Polish Reform Research Articles

A Polish Reform of Judiciality: How to Demand and Bury Judicial Accountability

A Polish Reform of Judiciality: How to Demand and Bury Judicial Accountability

Pre-Reformation and Reformation Influences on the Development of European Literary Languages

The pre-Reformation and Reformation social and religious movements contributed to the development of biblical and religious as well as journalistic and polemical writings, which had a significantly positive impact on the increase in functional efficiency and standardisation of European languages. Translations of The Bible played a special role in the development of European languages as texts with the highest linguistic prestige. Not only did Luther’s Bible (1522–1534) contribute to the unification of German literary language, but its 16th-century translations had an outstanding influence on the development of Dutch and the Scandinavian languages, i.e. Danish, Swedish and Icelandic. The language of Protestant translations of The Bible was regarded in the 16th–17th centuries in France and England as a model of stylistic excellence. Prior to the 16th century, there were fairly rich Celtic writings (Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Cornish), but they were undoubtedly greatly enriched between the second half of the 16th century and the first quarter of the 19th century by Protestant translations of The Bible and other religious texts. The translation work by the Czech brothers (ideological supporters of the Reformation) – Blahoslav’s New Testament (1564) and the Kralice Bible (1579–1593) – is a symbol of the linguistic prowess of the 16th-century Czech language as well as the basis for its rebirth in the 19th century. The linguistic consciousness of the Slovaks was long influenced by the Kralice Bible. Hungarian and Polish Reformation translations of The Bible enriched the history of these languages considerably. A number of European languages owe their actual literary beginnings to the Reformation: Finnish and Estonian (Finnish languages), Latvian and Lithuanian (Baltic languages), Upper Lusatian, Lower Lusatian and Slovene (Slavonic languages). In Croatia, prints financed by Reformation supporters appeared in the 16th century. The Serbian Orthodox New Testament (1847) by Karadžić and The Old Testament (1868) by Daničić were published by the Protestant publishing house of the British Bible Society in London, which also published a translation of the Bulgarian Catholic Slaveykov Bible (1871).

Why regional capital status only sometimes enhances the growth of cities: Comparison of 1975 and 1998 Polish reforms

This article presents empirical tests comparing the impact of Polish reforms, implemented in 1975 and 1998, on the development of cities that gained or lost their regional capital functions. Several theories (e.g. new economic geography) claim a positive relationship between the administrative status of capital cities and their economic and population growth. The variation of the role of the capital status in the economic development of the city may depend on the national context, such as the political system (democratic versus non-democratic) and the role of the public sector in the economy (employment in public administration, public investments). Most empirical studies so far have concentrated either on national capitals or on federal states. This article analyses two regional reforms that changed the administrative status of regional capitals in a unitary state, and indicates differences in the impacts of both reforms, as well as attempting to explain those differences. Using statistical methods based on a quasi-experimental design (difference-in-differences, synthetic control), we conclude that the impact of gaining the status of regional capital on the development of cities as a result of the 1975 reform was more evident compared with the consequences of losing that status in 1998.

Słownictwo religijne a reformacja. Głos w dyskusji nad konfesyjnym zróżnicowaniem polskiej leksyki w XVI w.

RELIGIOUS VOCABULARY AND THE REFORMATION: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE DISCUSSION ON THE CONFESSIONAL DIVERSITY OF THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY POLISH LEXICON The article addresses the problem of the confessional diversity of sixteenth-century Polish religious vocabulary. It revises the arguments put forward by other academics and formulates new research recommendations. Focusing on the lexicon of Polish Lutheranism, which has so far received little scholarly attention, the article examines the vocabulary used in the polemical texts by one of the main representatives of the Polish Reformation: the Lutheran Erazm Gliczner. Based on the analysis of two groups of confessional terms: 1. repentance [pokajanie] – reflection [upamiętanie], 2. the Catholic church [Kościół] – the Protestant church [Zbór], we claim that the author does not avoid words that belong to the Catholic lexicon, but distances himself from the terminology used by representatives of radical, anti-Trinitarian denominations. Our findings help to revise certain popular ideas, conclusions drawn from the analysis of Polish translations of the Bible, as well as linguistic commentaries of the translators. It is thus essential that the research in the field of the sixteenth-century Polish religious vocabulary should be continued and should include texts other than Bible translations, i.e., texts whose authors’ word choice was determined by different factors.

