Faculty of Law and Administration
University of Warsaw
History
Faculty of Law and Administration University of Warsaw
Beginnings
The traditions of the Faculty of Law and Administration, the oldest faculty of the University of Warsaw, date back to the 18th century and the curriculum of the Corps of Cadets. Plans to establish a university that would also educate lawyers were put forward at the time of the First Partition, when the Commission of National Education issued a series of professorial appointments. Financial and housing difficulties prevented this idea from being realized.
The idea returned during the period of loss of statehood. In 1808, the School of Law of the Duchy of Warsaw was established—mainly to meet the needs of a judiciary and new administration being built from scratch. This date is considered the beginning of our Faculty’s activity. On 1 October 1808, the then Minister of Justice, Feliks Łubieński, who oversaw the organization of the school, emphasized its role as a center for educating youth. In 1811, by merging with the School of Administrative Sciences, a two-faculty institution was created: the School of Law and Administration. It was governed by a Supervisory Council that included, among others, Stanisław Staszic and Samuel Bogumił Linde. The program lasted three years (four in the case of combined studies in both faculties). In 1814, the office of Dean was introduced, and the distinguished legal historian Jan Wincenty Bandtkie was appointed to it. The School functioned without interruption even during the war with Russia. Transformed on the basis of the 1816 founding diploma into the Faculty of Law and Administration, it became part of the Royal University of Warsaw. The University’s activities were inaugurated on 14 May 1818. Among the Faculty’s professors were the eminent economist and penologist Fryderyk Skarbek; Wacław Aleksander Maciejowski, who lectured on Roman law and historical-legal subjects; and, finally, the Faculty’s own alumnus and the youngest in that circle, the criminal law scholar Romuald Hube. The Faculty actively participated in Warsaw’s scholarly life, including by publishing the journal “Themis Polska” (in 1828–1831). During the 14 years of its existence, the Faculty of Law and Administration graduated 1,880 students, including 757 who earned master’s degrees.
During the November Uprising, actual activity was suspended, and many lecturers and students took part in the fighting. As part of post-uprising repressions, on 19 November 1831 the University was closed. Efforts to rebuild legal studies met with determined resistance from the Tsarist authorities. For a time, in 1840–1846, only legal courses attached to the gubernial gymnasium in Warsaw existed.
1862 – The Main School
In the era of the reforms of the 1860s, the Russian authorities agreed to establish the Main School (Szkoła Główna) in 1862. The largest of its four faculties became the Faculty of Law and Administration. Its structure did not divide studies into legal and administrative tracks; only when sitting for the final master’s examinations could students choose one of the offered fields. Among the professors at that time were, among others, criminal law scholars Stanisław Budziński and Walenty Miklaszewski; Roman law scholar Teodor Dydyński; civil law scholar Władysław Holewiński; and administrative law scholar Antoni Okolski. Over seven years, 318 master’s degrees were awarded by the Faculty (out of a total of 1,314 enrolled).
1915 – The University of Warsaw
From 1869/1870 onward, the purely Russian Imperial University of Warsaw operated in place of the Main School. Despite unsuccessful attempts to create a Polish university in 1905–1907, work on this task resumed during the wartime of 1914. Professors including Miklaszewski and Holewiński took part in developing the concept for legal studies. On 15 November 1915, under the authority of the German occupation, the University of Warsaw was opened. Its first faculty (until the Faculty of Theology was launched) was the Faculty of Law and State Sciences—renamed in 1917/18 the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences. An alumnus of the Main School, Alfons Parczewski, was appointed Dean. Studies at the Faculty were launched gradually, with successive semesters taught each year by contracted “lecturers.”
In 1918, steps were taken to fully stabilize the University. The scope and procedures for examinations were defined for the Faculty of Law. In January 1919, the Head of State signed a decree appointing the first body of University of Warsaw professors, which abolished the positions of contracted lecturers. The appointed professors assumed leadership of institutes (for legal disciplines known as “seminaria”), and continuous work began—which has lasted for 90 years.
In 1920, the University adopted rules for appointing professors and docents similar to those at other state universities. The Faculty’s institutes (seminaria)—including two chairs created ad personam: sociology of law (Prof. Leon Petrażycki, Dr. habil.) and the history of social systems (Prof. Ludwik Krzywicki, Dr. habil.)—operated in very difficult conditions. Not all chairs were fully staffed, and many lectures were entrusted as commissioned courses. In 1920, former professors of the Main School—Teodor Dydyński, Władysław Holewiński, and Walenty Miklaszewski—were included among the honorary professors. Alongside professors who began their scholarly careers in Lviv (such as Ignacy Koschembahr-Łyskowski, Antoni Kostanecki, and Zygmunt Cybichowski) or came from the Jagiellonian University (Edward Strasburger), chairs were also taken up by younger scholars who bound their careers to the Faculty. From 1917, the lawyer Wacław Makowski—co-author of the criminal law codification and active in parliamentary life—joined the staff; from 1935 he also held the chair of constitutional law. From 1921, Roman Rybarski delivered lectures and later held the chair of public finance; he authored important works, was active in the Sejm, and served as Dean from 1937/38. At that time, ties with foreign scholarly centers—especially French legal scholarship—were vibrant. From 1932, Prof. Henri Mazeaud of the Faculty of Law at the University of Lille gave a one-semester commissioned course in French civil law; when in 1935/36 a chair of French civil law was created, he assumed it as a titular professor of the UW Faculty of Law. The outbreak of war in 1939 interrupted his lectures.
