O implikacjach sformułowania art. 196 Kodeksu karnego w kategorii uczuć religijnych
Implications of the phrase „religious feelings” in article 196 of the Polish Penal Code

Summary/Abstract: Article 196 of the Polish penal code penalizes the offence of ‘religious feelings’. This may be seen as an attempt to protect religion without making it an official state matter, positing it as injuries to individual citizen’s psyche. This article investigates the negative consequences of framing art. 196 in terms of religious feelings, both in the doctrine, and for the theory of law and wider social functioning of legal provisions. I attempt to show how this regulation is faulty and does not satisfy the hopes which motivated passing it. The phrase ‘religious feelings’ results in many interpretative difficulties as well as conflicts which defy the conciliatory intent behind it. The article notes the broader impact of the regulation and attempts to situate this impact in the context of the theory of law. It looks into how the psychological dimension of the regulation brings confusion and defies knowledge about emotions. Finally, it analyzes the broad social consequences of the usage of this phrase in law, using the perspective of the law’s expressive function to diagnose its influence on society. The article’s central focus is on the categories that law uses and its implications both in strictly legal sphere and in public life. This allows for a new approach to the dangers of careless legal phrasing, as well as to the problems of using references to emotions in law. The texts offers tentative suggestions of reform of the law in question.

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