Dominicans of the Polish Province and the Observant Reform of the Order of Preachers in the Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth Centuries

The article focuses on the early stage of the observant reform in the Polish Province of the Order of Preachers, up to the mid-15th century. It aims to summarize and systematize the state of the research, adding some results of a new analysis and interpretation of the diplomatic, normative and literary sources. As in the other provinces of the Order we can observe two phases of introducing a reform. First, unsuccessful, at the times of Raymond of Capua (around 1390), and the second, at the times of Bartholomew Texier (second quarter of the 15th century). Interestingly at this early stage of the reform, nearly all attempts to introduce the Observant reform in Polish Province concentrated on Silesia. Not only convent in Wrocław was the first successfully reformed Polish Dominican community (1432), but also all the most important agents of the Polish Observant movement were somehow connected with this provincial division (contrata) -Franciszek Oczko, Henry Bitterfeld of Brzeg, John of Frankenstein. Observant movement in Dominican convents in Silesia was influenced by two centres of the reform of the Church and the Order: Prague and Nuremberg. All the fathers of the Polish reform got their intellectual formation in Prague and belonged to the circle of people deeply involved in the idea of Church reform. On the other hand since the very first attempts of introducing observances in the Polish province of the Dominican Order we can trace connections with Nuremberg. From this strongest centre promoting the Order’s reform Polish friars drew on the ideas and practical solutions (e.g. ordinationes of Bartholomew Texier).

Landed Nation: Land Reform and Ethnic Diversity in the Interwar Polish Parliament

AbstractThis article investigates the ethnic entanglements of the land reform debate in the first Polish Diet (1919–1922). Against the backdrop of global comparative studies, interwar Poland, haunted by land hunger, rural poverty, and high concentration of land ownership, is an odd case. Despite conditions conducive to far-reaching land reforms, that is, a high level of inter-elite conflict and semiautocratic order, the Polish reform was very moderate, if not disappointing. Unpacking the series of moves in the debate and the sequence of hairbreadth voting on its shape, I ask why, despite broad acceptance of the reform across the political spectrum, it could not attract enough support to be swiftly executed. The ethnic composition of the country triggered controversies concerning German farmers and peasants of the ethnically diversified eastern borderlands. Major political parties shared tacit Polish nationalism, but the history of political alignments made the nationalist politicians susceptible to the lobbying of the landed elite and estranged them from peasant parties. The land holdings of nobles were considered a bulwark of the nation, which effectively blocked the alternative idea of integrating the ethnic minorities via land ownership.

Reformed Polish court proceedings for the return of a child under the 1980 Hague Convention in the light of the Brussels IIb Regulation

In recent years a significant increase in applications sent to Polish institutions to obtain the return of abducted children under the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention can be observed. Simultaneously, Poland has struggled with a problem of excessively long court proceedings in those cases and the lack of specialisation among family judges. Taking these difficulties into consideration, in 2018 the Polish Parliament introduced a reform aimed at improving the effectiveness of the court proceedings for the return of abducted children. The work on the amendment of the Polish legal regulations was carried out in parallel to the EU legislative process in the field of international child abduction. Although the Polish reform had been introduced before Council Regulation (EU) 2019/1111 of 25 June 2019 (Brussels IIb) was adopted, the 2016 proposal for this Regulation had been known to the national legislature. When discussing the amended Polish legal regulations, it should be considered whether they meet their goals and whether they are in line with the new EU law.

The impact of prolonging compulsory general education on the labour market

ABSTRACT This study investigates the impact of the extension of the duration of general education on educational opportunities and labour market performance. Taking the example of the Polish education reform of 1999, which we treated as a natural experiment, we used a regression discontinuity design and estimated the effects of an additional year of general education on the relative opportunities for rural and urban children to obtain secondary general, secondary vocational, or tertiary education and on their wages. Although the impact was quantitatively small, a shift towards increased enrolment in general education programmes was observed. Whereas prolonged compulsory education translated to higher wages for basic and secondary vocational school graduates from rural areas, it did not do so, for those from urban areas.

