The paper deals with a bibliometric analysis of a sample of the top law schools included in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022. An equal number of Western European and Central and Eastern European law schools have been analysed. The results show that both groups follow similar publication patterns. There is a clear tendency to publish in journals controlled by the authors’ universities. Citation rates in the sample are very low, and in line with what has already been found for humanities. There is a clear division between the multidisciplinary and transnational legal journals that are more international and less internationally recognised law reviews focusing on domestic issues. Law clearly follows its own publication pattern, and the East–West division is in this respect negligible: both groups perform equally well (or equally poorly) as far as the metrics indicate.

The article is a polemic between Leo Tolstoy, a Russian writer and a moralist of the nineteenth century, and Leon Petrażycki, a Polish lawyer and a philosopher of law of that period – on the social significance of law and morality. Tolstoy’s and Petrażycki’s roads crossed due to a young man named Krutik, a law student at the University of St. Petersburg. Krutik wrote a letter to Tolstoy, whom he considered a moral authority, asking to dispel his doubts caused by reading the works of Petrażycki. Indeed, Tolstoy affirmed
that the appropriate regulator of human life is morality. In contrast, Petrażycki proclaimed that the raison d’être has both morality and law, but if one compares their social significance, the higher value should be given to the law. Krutik had a dilemma, which thinker to agree with? Analysis of Tolstoy’s and Petrażycki’s views made in this article leads to the conclusion that in fact they were arguing about how to implement the idea of love, somewhat differently interpreted by them. While Tolstoy categorically rules out the possibility of realizing it on legal grounds, Petrażycki was firmly convinced that the law can, absolutely, be its carrie

The article deals with legal education in the Duchy of Warsaw (1807–1815), which was a transitory period between a feudal and modern state. The urgent need for institutional education of a state personnel resulted from existence of legal provisions stemming from several legal orders, divergence in qualifications of personnel in administration and judiciary, as well as a necessity for efficient implementation f Napoleonic law. Those circumstances were precisely diagnosed by the minister of justice. He initiated courses of law followed by the School of Law and School of Administration. As the Duchy’s territory was enlarged, legal teaching had place also at the university in Cracow. It seems that although the state existed for only a short period, a more or less cohesive governmental concept of legal education’s role existed. It was to serve mainly the development of the state and this utilitarian goal dominated. It is worth reminding that those first Polish endeavours in the field of modern legal education took place at the time of a public finance crisis. Although majority of income was devoted to military needs and many projects were put off until later, authorities noticed that for an efficient governing of a state a well-educated personnel is needed. At that time this belief was not common.

The publication aims is to remind Jerzy Wroblewski’s views on the issues related to legal education. After analyzing Wróblewski’s writings, the author compared a survey conducted among law students in 1958 (“Students’ assessments of the difficulties of the first year in legal studies”) with a poll conducted by herself in 2011. Both survey forms contained the same questions. The author wishes to underline the particular importance of observations and doubts of prof. Wroblewski, which despite the passage of time remains equally relevant today.

The article is based on an assumption that constitutionalism has a Janus face. A constitution is both a legal and a political act. So far, the public domain has been dominated by legal constitutionalism (constitutional dogmatics), which excludes the constitution from the public sphere, subjecting it to the authority of lawyers-experts. The contemporary political phenomena such as: new populism, illiberal democracy or new constitutionalism should shift the interest of researchers to the political aspect of constitutionalism. Constitutionalism is, therefore, a multidimensional social practice. A political game featuring many actors. And the constitutionalism of lawyers is only one of its possible interpretations. Citizens also have their own constitutionalisms, and different perspectives on constitutionalism, reflecting opposing interests, may lead to conflicts. The constitutional law dogmatics applied to resolve such conflicts would argue for the existence of a transcendental framework for their resolution. A more political approach denies the existence of such a framework. In other words, the dogmatics in question requires democracy to adapt to constitutionalism, while the political approach requires constitutionalism to adapt to democracy. The text is an introduction to a part of a volume featuring articles by authors affiliated with the Centre for Legal Education and Social Theory of the University of Wrocław.

