Powojenne losy nauczania prawa rzymskiego w Polsce Ludowej (1944–1989)
The post-war fate of the teaching of Roman law in the Polish People’s Republic (1944–1989)

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the difficult history of the teaching of Roman law in Poland in the period of 1944–1989. The standards concerning the education of lawyers favoured by the socialist authorities aimed at making it more practical. People’s Poland needed lawyers with the “proper” world-view. At that time the ideology of the socialist regime played a great role in politics. The Soviet ideology rejected Roman law as the law of a slavery-based system in which private property dominated. Consequently, the state socialist authorities in Poland opposed the study of Roman law and tried to eliminate it from the university curriculum. Despite these difficulties and pressures, Roman law as a university subject was still taught in centers of legal education between 1944 and 1975. In 1975, following the reform of law studies in Poland, the subject was incorporated into the history of law curriculum and disappeared as an autonomous discipline for six years. Roman law was reintroduced into the law curriculum in 1981, when universities in Poland gained more freedom in this respect. Since then it has been taught mainly in the first year of studies, though the scope of its teaching has been narrower than it was in the inter-war period. The relation between Socialist law and Roman Law is still an interesting subject, and it is worth a further and more in-depth examination.

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