‘The Devil Went Down to Oksa': Demonic Visitation and Calvinist Piety in Mid-Seventeenth Century Poland

ABSTRACT This article discusses a 1649 incident involving an alleged haunting of Oksa – a small, private Calvinist town near Cracow, Poland. This event is recounted in a contemporary primary source, until now almost completely overlooked by historians of Polish Reformation. The alleged demonic visitation shines a light on Polish Calvinist piety and the strength of the Reformed ministry during a time of Calvinist numerical decline. The article argues that even as the fortunes of the Reformed Church in Poland were receding, the faithful in Oksa embarked in 1649 on a small-scale further reformation demonstrating a remarkable vitality of their devotional and congregational life and similarities to Dutch Nadere Reformatie with which the town's owner and pastor were well acquainted with. Finally, the article provides an explanation of the 1649 events by considering Roman Catholic strategies of suppressing Polish Calvinism.

PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DEVELOPMENT: EXPERIENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND

The Polish experience of studying the problems of public administration development is considered in the article. According to the author, the success of Polish reforms is ensured by various factors, one of the most important of which is the constant attention to the quality of public administration, which is achieved by careful analysis of existing problems and purposeful work on their solution. The purpose of the article is to identify and systematize the problems of development of the public administration of the Republic of Poland and the mechanisms of solution for the use of experience in Ukraine. The author tries to generalize the approaches of Polish scholars to the problems of public administration development, based on their works, as well as taking into account the assessment of these approaches in Ukrainian historiography. The scientific novelty of the study is to identify and systematize existing and potential problems of public administration development, taking into account the practice of solving them in the Republic of Poland. The necessity of considering the problems of public administration from different points of view is shown: through the definition of “good administration”; definition of standards and best examples; identification of existing barriers to quality management; due to the quality of staff; perfection of communications between the authorities and between them and citizens and business, as well as ensuring internal dialogue between the management of the administration and its employees. The model for assessing the quality of public administration is the European standards of government, which should be taken into account in the preparation of domestic legislation, as well as in the practice of administrations.

Poland Throws Down the Gauntlet

Poland’s conflict with the EU over the Polish government’s judicial reform and the norms of rule of law has intensified. Poland is unwilling to recognize a ruling from the European Court of Justice that declared the Disciplinary Chamber, the centrepiece of the Polish reform, illegal. Warsaw refuses to pay the fines imposed. In October 2021, Poland’s Constitutional Court ruled that the primacy of EU law contradicted the Polish constitution. The shrill word “Polexit” made the rounds. The Polish government has opted for confrontation with the EU. There are domestic political reasons for this, as support for the ruling Law and Justice party is in decline. But radicalization and confrontation will lead to a dead end.

Model of Supervision over Administrative Courts in Poland

One of the most significant current discussions in Polish legal doctrine is how actions of executive powers, especially supervisory measures can affect judicial independence. It is related to basic constitutional and administrative law issues, including the separation of powers, the independence and the impartiality of the judiciary, the independence of the courts, the supervision and control, the efficiency and effectiveness of judicial protection. The analysis focuses on the dependence between the model of administrative supervision adopted in administrative justice and the efficiency of the courts, as well as their perception by the public. The study will examine supervisory measures aimed at ensuring the efficient functioning of the courts. The effectiveness of judicial review of administrative justice is essential for the protection of individuals' rights and the functioning of the state authorities in both the social and the economic sphere. From an extrajudicial point of view its significance is reflected in the influence on the judiciary, which will not only be effective in its procedural activity, but also in the level of trust and social prestige. It holds that the three arms of the state – the executive, the judiciary and the legislature – should, to a greater or lesser extent, be kept separate. That way, they are able to hold one another to account. This theory about the separation of state power went on to have a formative effect on the development of modern-day democracies. And it’s this vision of the tripartite separation of state power that is essential to the EU’s argument against the Polish reforms of the judiciary. The problem of supervision over administrative courts is also connected with external and internal independence of the judiciary. External independence refers to freedom from undue outside pressure, while internal independence protects individual judges from undue pressure from within the system. “Undue internal pressure” sometimes comes from court presidents and may take different forms: even where individual judges are not formally subordinate to court presidents or other authorities and may be result of attribution of workload, allocation of resources and benefits, disciplinary powers, powers of transfer and secondment, distribution of cases, etc. The aim of this paper is to examine the problem of supervision over administrative courts in legal system of Poland. The article focuses on the dependence between the model of administrative supervision and the efficiency of the courts.

