Mondays with the University of Wrocław #69
Are the rule of law merely a matter for lawyers, court, and institutions? In his latest book, “Uspołecznienie zasady rządów prawa”, Professor Przemysław Kaczmarek from the Department of Legal Theory and Philosophy argues that such thinking is one of the greatest obstacles to protecting the rule of law. What matters is the everyday experience of citizens and a shared responsibility for the meaning of law in school life.
The author begins with a diagnosis of the crisis of the rule of law, affecting not only young democracies but also countries with long-standing state traditions and stable institutions. The crisis does not consist solely of direct violations of the law, but more often in its instrumental use- replacing the rule of law with rule by means of law. In this logic and formal legality is used to legitimise actions that undermine democratic actions that undermine democratic values, while the law itself loses its social foundations.
As a response to this process, the author proposes the realisation of the principle of the rule of law, by moving away from perceiving the rule of law as a hermetic concept reserved for experts and towards understanding it, the rule of law is not merely a set of institutions and procedures, but also a practice embedded in everyday relationships: between citizens and public authorities, employees and employers, individuals and institutions. Its condition depends on legal awareness, civic attitudes, the language of public debate, and the willingness to respond to violations, including those that are “legally justified”.
Particular importance in this perspective in this perspective is attached to a culture of responsibility. Professor Kaczmarek demonstrates that threats to the rule of law arise not only from indifference, passivity, and the conviction that “it is not our concern”. Responsibility for the rule of law rests not only with lawyers and politicians, but also with the media, social organisations, the academic community and citizens themselves. Without such collective engagement, a culture of impunity can easily emerge, in which the law ceases to fulfil its protective function.
“Uspołecznienie zasady rządów prawa” is a book for those who reject reducing the rule of law to a technical slogan or marginalising it in public debate. It is intended for lawyers and legal scholars, but also, perhaps above all, for conscious and engaged citizens. The publication invites readers to think of law as a common good and to reflect on the role each of us plays in protecting it.
We highly recommend this publication. The book is available from major online bookstores.
More information about the publication can be found below:Uspołecznienie zasady rządów prawa | Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego
The Newest Issue OF Quart Available on the Academic Journals Online Platform
We recommend the latest issue of Quart to art historians and architecture enthusiasts alike. The issue, published today on czasopisma.uwr.edu.pl, opens with Witold Miedziak’s detailed reconstruction of the form, function, and furnishing of Marian chapels built in Poznań churches in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Laurențiu Rădvan presents a new identification of the previously overlooked plan of Jass- a drawing preserved in Berlin and dating from 1686, now recognised as the oldest known plan of the city. Witold Głogowski examines the circumstances surrounding the construction of the Youth Palace in Katowice at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, while Anna Wiszniewska analyses the attempt at cooperative self-organisation among architects during the final decade of the Polish People’s Republic. Elżbieta Kocowska-Siekierka presents a broad overview of the protection of historic urban zones in Czechoslovakia during the second half of the twentieth century. Dorota Wierzbicka offers an insight into the most recent trends in twenty-first century architecture. The issue concludes with reports on two exhibitions devoted to women artists, one in Prague (Agata Biernacka) and one in Warsaw (Aleksandra Tęgowska), as well as a report from the 20th Polish- German Wrocław-Halle-Siegen Seminar prepared by Józefina Fabisz.
Translated by Dominika Łuczak (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
Date of publication: 4.05.2026
Added by: MJ