The objective of this article is to present a new approach to legal education, which laid the foundations of the law curriculum at the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Zielona Góra. The concepts of legal education in Polish literature are presented in the first section of the article. The second part presents doubts connected to the prevailing model of teaching law at Polish universities – general studies (theoretical education). The next section presents the concept of teaching law at the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Zielona Góra, based on the concept of practical studies. There are presented solutions to improve the practical education and professional prospects of students. The implementation of this concept is provided in the fourth section. There are presented effects of certain solutions (presented in the third section) after the end of the first cycle of law studies at the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Zielona Góra.

This text is a contribution to the discussion on the state of legal education in Poland. The author refers, in particular, to the article by A. Czarnota, M. Paździora and M. Stambulski regarding a hidden program in legal education, describes the existing situation and proposes changes that should be introduced in legal studies and teaching methods for future lawyers. On selected examples, she shows how one can oppose the domination of dataism in university teaching at law faculties in
Poland and at the same time educate competent lawyers and conscious citizens.

Changes in the university model related to such phenomena as globalisation or technological development are important from the point of view of lawyer education. The aim of the study was to assess whether Polish legal provisions on the design of the programmes of law studies and the specific normative criteria for the evaluation of the quality of education allow a lawyer education model corresponding to a knowledge-based economy (KBE) to be formulated. The analysis showed that the provisions on the design of study programmes and the evaluation of the quality
of education do not allow a model study programme for the field of law, so that it can fully meet the requirements of the KBE, to be created. It was noted that creating a minimum normative standard in a legal education programme is necessary. Persons involved in the teaching of lawyers and beneficiaries of legal services should be involved in the development of this standard. The conducted research may improve legal solutions in such a way that they contribute to the improvement
of the process of creating study programmes in the field of law. The point is that they should be comparable and comply with GOW requirements. At the same time, they must ensure equal access to the legal professions for all law graduates.

The purpose of the presented analysis is to position the new university model introduced by the Act of 20 July 2018 – Law on Higher Education and Science in the field of knowledge economy, which is a segment of the dynamically developing digital economy as seen today. Right now, we can see the paradigm of the resource determining economic development becoming redefined. While in the past it was land, followed by capital and labour later on, at present it is more and more about
knowledge – but in an institutionalised form. Such knowledge increases the significance
of intangible assets as the factor behind development, i.e. intellectual technologies. Research-education institutions play a prominent part in generating and accumulating this knowledge. Therefore, the position and the significance of universities in the structure of acquisition and transmission of knowledge becomes redefined. This calls for new methods of managing quality, staff, projects, and university funds to be implemented – which means, in general, a new operating
model for universities With its origins in a social-economic diagnosis, the article has been based on
a normative analysis of the provisions establishing the new university model and uses this analysis to attempt to reconstruct the methods of knowledge management and to verify its suitability for the requirements set by the development of the digital economy and of the knowledge-based society.

The legislative changes that take place in the area of higher education and science pose new challenges to higher education institutions and create a new framework of verification of their teaching and research activity. Among the many significantly changing aspects of functioning of the system of higher education and science, the definition of the mission of this system seems to be particularly interesting. The new Higher Education and Science Law Act imposes important regulations in this domain. Defining the mission of the system of higher education and science
refers directly to the values lying at the heart of the activity of institutions of higher education and science, including universities in particular. A defined mission of a university ensures a reference to the tradition and the position of this university in the social system, characterises its identity, and indicates the values the university protects and promotes in its activity. Also, a defined mission statement points to a university’s main goals set on the future and the environment in which it
functions. In this area, defining the mission is also one of the instruments used to manage a university.

The article is based on an assumption that constitutionalism has a Janus face. A constitution is both a legal and a political act. So far, the public domain has been dominated by legal constitutionalism (constitutional dogmatics), which excludes the constitution from the public sphere, subjecting it to the authority of lawyers-experts. The contemporary political phenomena such as: new populism, illiberal democracy or new constitutionalism should shift the interest of researchers to the political aspect of constitutionalism. Constitutionalism is, therefore, a multidimensional social practice. A political game featuring many actors. And the constitutionalism of lawyers is only one of its possible interpretations. Citizens also have their own constitutionalisms, and different perspectives on constitutionalism, reflecting opposing interests, may lead to conflicts. The constitutional law dogmatics applied to resolve such conflicts would argue for the existence of a transcendental framework for their resolution. A more political approach denies the existence of such a framework. In other words, the dogmatics in question requires democracy to adapt to constitutionalism, while the political approach requires constitutionalism to adapt to democracy. The text is an introduction to a part of a volume featuring articles by authors affiliated with the Centre for Legal Education and Social
Theory of the University of Wrocław.

