The aim of this article is to examine selected phenomena and processes occurring in late modernity that bring significant challenges for the operation of the law. The article is supposed to be the impetus to deepen interdisciplinary reflections on the law that should be considered in a social context. Firstly, in the article the presentation of characteristic aspects of late modernity is given. The description is concentrated on: (a) risk society, (b) increasing role of experts, (c) issue of lack of trust, (d) moral panic, (e) post-testing. Secondly, the article is focused on finding direct links between abovementioned and processes that occur in law: (a) difficulties encountered in the legal policy, (b) legislative and decision-making problems, (c) reformulation of the role of lawyers, (d) diversification level of prestige and confidence in the law, (e) its inflation or (f) instrumental use in the political game. Those processes cannot be treated as unequivocally negative. The output of the presented article is to point out the awareness of the fact that those phenomena may be indicators of difficulties appearing during the process of creation of the law and its application. The purpose of the article is to provoke the discussion that will enrich the reflection on the law by using the achievements and knowledge of other social sciences, especially sociology.
This paper proposes an approach to scientific biography from the perspective of Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical project. The choice of Leon Petrażycki (1867–1931), a philosopher and sociologist of law, who might be called an icon of the philosophy of law in Poland, results from the fact that his trajectory gives an insight into the interesting processes taking place in the scientific field, as well as in other social fields at the turn of the century up to the 1930s. Thus, L. Petrażycki is a ‘special case of what is possible’, a ‘product’ of the era. An era marked, on the one hand, by strong geopolitical divisions, corresponding to unequal flows of ideas between national scientific fields, on the other hand, characterized by high fluidity of the boundaries of social fields (science, journalism, politics), between which (up to a certain point) L. Petrażycki adroitly ‘moves’. Petrażycki’s trajectory is also interesting research-wise, as it reveals the influence of social structures on scientific positions occupied and positions takings in discourse. Furthermore, it shows how scientific failure is sublimated. Therefore, the article complements previous perspectives and is programmatic in that it can inspire similar endeavours in the future.
PL
W artykule proponuje się podejście do naukowej biografii z perspektywy projektu naukowego Pierre’a Bourdieu. Wybór Leona Petrażyckiego (1867-1931), filozofa i socjologa prawa, nie bez przesady rzec: w Polsce ikony ogólnych nauk o prawie, podyktowany jest faktem, iż jego trajektoria daje wgląd w ciekawe procesy zachodzące w polu naukowym, a nawet szerzej, społecznym, na przełomie wieków aż do lat 30. wieku XX. Jest więc Petrażycki „szczególnym przypadkiem tego co możliwe”, czyli niejako „produktem” epoki, naznaczonej wprawdzie silnymi podziałami geopolitycznymi, które korespondowały z nierównym przepływami idei między narodowymi polami naukowymi, ale jednocześnie charakteryzującej się wysoką płynnością granic pól społecznych, pomiędzy którymi (do pewnego momentu) sprawnie się porusza (nauka, publicystyka, polityka). Jest również ciekawa badawczo, gdyż ujawnia wpływ struktur społecznych na zajmowanie pozycji naukowej i stanowiska dyskursu, a także ukazuje sposoby sublimacji porażki. Artykuł stanowi więc uzupełnienie dotychczasowych perspektyw, jak również ma charakter programowy, w tym sensie, że posłużyć może jako inspiracja dla podobnych przedsięwzięć w przyszłości.
common characteristic of thus oriented approaches is their purely theoretic character. Pierre Bourdieu’s empirically grounded reflexive sociology questions the alleged reflexivity of an ‘ordinary’ agent’s actions, while attempting to explain the social conditions that need to occur for a real reflexivity of the intellectuals to come about. The purpose of this paper is to present conditions that hinder, or prevent the carrying out of fully reflexively oriented research of law. Firstly, it explains that individuals acting in the world almost always employ an embodied ‘practical sense’ – mental schemata and schemata of action developed in the process of socialisation. Secondly, the paper proves that subject’s (also a lawyer-researcher) way of thinking is a result of his or her position within a social structure (in the field of law). Thirdly, it is shown that the illusion of a fully distanced mind is a special kind of disposition of an intellectual – a disposition that prevents him or her from recognising the social conditions of her thinking. It is stipulated that what reflexively oriented research of law needs is not only the objectification of the research subject, but also a critical analysis of the researcher’s standpoint. For a lawyer his would mean, among others, the awareness of their entanglement in dogmas acquired in the course of their education, objectification of practice-derived experiences, or confrontation with subjects from outside of the legal field (eg. sociologiests).
The aim of this paper is to show how the social legitimacy of the Constitutional Court in Poland is constructed. Social legitimacy is considered here in two dimensions. At the macrostructural level the socio-political processes, that led to the creation of the constitutional court are analysed. The microstructural dimension focuses on examining how the individual socio-demographic characteristics of the Constitutional Court’ judges (their scientific degrees, legal practice, political experience and institutions of power), contribute to the strengthening of the Constitutional Court’s position. Thus, the paper argues that the legitimacy of the Court is made by constructing the neutrality of the institution, in particular by locating it in opposition to politics and reinforced by the academic faction of the legal field. The study is based on the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu (and his follower Frédéric Lebaron), as well as inspired by Durkheimian sociology of religion.
The aim of this article is to demonstrate the process of the legitimization of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal. In contrast to the dominant legal perspective, we consider the Tribunal relationally, as a kind of social space, located at the intersection of several social worlds that influence it (law, science, politics, and administration). The study concerns the biographies of all the judges elected from 1985 to 2018. Judges are treated as holders of various types of resources-capital (academic title, legal profession, government function, parliamentary mandate, etc.). The study, conducted by means of multiple correspondence analysis, allowed us to reconstruct the Constitutional Tribunal’s space. As a consequence, we have revealed not only the complexity and multidimensionality of the legitimacy of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, but also captured its dynamic.
PL
Celem artykułu jest ukazanie procesu legitymizacji Trybunału Konstytucyjnego. Perspektywa relacyjna, którą proponujemy, jest odmienna od prawniczej, dominującej w rozważaniach na ten temat. Traktujemy Trybunał jako rodzaj przestrzeni, usytuowany na przecięciu kilku światów społecznych (prawo, nauka, polityka, administracja), które na niego oddziałują. Badanie przeprowadziliśmy, analizując biografie wszystkich sędziów wybranych w latach 1985–2018. Sędziowie zostali potraktowani jako posiadacze znaczących społecznie zasobów – kapitałów (tytuł naukowy, zawód prawniczy, funkcja w administracji rządowej, mandat poselski itp.). Wykorzystując wieloraką analizę korespondencji, odtworzyliśmy przestrzeń Trybunału. Tym samym uchwyciliśmy nie tylko złożoność i wielowymiarowość legitymizacji polskiego sądu konstytucyjnego, lecz także zmiany tego procesu w czasie.
The paper presents the symbolic dimension of the (re)production of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, which is considered to be a model legal-political institution. Paying close attention to meaning, narrative, symbolic codes, and rituals, the authors object to a reductionist explanation, based on instrumental thinking and conscious and material interests, of the legal institutions of power. In accordance with neo-Durkheimian cultural sociology, the Tribunal is presented here as an institution created through binary symbolic codes (sacred/profane), and reproduced, in crisis situations, in performative acts constituting moments of ritual purification. The dominant narrative legitimizing the Tribunal counterpoises ‚sacred’ law with ‚profane’ politics in order to superimpose subsequent homological classifications (rational/irrational, pure/impure, universal/particular). The Tribunal’s symbolic power is thus hidden within a thick web of meanings, which invisibly reinforce its authority.
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