Leon Petrażycki's Socio-legal Ideas and their Contemporary Continuation

Abstract

This article outlines the main socio-legal ideas formulated by Leon Petrażycki at the beginning of the 20th century, and their historical reception up to the present. Although Petrażycki's ‘sociological manuscripts’ did not survive World War II, his major works on law and morality do contain many sociological leitmotifs. The latter are drawn out and presented, and include his proposals relating to methodology and the proper formation of sociological theories and propositions, along with his reflections, for example, on the psycho-social nature of law, the social functions of law, progress, property, and the social infection of emotions. The reception of Petryżycki's ideas in Western social science is seen to be still incomplete owing to the language barrier. In drawing out the difference between the Western and Polish reception contexts, a distinction is uncovered between a ‘formal’ and ‘living classic’.