Student numbers in the interwar period were very large (admissions ranged from 2,000 to 3,000), and about 30% of those enrolled in the first year completed their studies. In 1933, the Faculty limited enrollment to 1,000 by introducing a competitive entrance based on the secondary-school final exam (matura). The basic teaching format comprised lectures and seminars; broad implementation of practical classes was achieved only in 1937 by Dean Rybarski (thanks to positions partly funded from student fees). End-of-year exams for each academic year were taken on a single day; a retake was allowed in one subject, while more failing grades meant repeating the year.
The Faculty operated under very difficult spatial conditions. Only in 1935/36 was the newly built Faculty of Law building and, within it, the Auditorium Maximum, handed over to it.
1939
In September 1939, the Faculty’s seminary building burned down. The German army took over the Auditorium Maximum as well as the surviving premises of the Civil Law Seminary. As early as October, in response to Dean Rybarski’s inquiry, the heads of institutes replied that activities could resume once substitute premises were obtained. At the end of October, the Germans banned higher education institutions, and organizing underground teaching required new forms. From the autumn of 1940, classes for senior students were undertaken under Dean Rybarski’s direction; for those wishing to begin studies, classes were organized together with professors expelled from Poznań under the University of the Western Lands, where from 1 January 1941 Prof. Rafacz served as Dean of the Faculty of Law. When Rybarski was arrested in May 1941, teaching was temporarily suspended, but by July 1941 it resumed under Prof. Rafacz as Dean of the UW Faculty of Law, and the law “complety” (clandestine classes) from the UWL were transferred to UW, so that by 1943 the Faculty of Law was operating within the University of Warsaw—the number of students steadily increased. It is estimated that around 1,000 students studied during the occupation (a list based on passed exams includes 600 names).
Small groups were formed at various locations across the city, and professors repeated classes in a given subject several times. Each subject ended with an examination; organizing all end-of-year exams on a single day, as before the war, was impossible under occupation. The Faculty of Law was the only faculty where the Faculty Council met regularly, and alongside teaching, professors pursued scholarly work, preparing textbooks. The Warsaw Uprising interrupted instruction, and Dean Rafacz was executed by the Germans in August 1944. After the fighting ended, professors gradually returned to Warsaw.
After 1945
In July 1945, the Faculty of Law resumed classes, implementing the previous curriculum (while retaining separate examinations for each subject). The professorial ranks expanded. From 1950, all chairs were fully staffed; new chairs were created: in 1946—statistics, history of the law of Western Europe, military law; in 1947—ancient law; in 1949—criminology. In 1952, the chair of ecclesiastical law was abolished and a chair of agricultural law was created. Some chairs were renamed, e.g., in 1949 the chair of the encyclopedia and philosophy of law became the chair of legal theory. The term “institute units” (zakłady) was introduced (in place of chairs), which in the 1950s became parts of institutes or groups of chairs formed alongside independent chairs. From 1968, all chairs, as units, became parts of Institutes. Since then, the Faculty has worked within a structure of six Institutes.
The professorial body grew from a dozen or so to several dozen in recent years. Professors actively participated and continue to participate in scholarly life, preparing legal systems and academic textbooks and authoring numerous monographs. Among them, in 1947–1952, was the eminent Roman law scholar and founder of Polish papyrology, Rafał Taubenschlag; after his death, the unit of ancient law, combined from 1962 with the Roman law unit, was for many years headed by Prof. Henryk Kupiszewski. In 1949–1964, the unit of general history of state and law was headed by Prof. Karol Koranyi; in 1965–1977 by Michał Sczaniecki. The history of Polish law is associated with the names of Prof. Bogusław Leśnodorski, Prof. Jakub Sawicki, and currently Prof. Juliusz Bardach. In criminal law, Professors Stanisław Śliwiński, Jerzy Sawicki, Igor Andrejew, Leszek Lernell, Stanisław Batawia, Stefan Kalinowski, and Alfred Kaftal made their mark on the Faculty’s history; in civil law—Professors Jan Wasilkowski, Seweryn Szer, Witold Czachórski, Roman Piotrowski, Witold Warkałło, Zbigniew Resich, and Jerzy Jodłowski; in international law—Professors Cezary Berezowski, Manfred Lachs, and Wojciech Góralczyk; in constitutional law—Professors Stefan Rozmaryn and Jerzy Stembrowicz; in administrative law—Maurycy Jaroszyński, Jerzy Starościak, Zygmunt Rybicki, Jerzy Służewski, and Ryszard Malinowski. The examples listed here do not exhaust the roster of scholars associated with the Faculty; one should also consider currently serving staff who have achievements in research and participate in international scholarly life and in public life in its various spheres. Among the Faculty’s professors were members of the Polish Academy of Learning such as Professors Rybarski and Śliwiński, Taubenschlag, Lachs, Rozmaryn, Wasilkowski, Batawia, Leśnodorski, and Czachórski, and—currently—Juliusz Bardach and Sylwester Zawadzki, members of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
The Faculty published its own journal—since the 1920s “Themis Polska III” (referring to the tradition of the first “Themis Polska” from 1828–30). After World War II, publication was resumed in 1972 as a series under the new title “Studia Iuridica.” To date, 47 volumes have appeared.
