Od „gwałtownego zamachu” do „ataku terrorystycznego”. Rozważania na tle problematyki pojęciowej „aktywności o charakterze terrorystycznym” w polskim systemie prawnym w XX w
From the ‘violent attack’ to the ‘terrorist attack’. Considerations on the background of the conceptual issues of the “terrorist activity” in the Polish legal system in the 20th century

Summary/Abstract: The legal system of the Second Republic of Poland did not use the concept of terrorism. However, at that time, the postulate of creating a new type of terrorist crime was already expressed in the literature. The article analyzes the legal acts implemented after the Second World War, after the communists seized power, reconstructing the chronological order of legal language, from the concept of ‘terrorist occurrence’ (1945), through the ‘terrorist act’ (1946), ‘terrorist attempt’ (1951) and “terrorist activity’, concluding that in the years 1952–1970 the term ‘terrorist attempt’ had a legal definition in Polish law. Since 1970, the definition gap has made the semantic scope of those concepts unclear, especially in the 1969 and 1997 Criminal Codes. Additional factors of complication were the concepts of ‘terrorism’, ‘crimes of terrorism’ or ‘terrorist attack’ introduced in further legal acts. At the same time, the legislator of the third Republic of Poland, after the political breakthrough of the last decade of the 20th century he returned to the use of the concept of ‘terrorist attempt’ legally defined in Stalinist times, without making any effort to explain the meaning of this concept in a democratic state of law. Despite the lack of a legal definition of a terrorist offense throughout the course of the 20th century, there was a belief in the literature that Polish legislation is sufficiently adapted to the need to combat the manifestations of terrorism. The Republic of Poland, adapting its provisions to international law requirements and meeting the demands of doctrine, finally introduced in 2004 the legal definition of terrorist offenses into the Criminal Code.

• Details
• Contents