Should we punish hate? : remarks about the concept of hate crimes

In the face of growing interest in the concept of hate crimes in Poland, the aim of this artide is to present a few queries concerning this institution. Focusing on the so-called "racial animus" model of hate crime legislation there are presented main justifications of this concept (inter alia the so-called "greater harm argument" and the so-called "greater culpability of hate argument") and there are discussed and developed various critical arguments referring to it. There is also commented the recent attempt to reform the Polish Criminal Code. Authors of the project explicitly refer to the concept of hate crimes. However, due to the very narrow scope of the proposed amendment, one can make a statement that the shape of planned changes corresponds to the widely shared understanding of the concept of hate crimes only to an insignificant extent. Thus, it appears that the project should not refer to the discussed institution at all. Due to a number of important problems (philosophical, social, and related to legat dogmatics), possible decisions to introduce hate crimes in legal system should be preceded by an in-depth reflection. However, due to the described issues, one can venture an assertion that this institution should not be introduced at all

A matter of family? An analysis of determinants of farm succession in Polish agriculture

In this paper the impact of selected determinants on farm succession in Poland is analysed. The study shows that socio-demographic factors associated primarily with the characteristics of families, particularly of farm managers, had a significant infl uence on the family transfers of agricultural holdings. The impact of micro-economic and spatial factors on farm succession was observed as well. However, the research results indicate different scales and characters of succession determinants. Behind this variability was an institutional change linked to Poland’s accession to the European Union and changes in the economy. The paper argues that this context, along with conducive social and legal background, reinforced a generational change in the sector. Analysis at the micro level was prepared on the basis of empirical data from the longitudinal IERiGŻ-PIB surveys conducted in 76 villages located across Poland with the use of multinomial dependent variable logit models. A unique feature of the study is an exploration of farm succession as an intra-family and generational phenomenon, relating to the different phases of family life cycle, as well as to kinship relationships. Moreover, unlike the majority of succession studies, the presented research distinguishes three types of succession (inter-generational, intra-generational and reverse inter-generational) and is based on information concerning actual changes in surveyed rural households, not only respondents’ declarations about the future

O problemach uzgadniania prawa z moralnością przy okazji odpowiedzi Wojciechowi Ciszewskiemu

This article is Michał Dudek’s answer to the criticism articulated by Wojciech Ciszewski. In its first part it is noted, amongst other things, that Dudek and Ciszewski adopt different visions of the moral neutrality of law, or that they conduct analyses in a significantly different manner. It is also emphasized that Ciszewski frequently uses very idealistic, even counterfactual constructions and reads Dudek’s arguments erroneously. In the second part, Dudek, noticing Ciszewski’s very narrow critique of aligning law with morality, presents a more complete list of controversies connected with this postulate, including the problem of the incompleteness of morality, the diagnosis of morality, and the extension of the legislative process.Niniejszy artykuł stanowi odpowiedź Michała Dudka na krytykę Wojciecha Ciszewskiego. W pierwszej jego części zauważa się między innymi przyjmowanie przez  Dudka i Ciszewskiego ostatecznie różnych wizji neutralności moralnej prawa, czy ich wyraźnie odmienne sposoby prowadzenia analiz. Podkreśla się przy tym częste używanie przez Ciszewskiego bardzo idealistycznych, wręcz kontrfaktycznych konstrukcji i błędne odczytanie wywodów Dudka. W drugiej części natomiast Dudek, dostrzegając bardzo mało rozbudowaną krytykę Ciszewskiego na temat uzgadniania prawa z moralnością, prezentuje pełniejsze wyliczenie kontrowersji związanych z tym postulatem, m.in. problem niezupełności moralności, diagnozowania moralności czy rozciągnięcia procesu legislacyjnego

Can informative traffic signs also be obligatory? : Polish Constitutional Tribunal and Supreme Court versus traffic signs

This article discusses a rare instance of the highest national courts explicitly addressing traffic signs in their judgments or decisions. It critically examines the standpoint expressed by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and the Supreme Court, according to which the basic traffic sign categories in Poland—obligatory, prohibitory, informative and warning—are not separable (not disjunctive) [e.g. prima facie non-normative signs (informative or warning) can also be normative (obligatory or prohibitory)]. These courts formulated this idea when addressing the legal question concerning the applicability of legal provision penalizing failure to comply with a traffic sign to parking a car without paying a fee in an area marked by an informative sign that indicates the need to charge a fee for parking. The article analyses and criticizes the relevant standpoint of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and the Supreme Court. It shows how many negative consequences can result from frivolous treatment and neglect of traffic signs. It also reconstructs some possible practical recommendations concerning not only traffic signs but also visualizations of legal rules in general

Redundancies of traffic signs : an exploratory study

Against the background of studies on redundancy in law that completely omit the visual element in law and of studies on traffic signs that are laconic about their redundancies, the present study proposes more focused investigation into the redundancies of traffic signs. After presentation of the broader context of existing studies on traffic signs and on redundancy in law, and following a discussion of the direct inspiration for embarking upon research into this topic, the article moves to present and discuss six proposed types of redundancies of signs. Utilizing Franciszek Studnicki’s distinction between sign-types and sign-realizations, and given that traffic signs exist in various complicated relationships with each other, with written formulations in legal texts, and with the environments in which they are placed, the study comments on six types of redundancy: (1) sign-type–basic task(s) of road traffic law; (2) of sign-type’s elements; (3) sign-type–sign-type; (4) sign-type–legal text; (5) sign-realization–sign-realization; and (6) sign-realization–environment. Analysis of each type is supported through examples, various subdivisions, and additional lines of inquiry. The study has value for both strictly theoretical and more practical enterprises related both to traffic signs themselves and to the wider realm of visualization of norms

