occupation between 1939 and 1944. The study analyses the functioning of the confessional marriage system within the multicentric legal order of the General Government. The thesis advanced in the article is that, in the years 1939–1944, the District Court in Lublin, when adjudicating divorce cases, acted on the basis of the law formally binding on it, and that its case law did not serve the political objectives pursued by the German authorities in the General Government. The source base of the study consists primarily of case files from ten proceedings conducted before the District Court in Lublin during the period, as well as court registers. Supplementary sources include materials concerning other district courts within the General Government and the legal theses issued by the Court of Appeal in Warsaw. The principal research method applied was a historical-legal analysis of specific court cases. The research findings indicate that litigants sought to obtain legally valid divorce decrees, inter alia, by changing their affiliation to a church legally recognised in the General Government. The analysed cases also reflected the broader realities of the occupation, particularly with regard to parties of Jewish origin, who were able to pursue court cases (including divorce proceedings) until the final stages of the Holocaust. The reason for filing one of the lawsuits was most likely the difference in nationality between the spouses and the anti-Jewish legislation introduced in the General Government by the German authorities. The article shows how the conditions of the occupation affected the practical aspects of court proceedings in the General Government, including difficulties connected with parties appearing at hearings and with serving legal documents.
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Hubert Mielnik https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Lex iniusta non est lex: proces prawników w Norymberdze (United States v. Josef Altstötter et al.) z perspektywy historycznoprawnej
This article examines the Nuremberg Justice Case (United States v. Josef Altstötter et al., 1947) as a landmark judgment concerning the criminal responsibility of judges, prosecutors, and officials of the Reich Ministry of Justice for crimes committed through judicial and administrative procedures. Its central aim is to reconstruct the legal standard developed by the U.S. Military Tribunal under Control Council Law No. 10 and to explain why this standard was later weakened in the jurisprudence of the Federal Republic of Germany. The analysis combines historical-legal, dogmatic, and philosophical methods. First, it presents the dismantling of the rule of law in the Third Reich and the transformation of courts into instruments of racial and political persecution. Second, it examines the Katzenberger case as a paradigmatic example of judicial murder, based on the manipulative combination of racial legislation, wartime decrees, and degraded evidentiary standards. Third, it analyses the post-war doctrine of Rechtsbeugung, Richterprivileg, and the problem of subjective awareness of illegality as mechanisms that limited the prosecution of Nazi judges. The article argues that the Justice Case operationalised the maxim lex iniusta non est lex by imposing on legal professionals a duty to refuse participation in manifest injustice. It concludes by proposing a typology of state crimes of adjudication and a threshold test for identifying when adjudication becomes an instrument of crimes against humanity.
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Krystian K. Jabłoński https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Od Redaktora Naczelnego / From the Editor-in-Chief
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Wojciech Szafrański https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Departament Polityczny Ministerstwa Spraw Wewnętrznych w okresie dwudziestolecia międzywojennego w Polsce – wprowadzenie do badań
The Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Second Polish Republic was a key ministry responsible for, among other things, monitoring public sentiment, controlling the activity of political parties, cooperating with local administrations, and combating anti-state activity. Its responsibilities also included surveillance of the political opposition and press censorship. These tasks were primarily handled by the Political Department, which was granted special powers in this regard after the May Coup (1926). The importance of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as the Political Department itself, for the government of the time is undeniable. Despite their significant role and assigned responsibilities, as presented in this study, no monograph has yet been written on this topic. Research conducted in the Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw revealed numerous archival sources on the subject that have not been studied in detail. The article aims to identify the main research issues to be addressed in detail in the forthcoming monograph. These include the influence and operating methods of the Political Department in terms of social and political control, its cooperation with and pressure on the security services, and its assessment as a professional tool for achieving political goals by the Sanation camp. The Political Department was undoubtedly a key element in the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The presented text also demonstrates the complexity and ambiguity of the assessment of the Department’s activities: on the one hand, it was a stabilising element of the state, and on the other, a tool for restricting political freedoms, especially after 1926. Clarifying these issues may further deepen our understanding of the functioning of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and its subordinate institutions in the Second Polish Republic.
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Bartosz Nieścior https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
„Prawo do edukacji” wobec „obowiązku edukacji” w kontekście wybranych międzynarodowych i polskich rozwiązań prawnych
This article examines two formal concepts: the ‘right to education’ and ‘compulsory education’ in international conventions (as formulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR]) and in national legislation (using Poland as a broader example), respectively, to identify their degree of internal and external coherence. Some additional categories connected to these two main ones, such as compulsory school attendance, compulsory preschool attendance, and parents’ right to educate their child, are also considered. The question posed here is: who is bound by the statements of right and duty in Article 26 of the UDHR? Is it the individual, who is free and compelled to receive education, or the citizen as the holder of the right and the state as the bearer of the duty to guarantee it? The cited data demonstrate the current status of these two categories in the constitutions of different countries. Particular attention is paid to the complex Polish legislation in the field of education, from the national constitution to the relevant legal acts. Along with the presentation of issues, the article outlines possible solutions. The analytical method employed is linguistic, essentially rooted in commonsense meanings. The conclusions drawn from these comparisons, in relation to the standards of natural language logic, suggest the need to reconstruct the wording of agreements adopted by the international community and Polish legal acts.
Prawa autorskie (c) 2026 Marek Budajczak https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0