The article discusses the issue of the possibility of regulating matters concerning higher education and its institutions in executive and internal acts. It presents the acceptable limits of delegating matters relating to higher education to regulations, as well as internal acts of higher education institutions. These limits are described taking into account the principle of autonomy of higher education institutions, as well as the rules on the creation of law, in particular the rules for issuing regulations. It was also pointed out that the incorrect division of matter between act of parliament (statute) and a regulation violates constitutional rules of law creation. It is also contrary to the protection of entities’ trust in the state and law and the principle of division and balance of power. Faulty formation of the higher education system is not good to the quality of education and conducting scientific research. It hinders the implementation of the freedom of science.

In the article, the author discusses the basic assumptions of the reform of the Law on Higher Education and Science, which is to be has been introduced in Poland in autumn 2018, with particular emphasis on the rules of employing university teachers. One of the most important changes in this area is the resignation from appointment as a basis for establishing employment relationships with this professional group in favour of an employment contract. It is the end of the process of departing from the employment model based on the special status of university teachers, which has lasted for over a dozen years. Now, they will largely be subject to general labour law regulations. This means making the legal regulation more flexible and therefore also reducing the protection against dismissal, the right to which has been vested in the appointed teachers so far. The author also believes that the changes currently being implemented are only the first stage of the reform, which should result in a significant increase in financial outlays for higher education institutions and in the approximation of the level of salaries of university teachers to standards in developed countries.

The Act on Higher Education and Science of 2018 considerably restricts the internal autonomy of universities. Management is vested in rectors and university boards while neglecting the role of faculties, which, if established in the first place, have been reduced to entities of no significance. The rector, as the exclusive managerial body of an institution, and the university board, representing mainly external stakeholders, as a body supervising its economy, have been vested with such an ex-tensive authority that this may result in hindering the development of multiple academic disciplines, especially those in the area of the humanities, but also in the field of social studies in many cases.

The article attempts to present the legislative changes relating to the so called Act 2.0, i.e, the law on higher education together with its implementary regulation on studies as well as the proposed university apprenticeship, which has not as of yet been made into law of any kind. These changes may have a considerable impact on legal education in Poland, and, hence, on the public administration sector in the context of its needs. For it seems justified to assume that the two research areas, i.e. the public administration sector and legal education are both interrelated and that they exert reciprocal influence upon each other. For public administration, in order to function properly, requires a supply of lawyers whereas the latter, in turn, considerably affects its practices – for instance, by way of academic activities and jurisprudential construction or judicial review. The text focuses, above all, on outlining the postulate of the so called good administration. Subsequently, selected issues are presented in the areas of legal education that are related to such administration and can serve to either implement the postulate or to weaken it. Presented are also the assumptions of the draft of the, so called, academic apprenticeship as well as the draft law together with its implementary regulation. Moreover, attention is paid to the phenomenon of mythologisation of practical education presenting a desired direction of legislative action in that respect

This text is a contribution to the discussion on the reform of higher education in Poland. By referring to selected examples, it shows that the planned changes are based on several fundamental myths resulting from the inefficiency of earlier attempts to heal the university system. At the same time, it aims to show why it is necessary to abandon the belief that higher education can be reformed quickly, with little financial outlays, and that the results of the implemented changes can be instant. The text offers also a criticism of the view assuming that the expected changes can be arrived at only through a reform of the law, and that it is possible to transplant solutions functioning in other countries directly to Poland. The presented considerations oppose the position according to which there exist some ideal models of education and research, whose implementation can make it possible to “breed” an ideal scholar. Arguing that education and academic success will always be an outcome of many variables, a critical analysis of selected solutions included in the law on science and higher education has been offered as well.