Tradycja petrażycjańska w polskiej socjologii prawa albo o tym, co zyskaliśmy, nie odwołując się do Ehrlicha

Abstract

The goal of the presented paper is to show the qualities of Polish sociology of law that arise from how it formed and developed under the influence of a particular theoretical inspiration – the theory of Leon Petrażycki – specifically the ways that tradition has been influencing the direction of studies, as well as the descriptions of legal reality. According to the author, that influence is not limited to direct references, but has a broader scope that is expressed in an approach to analyzing the social context and functions of legal phenomena. To further emphasize the originality of Polish sociology of law, the article explains the differences between selected elements of Petrażycki’s theories and the proposals of Eugene Ehrlich. The problems that were undertaken by both scholars, and are still 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 elsewhere in early socio-legal thought. The study field is crucially narrowed by not orienting it towards analyzing and comparing initial ideas of Petrażycki and Ehrlich. Rather, it aims to analyze the possible influence of different views on differentiating the subjects of studies as well as their goals. In particular, the paper draws attention to the way Polish scholarship uniquely perceives the problematics of the social nature of legal phenomena, legal pluralism, the relationship between law and state (and especially legal phenomena unrelated to the state), legal culture and the usefulness of law as an instrument of social change. This is the perspective from which the paper presents selected Polish research projects and socio-legal analyses. The paper chiefly attempts to show a very particular quality of Polish sociology of law: the affirmation of legal phenomena that forms the basis for critique of faulty and socially dysfunctional official law.