The Definition of National Court within the Meaning of European Union Law. Considerations in the Context of the Polish Reform of the Judicial System

The article deals with two main problems. The first concerns the interpretation of the concept of “court” within the meaning of the provisions of Art. 47 CFR and Art. 267 TFEU. The second part is devoted to the analysis of judgements of the Court of Justice regarding the reform of the Polish judicial system. It enables one to draw several conclusions. Firstly, the Court of Justice found that Poland had violated its Treaty obligations by introducing the provisions that determine the retirement age of judges and establish the procedure enabling the extension of active service by virtue of the discretion of the President of the Republic of Poland. Secondly, the Court of Justice analysed the concept of “court” from the perspective of Art. 19, para. 1, subpara. 2 TEU. It emphasised that these provisions obligate the Member States to establish a system of legal remedies and procedures ensuring effective judicial protection in areas covered by EU law. It also stressed that this concerns a body that can only potentially settle cases with an EU element. Thirdly, the Court of Justice clarified the concept of judicial independence in the context of irremovability of judges and judicial impartiality. It formulated a certain test of judicial independence that should be conducted by the referring court.

POLISH AND UKRAINIAN MODELS OF DECENTRALIZATION: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

The article presents acomparative analysis of the Polish and Ukrainian models of decentralization and aprocess of realization of reforms to identify the reasons that reduce the efficiency of the usage ofthe Polish reformation experience in Ukraine. Based on the analysis, it has been concluded that the Ukrainian and Polish models of local self-government are identical. They both are based on principles of decentralization; the foundation of the political system is an institute of local self-government. The main difference of the system of local self-government in Ukraine and Poland is the presence of the state administration (the institute of the prefect) in Ukraine at the level ofoblast (region) and district (area).At the same time, as in Poland there is no state administration at the district leveland the institute of voivodship functions only at the voivodship level. The positive results of the reform in Poland include:the organs of local self-government are able to make investment decisions and plan their own development,the quality of social services for the population hasimproved, the misuse of funds has decreased, and so on. But, unfortunately, the reforms have not solved the mainproblem of regions that is shortage of financial resources. In both countries, the decentralization reformis politicised, which has led to its slowdown and delay. In Poland, the reform was postponed for four years, and in Ukraine, the situation with the reform is exacerbated by the fact that the adoption and amendment of the Constitution of Ukraine in the part of decentralization block the point about the peculiarities of realization of local self-government in the separate districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Poland’s experience shows that state administration cannot be effective without decentralization of power. Ukraine should focus on foreign experience, but, of course, it does not indicate that Ukraine should automatically use the experience of Poland. Reforms should be adapted in accordance with ourown traditions and historical experience, as well as taking into account those mistakes that were made by the Polish authorities, in particular, with regard to the financial framework of local self-government. In addition, the specific feature of the system of local self-government in Poland is that the principle of addition rather than absorption was based on the construction of territorial levels. Each level of local government performsits functions, has it sown territory and scope of responsibility.

