The aim of the article is to show the role of eugenic concepts in the views of Polish legal criminologists looking for solutions to reduce crime. One way they considered was castration and especially sterilization of criminals, believing that the propensity to commit crimes is hereditary. These concepts raised great moral and ethical doubts as well as legal ones. Most of them met with opposition from Polish lawyers, but were still popular due to the influence of the anthropological school in the study of criminal law. In the 1930s, the solutions were adopted in German law.
The Austrian Civil Code (ABGB), which was in force in the districts of the courts based in Lvov and Krakow in the Interwar period, stipulated the principle of freedom of testing by the testator. That freedom, however, could harm the inheritance rights of the persons who were the nearest to the testator. The institution protecting the rights of these persons was the legitimate share which they were entitled to as heirs-at-law. The basis to assess the height of the legitim was the size of inheritance. However, while estimating thelegitimate share, donations which the heirs-at-law (persons entitled to the legitim), heirs and legatees had received from testators were taken into consideration as well. The ABGB provided that in the case where the legitim which the heirs-at-law were entitled to was depleted (not at full height) they could demand completion of it. Questions concerning which donations were taken into account and which were not while estimating the height of the legitim due to different practices in this respect were the subject of many courts' adjudgments. The jurisprudence in this sphere was not uniform. It stipulated compensation of the depleted legitimate share both in kind (in the form of proportional part of the donation) and as a financial benefit, with time evolving towards the latter to a greater and greater extent.
Intabulacja, czyli wpisanie prawa własności nieruchomości do księgi gruntowej w prawie obowiązującym w byłym zaborze austriackim w Polsce w okresie międzywojennym, miała niezwy-kle istotne znaczenie. Była jednym z warunków skutecznego przeniesienia tego prawa. Dotyczy to także przeniesienia prawa własności nieruchomości w drodze dziedziczenia. W praktyce niestety często jej nie dokonywano, co powodowało niezgodność między faktycznym a prawnym stanem władania nieruchomościami, z którymi nawet sądy musiały się godzić. Sytuacja taka występowała w byłym zaborze austriackim, szczególnie odnośnie do dziedziczenia gruntów chłopskich, rodząc wiele problemów prawnych.
August Heylman is one of the forgotten lawyers of the Kingdom of Poland in the 19th century. He was a practician, holding high positions in the then administration and judiciary of the Kingdom. At the same time he occupied himself with scholarly activity. He was one of the main advocates of the historical school of law in the Polish legal science in the 19th century as well as a co-creator of one of the best-known Polish scientific journals edited under the title Themis Polska.
In his contribution, the author presents the work on the codification (initially on the Act) of procedural criminal law in Poland in the years 1919–1928. Those works were initially led by the Criminal Department of the Codification Committee, and then by the Criminal Proceedings Section of the Codification Commission. The first period of the work on the criminal procedure law was characterized by some disputes between the members of the Department, i.e. supporters of the classical school (E. Krzymuski) vs. the sociological school (J. Makarewicz), the discussion aiming at defining the relationship of procedural criminal law and substantive criminal law. The work on the draft law was carried out faster after the appointment (on 16 July 1920) of the Criminal Proceedings Section, which in 1924 published the first version of the draft criminal law bill. E. Krzymuski, A. Mogilnicki, Z. Rymowicz and E.S. Rappaport had played the main role in the development of the project. After a very deep criticism in the columns of Gazeta Administracji i Policji Państwowej [The Gazette of State Administration and Police], Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny [The legal, economic and sociological movement] and Palestra [The bar], the project was rejected. Only the second version of the bill prepared in 1925-1926, re-worked by the committee composed of W. Makowski, A. Mogilnicki and S. Śliwiński (appointed by the Minister of Justice), became the basis for the President of the Republic of Poland to adopt the first Polish Code of Criminal Procedure of 19 March 1928.
In his contribution, the author presents Conrad of Opole, who was the author of the manuscripts of The Saxon Mirror, prepared for Cracow and Wroclaw (the so-called Versio Wratislaviensis), and then other sources of Magdeburg law (such as the Magdeburg Weichbild). The author of this article concentrates on the creation of these monuments of law, but also on their significance for the development of urban law in Poland as the basis for the location and system of cities in Poland. Moreover, these reflections provide an opportunity to present the mutual relations between Wroclaw and Cracow during their location.
The author of the article presents the circumstances of the founding of the famous Protestant gymnasium (Gymnasium Illustre) by Prince George II in Brzeg in 1564, showing the role of that school in the implementation of other reforms launched by the Prince of Brzeg and the situation in Silesia at that time. The final caesura is 1792, when teaching law in the gymnasium in Brzeg, which is the main subject of the author's considerations, was over. The author discusses in detail the teaching of law in that school, teaching of the scheme and the importance of law in the curriculum. Moreover, the author presents the figures of people who taught law in the gymnasium in Brzeg and their official careers. Special attention is paid to James Schickfuss. The author also shows the sporadic contacts of the gymnasium in Brzeg with some Polish grammar schools and the fate of some of its graduates.
In the explanatory part, the author presents legal and criminal measures aiming at protecting election and voting against electoral fraud and other crimes in the Polish criminal code of the 20th century. Because elections are regarded as one of the most significant events in the public life, their protection is of the utmost importance and is a guarantee of their undisturbed management. The prevention of electoral fraud was provided for in the Criminal Codes of 1932, 1969 and 1997. It was most widely discussed in the Criminal Code of 1932, which served as the basis for the Criminal Code of 1997 in force to date. It was given the least attention, only in one article, in the 1969 edition, which indicates the importance of elections in a socialist state. The most serious threat to the integrity of contemporary elections is electoral corruption, including electoral bribery and venality. Contemporarily, apart from criminal codes, criminal sanctions regarding elections and voting are provided for in the electoral regulations and the Electoral Code of 2011.
