System ochrony mniejszości narodowych i wyznaniowych w powersalskiej Europie Środkowej jako instrument modernizacji prawno-politycznej

Abstract

The research objective of this article is to address the question of whether, and if so, to what extent, the system of protection of national and religious minorities created after World War I under the League of Nations, covering only some of its member states, was an instrument of modernization of the states obliged to this protection? Modernization in the legal sense – in relation to legal solution the guarantee the rights of minorities and in the political sense – did it serve the peaceful coexistence of various national and religious groups within these countries and prevented the separatist tendencies manifested by some of the minorities? Have legal solutions been reflected in political practice? The article refers to the analysis of scientific literature and the analysis of the so called Little Treaty of Versailles of 1919 and the legal and comparative study of other legal acts. The territorial scope of the research covers: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungary. The temporal range covers the years 1918-1939. The obtained research result does not allow to give an unambiguously affirmative answer to the question whether the post – Versailles system of protection of national and religious minorities contributed to the legal and political modernization in the described countries.