Polish law and society 2200-1I047-ERA

http://TBA

The objective of the course is to introduce students to Polish law and society through the lenses of Law and Society, a multiparadigmatic empirical discipline studying law in the social context. The course will use the findings from recent research to explain how the law works in the Polish context. While doing this, the course will also familiarise students with concepts and terminology of such academic fields as the sociology of law, law and economics, discourse analysis, and law and policy.

The themes to be discussed will include topics such as impacts of politics on law and the rule of law backsliding, economic, ethnic and psychosocial identity-based inequality and discrimination in law, social determinants of working of legal institutions, the specifics of the legal profession, meaning and impact of the legal culture on the working of the law. Whilst the course is primarily aimed at incoming Erasmus students, also Polish students are cordially invited to participate.

1. Orientation: Law and Society and law and society in Poland
2. The difficult past and the uneasy present: a historical glance at law and society in Poland
3. The rule of law backsliding: hypotheses, causes and ways forward
4. Legislation. Why, how, and what lesson does Poland teach?
5. Social psychology of procedural justice
6. Court talk. How do patterns of court communication affect the judgement outcomes?
7. The Constitutional Tribunal as a collective actor and as a social field
8. Knowledge and opinion about the law in Poland
9. The culture of anti-legalism?
10. Does economic inequality affect access to justice?
11. (Re) privatisation the Polish way: the case of reprivatised property and the right to housing
12. Percariousness of labour law. An institutional approach
13. Law and gender inequalities in Poland
14. LGBTQ+ rights in Poland and queer theory of law
15. The development of the legal profession in Poland

Type of course

elective courses
supplementary
optional courses

Mode

Classroom
Blended learning

Prerequisites (description)

The course does not presuppose any skills and prior knowledge. The course language is English. The ability to read academic texts and write short comments in understandable English is the minimum linguistic requirement to participate. Students are encouraged to partake in the oral discussion in class, but, as a principle, doing so is not a requirement of course completion.

Course coordinators

Jan Winczorek

Course dedicated to a programme

4EU+Courses

Learning outcomes

Students can:
1. Discuss the impacts of socio-cultural and economic factors on the working of law and legal institutions;
2. Characterize main features of Polish law and society;
3. Discuss the similarities and dissimilarities between the select mechanisms influencing the working of law and legal institutions in Poland and students' countries of origin;
4. Characterize main theoretical concepts in Law and Society.

Assessment criteria

Students will be required to deliver brief comments on the reading assignments using a web platform. Attendance requirements, as superimposed by the University, are validated informally. Grades are provided based on the quality of said written assignments and other voluntary forms of in-class and web platform activity.

Additional information

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 2200-1I047-ERA in USOSweb