Uczeń jako wartość. Porzucona misja polonistyki

Tekst zawiera deklarację autora w kwestii fundamentalnego zadania edukacji polonistycznej, definiowanego jako rozwój ucznia w obszarze w wymiarze osobowości humanistycznej i w obszarze kompetencji kluczowych dla człowieka z pierwszych dekad XXI wieku. Koncepcja edukacji jako wspomagania rozwoju ucznia ma długą tradycję również w Polsce. Za jej patrona można uznać Kazimierza Wóycickiego, twórcę kategorii „przeżycia estetycznego” i zwolennika autentycznego i nieskrępowanego kontaktu młodych ludzi z tekstami literackimi. Intuicje edukacyjne Wóycickiego odbijają się w najnowszych koncepcjach i projektach europejskich i amerykańskich, które koncentrują się wokół koncepcji kształcenia jako spotkania, idei powierzania uczącym się odpowiedzialności za uczenie, nauczania zróżnicowanego i indywidualizowanego. We współczesnym myśleniu o edukacji masowej kluczowa jest, zgłoszona przez Jerome’a Brunera, idea kształtowania poczucia sprawstwa u uczniów, budującego samoocenę i oczekiwania wobec samego siebie. To jednak, co bliskie było Wóycickiemu i jego kontynuatorom, co stanowi dziś centrum dyskursu edukacyjnego, okazuje się nad wyraz dalekie od wektora najnowszych reform oświatowych w Polsce.

The Jan Laski Society of Lovers of the History of Polish Reformation in Vilnius (1918–1939) – Genesis, Legal Structure and Activity

The Jan Laski Society of Lovers of The History of Polish Reformation in Vilnius, established in 1916, played a significant role in the propagation of history of the Reformation in Polish lands. It owed its achievements to the intensive efforts of its members who organized numerous meetings and lectures and published books on the Evangelical-Reformed Church and the influence the Reformation had on national culture and language. Towards the end of its existence the Society doubled the number of its members, which clearly shows that it was growing in prestige and popularity.

Warsaw Confederation Act of 1573 and the Project of Establishing the National Council in the Political Program of the Polish Reformation Movement of the XVI Century

The key features of the Reformation movement in Poland in the second half of the XVI century are reconstructed and characterized, the role of the idea of establishing the National Council in thepolitical program of the Protestant szlachta and the main mechanisms of the Reformation influence on the Polish ethno political environment are defined. It is established that the anti catholic politicalactivity played an important role in spreading of the Polish ethnic values on the sphere of state power and served their further legislation. In practice, this influence was realized with the help of substantiating of the gentry political demands with the interests of the Polish people and the Polish state, the struggle for the Polish National Church establishing and by the affirmation of the priority ofthe Polish law over the orders of the Roman Curia. The main points of the Act of Warsaw General Confederation 1573 as the key political document of the Polish Reformation are analyzed. It is asserted that the reformation slogans actively used by the Protestant nobility in the political struggle contributed to strengthening of the basic principles of the gentry democracy, the basic traditions of the Polish parliamentarism and the Polish ethnopolitical culture in general. It is shown that the reformation movement in Poland was a powerful ethnicitydeveloping factor in the political sphere that caused the social and political interiorization of the Polish ethnic values and contributed greatly to the formation of the Polish ethnopolitical environment.

Polonia Reformata: Essays on the Polish Reformation(s), written by Piotr Wilczek

Polonia Reformata: Essays on the Polish Reformation(s), written by Piotr Wilczek

Poland's Contentious Elites Enter the Age of Revolution: Extending Social Movement Concepts

Scholars of social movements commonly call for the field to be broadened in various ways because movements are often intertwined with other forms of conflict and because the causes or consequences of movements may operate differently in different contexts. Important change processes that were unfolding in Poland at the time of the French Revolution provide an instructive case. Although the contemporaneous French Revolution, with its enormous quantity and variety of collective mobilizations has been a touchstone for social movement scholars, the work of Poland's reform parliament and the adoption of Poland's 1791 constitution have gotten much less attention. Poland's reform politics not only provides both instructive parallels to and differences from French revolutionary developments, but were also deeply intertwined with them and embedded with those French events in a larger, European field of contention. Perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of the Polish reform movement is that it was largely driven by elites, something noted in Karl Marx's bemused praise. Although social movements played very much less of a role in Poland than in France, we try to show here that familiar tools of social movement analysis permit an account of those Polish events as well.

Polish Reforms

Polish Reforms