Centre for Legal Education and Social Theory

🇵🇱 Our associated researcher Wojciech Zomerski (Wojtek Zom) argues that Poland’s presidential election result doesn’t indicate a societal shift to the right or democratic immaturity. Instead, it reflects the ruling camp’s failure, Trzaskowski’s hollow rightward turn, and a liberalism that lacks vision - serving instead as an ideology legitimising the power of elites over the people. In the conclusion, he suggests that 2027 may bring a constitutional majority for the right - and liberals will have only themselves to blame.

📢 Join us for an insightful talk by Professor Adam Czarnota!

How was legal authority built in Poland from 1986 to 2020? What role did legal professionals play in shaping - and challenging - political power? Professor Czarnota will present key findings from the research project "Legal Epistemic Authority in Poland. Dynamics and Development 1986-2020."

📅When: 13 February 2025, 13:30–15:00 CET
📍 Where: Zoom (hosted by EUI Florence)

Organized by the Expert Knowledge and Authority in Transformative Times research cluster of European University Institute, this event explores the intersection of law, politics, and authority in times of change.

📌 Registration link in the comments!

On December 18th, in Wrocław we celebrated the launch of the Festschrift for Adam Czarnota:
The Law is for the Citizens, so it Should Serve Them. Reflections on the Thought of Adam Czarnota (Prawo jest dla obywateli, i im ma służyć. Wokół myśli Adama Czarnoty, WN Scholar 2024).

The event, moderated by Justyna Jezierska, featured an introduction to the book by Wojciech Zomerski (Wojtek Zom) on behalf of the editors. This was followed by insightful comments from three distinguished speakers:

Martin Krygier (UNSW Sydney),
Bogdan Iancu (University of Bucharest),
Anna Młynarska-Sobaczewska (IPN, PAN).

A key point of reference was Adam's 2006 paper („Barbarians ante portas or the Post-Communist Rule of Law in Post-Democratic European Union”), where he prophetically questioned whether CEE countries would successfully integrate into the European Union as a family of constitutional democracies governed by the rule of law.

The event continued with a lively discussion, audience questions, and concluded with Adam Czarnota's own comments and reflections.

It was wonderful to see so many of you, both in Wrocław and online, and celebrated both the publication of the book and Adam's invaluable contributions to the field of socio-legal studies.

Już niedługo w związanej z Centrum serii "Prawo i Teoria Spoleczna" Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar ukaże się kolejna pozycja. Śledźcie nas by dowiedzieć się niebawem z jakiej okazji powstała książka "Prawo jest dla obywateli i im ma służyć. Wokół myśli Adama Czarnoty" i jakie wydarzenia będą towarzyszyć jej premierze!
Link do zapowiedzi na stronie Wydawnictwa w pierwszym komentarzu.

[PL] Już dziś, dr Michał Paździora z naszego Centrum, weźmie udział w konferencji Court Watch (Panel dyskusyjny: Pokolenie Z idzie do sądu (pracować, zeznawać, sądzić się, orzekać), 13:00-14:30). Konferencja odbywa się w formule hybrydowej, więc można wziąć udział w dyskusji online (do czego zachęcamy).

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XIV Konferencja Fundacji Court Watch Polska Data: piątek, 20 września 2024 roku, godz. 11.00 - 16.30Miejsce: Hotel Filmar, Grudziądzka 39/43, 87-100 Toruń Parking: Hotel oferuje 200 miejsc na monitorowanym parkingu. Parking dla gości konferencyjnych jest bezpłatny. Konferencja jest bezpłatna. Odbywa się w formule hybrydowej. Liczba mi...

A researcher from our Centre, Piotr Eckhardt, is participating in the Critical Legal Conference 2024 at Lund University. Today, he presented an excerpt from the results of research we are conducting as part of one of our projects.

His presentation entitled ‘Polish legal authorities speculating on the possibility of recovering the constitutional judiciary after the crisis - insights from socio-legal research’ was an attempt to clarifythe differences between political and legal discourse in relation to methods of restoring the rule of law in Poland.

The second of this year's workshops organized by our Center together with the Riga Graduate School of Law will take place this weekend.
This time we will address the topic of legal survivals. This is the beginning of our planned several-year research progam on this issue. We begin by focusing on legal survivals of socialist legal culture in Central Europe. However, the whole issue is much broader!

A researcher from our Centre, Piotr Eckhardt, participated in the conference 'Europe Twenty Years after the 2004 Enlargement of the EU: Vices, Virtues, and Future Challenges' organised by Nomos: Centre for International Research on Law, Culture and Power at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
He presented a paper entitled "Importing Neoliberal Ideology and privatising housing in post-socialist Poland".

The Scholar Publishing House has just released a book by our researcher, Piotr Eckhardt, entitled 'Socialism under Construction. Law and Ideology in Housing, Construction and Spatial Planning in Poland 1944-1989'. The book has been published in the series Law and Social Theory, the founding of which is linked to our Centre.

The book is the result of a research project financed by the National Science Centre, 'Instrumentalization of law on the example of selected regulations concerning spatial development in People's Poland (1945-1989)', carried out at the Centre.

The book is available in open access. A link to the free download of the ebook is provided in the first comment.

The workshop Governing Remembrance: Collective Memory, the Public Sphere and Law, organized by our Centre and the Riga Graduate School of Law, took place in Latvia on 24-25 May. We would like to present photos from this event.