Tradycja petrażycjańska w polskiej socjologii prawa albo o tym, co zyskaliśmy, nie odwołując się do Ehrlicha
Petrazyckian tradition in Polish sociology of law, or what have we gained by not referencing Ehrlich

Summary/Abstract: The goal of the presented paper is to show the qualities of Polish sociology of law thatarise from how it formed and developed under the influence of a particular theoreticalinspiration – the theory of Leon Petrażycki – specifically the ways that tradition has beeninfluencing the direction of studies, as well as the descriptions of legal reality. Accordingto the author, that influence is not limited to direct references, but has a broader scopethat is expressed in an approach to analyzing the social context and functions of legalphenomena. To further emphasize the originality of Polish sociology of law, the articleexplains the differences between selected elements of Petrażycki’s theories and theproposals of Eugene Ehrlich. The problems that were undertaken by both scholars, and arestill important to socio-legal studies, were presented from that point of view. Furthermore,the paper emphasizes the elements of Petrażycki’s works that did not appear elsewherein early socio-legal thought. The study field is crucially narrowed by not orienting ittowards analyzing and comparing initial ideas of Petrażycki and Ehrlich. Rather, it aimsto analyze the possible influence of different views on differentiating the subjects ofstudies as well as their goals. In particular, the paper draws attention to the way Polishscholarship uniquely perceives the problematics of the social nature of legal phenomena,legal pluralism, the relationship between law and state (and especially legal phenomenaunrelated to the state), legal culture and the usefulness of law as an instrument of socialchange. This is the perspective from which the paper presents selected Polish researchprojects and socio-legal analyses. The paper chiefly attempts to show a very particularquality of Polish sociology of law: the affirmation of legal phenomena that forms thebasis for critique of faulty and socially dysfunctional official law.

• Details
• Contents