Unlocking archival maps of the Hornsund fjord area for monitoring glaciers of the Sørkapp Land peninsula, Svalbard

Archival maps are an important source of information on the state of glaciers in polar zones and are very often basic research data for analysing changes in glacier mass, extent, and geometry. However, basing a quantitative analysis on archival maps requires that they be standardised and precisely matched against modern-day cartographic materials. This can be achieved effectively using techniques and tools from the field of geographic information systems (i.e. GIS). The objective of this research was to accurately register archival topographic maps of the area surrounding the Hornsund fjord (southern Spitsbergen) published by the Polish Academy of Sciences and to evaluate their potential for use in studying changes in the geometry of glaciers in the north-western part of the Sørkapp Land peninsula in the following periods: 1961-1990, 1990-2010, and 1961-2010. The area occupied by the investigated glaciers in the north-western Sørkapp Land decreased in the years 1961-2010 by 45.6 $km^{2}$, i.e. by slightly over 16 %. The rate of glacier area change varied over time and amounted to 0.85 $km^{2}$ $yr^{−1}$ in the period 1961-1990 and sped up to 1.05 $km^{2}$ $yr^{−1}$ after 1990. This process was accompanied by glacier surface lowering by about 90-100 m for the largest land-terminating glaciers on the peninsula and by up to more than 120 m for tidewater glaciers (above the line marking their 1984 extents). The dataset is now available from the Zenodo web portal: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4573129 (Dudek and Pętlicki, 2021)

W stronę trójpoziomowej koncepcji dystansu władzy : rozszerzenie dystansu władzy Geerta Hofstedego poza kontekst międzykulturowy

Dystans władzy jest jednym z najczęściej badanych wymiarów kultury w podejściu Geerta Hofstedego. Jednak zdecydowana większość badaczy odnosi się do dystansu władzy jak do czegoś oczywistego. Pomimo setek badań nad dystansem władzy, do tej pory nikt nie próbował dokonać rekonceptualizacji tej koncepcji. Na tym tle w niniejszy artykule zaproponowano nowe rozumienie dystansu władzy. Wywód koncentruje się na sformułowaniu zarysu trójpoziomowej koncepcji dystansu władzy, która zasadniczo nawiązuje do tradycji Hofstedego, ale jednocześnie jest wolna od jej założeń ontologicznych i epistemologicznych dotyczących świata społecznego. Proponowany sposób rozumienia dystansu władzy stwarza przestrzeń, między innymi, do badań nad dystansem władzy skoncentrowanych na dynamice interakcyjnej w różnych warunkach. Daje także możliwość formułowania zupełnie nowych hipotez dotyczących psychologicznych i socjologicznych wymiarów władzy.Power distance is one of the most researched dimensions of culture in Geert Hofstede’s framework. The vast majority of scholars refer to power distance as though it were something self-evident. Despite the hundreds of studies conducted on the basis of power distance, to date no one has seriously tried to propose a reconceptualization of power distance. Against that background, this paper aims to redefine Hofstede’s concept of power distance. It focuses on formulating a sketch of the three-level concept of power distance that essentially refers to Hofstedian tradition, but is at the same time entangled in different ontological and epistemological assumptions on the social world. The proposed way of understanding power distance creates space for, among other things, a more interaction-focused study on power dynamics in various settings. It also provides the possibility of formulating completely new hypotheses concerning psychological and sociological dimensions of exercising power

"I (can) see myself… But what for?" : on live camera feeds in courtrooms (from the perspective of witnesses)

The paper’s aim is to present and critically discuss a peculiar practice noticed and studied in courtrooms in the Lower Court in Kraków, Poland. In courtrooms where different hearings take place, two cameras are installed on the wall or on the stand near the judge’s bench. One camera is aimed at the center of the courtroom, where non-professional participants such as witnesses or plaintiffs stand while being questioned by judge. The second camera’s view is more general—it covers the rest of the courtroom, including the benches for plaintiffs, claimants, defendants, and their legal representatives, and most notably the general public. Naturally, the mere presence of cameras in the modern courtroom is not surprising. What raises some questions is the presence of TV screens in the Kraków Lower Court’s courtrooms (and in Poland’s courts in general), which display the feed from both cameras during the hearing. Consequently, people gathered in the courtroom, especially people questioned by the judge (such as witnesses), can see themselves “live” in the TV screen. Even without raising the subtle details and differences between individual courtrooms, the system of displaying, in real time, live video feeds from a courtroom into the same courtroom begs for more detailed, critical analysis. For instance, one should address the system’s (presumably intended) functions (e.g. transparency, behavior control, and correction of time perception) and the real consequences for the dynamics during hearings, which are not assumptions or hypotheticals. The paper distinguishes the issues connected with the system and addressees them through the perspective of witnesses who participate in the hearings, using the collected opinions of witnesses

O problemach uzgadniania prawa z moralnością przy okazji odpowiedzi Wojciechowi Ciszewskiemu

Niniejszy artykuł stanowi odpowiedź Michała Dudka na krytykę Wojciecha Ciszewskiego. W pierwszej jego części zauważa się między innymi przyjmowanie przez  Dudka i Ciszewskiego ostatecznie różnych wizji neutralności moralnej prawa, czy ich wyraźnie odmienne sposoby prowadzenia analiz. Podkreśla się przy tym częste używanie przez Ciszewskiego bardzo idealistycznych, wręcz kontrfaktycznych konstrukcji i błędne odczytanie wywodów Dudka. W drugiej części natomiast Dudek, dostrzegając bardzo mało rozbudowaną krytykę Ciszewskiego na temat uzgadniania prawa z moralnością, prezentuje pełniejsze wyliczenie kontrowersji związanych z tym postulatem, m.in. problem niezupełności moralności, diagnozowania moralności czy rozciągnięcia procesu legislacyjnego