Faculty professors have actively participated and continue to participate in international scholarly life. Notable examples include membership in the Academy of International Law in The Hague; cooperation with the International Faculty of Comparative Law in Amsterdam and the International Academy of Comparative Law in The Hague; participation in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague during the interwar period; and the International Court of Justice after World War II. Strong ties with French legal scholarship were also renewed after the war: from the 1950s, in cooperation with French universities, the Polish-French Legal Days were organized. Since the 1970s, the Faculty has also organized Polish-British Days. In 1979–1990, the Faculty ran a Summer School of Law for foreign students from American universities. In 1992, the first Center for the Study of English Law in Europe was established at the Faculty, operating as the Center for English and European Law. In addition, there are the Center for French and European Law, the Center for German and European Law, and since 1998/99 the School of American Law, as well as the School of Italian Law, the School of Spanish Law, and Polish Law for foreign students. In these schools, senior students can explore foreign legal systems under the guidance of international professors.
With regard to the organization of studies after World War II, changes began to be introduced in 1948. From that year, three tracks were offered for third-year students: civil-law, criminological, and administrative. From 1949, a two-cycle system was introduced: the first cycle lasted three years, had a vocational character, and entitled graduates to pursue master’s studies in a chosen specialization (for which a limited number of places was available). Students who were not admitted to a specialization were later allowed to complete their studies as external students. The two-cycle system was abolished in 1951/52, and four-year studies were restored. Since the 1980s, studies have lasted five years and conclude with a master’s thesis defense. In 1951, the Faculty’s Extramural (Part-Time) Studies were established and operated until 1996, with consultation centers in Białystok and Olsztyn. In 1959, the Professional Study of Administration was created; in 1964, a two-year master’s Study of Administration for graduates of the Professional Study of Administration; and in 1968, Postgraduate Study in Administration. Consultation centers for administrative studies were run in Białystok, Łomża, Ostrołęka, and Płock; currently, under the Faculty’s patronage, the Higher School of Public Administration in Ostrołęka operates.
From 1992, the Faculty undertook to increase the number of admitted students. Uniquely in Poland, it introduced classes for both full-time and so-called evening studies under a unified program, relaxed rigid timetabling, and replaced exercises with “consultations” in groups of various sizes (depending on room availability), open to students of both modes. For the second year, compulsory practical classes in certain subjects were introduced. In 1993/94, 150 fee-paying students were admitted to evening studies after an entrance exam; since 1993/94, 800 students have been admitted based on a competitive matura. The Faculty continues to seek the best recruitment methods. The primary group comprises students admitted to tuition-free studies based on an entrance exam. Since 2006, entrance exams have been abolished and admissions are based on matura results.
After World War II, the Faculty had no seat, as both the seminary building and the Auditorium Maximum were destroyed. The renovated seminary building was returned to the Faculty in the late 1940s. The rebuilt Auditorium Maximum was made available to all UW faculties. In the late 1960s, there were plans to build a new building on Szturmowa Street (in far Mokotów), which met with opposition from both students and staff. From the 1990s, the Faculty initiated the construction of a building for teaching needs, allocating a large share of evening students’ fees for this purpose. Classes in the new building at 4 Lipowa Street began in October 1998.
In subsequent years, with co-funding obtained under the Integrated Regional Operational Programme, a building on Oboźna Street (Collegium Iuridicum III) was erected, housing the Institute of Legal and Administrative Sciences and a modern Faculty Library with reading rooms for students and academic staff. The Faculty also took part in adapting the Old University Library building on the Main Campus of UW, gaining modern teaching rooms on the second floor.
In 2010, a capital renovation of the Collegium Iuridicum I seminary building was completed. On 4 March 2011, the building was ceremonially named after Prof. Leon Petrażycki.
On 27 June 2011, the University and Faculty authorities held the ceremonial opening of the Collegium Iuridicum IV building at 47 Wybrzeże Kościuszkowskie Street. The building has four lecture halls and a seminar room. It will house the Institute of International Law.
Prepared on the basis of a text by Prof. Grażyna Bałtruszajtys.