Department of History of Legal and Political Thought and German Law
Department of History of Legal and Political Thought and German Law originated in 2014 resulting from merger of two existing Faculty’s units: Department of History of Legal and Political Thought and Department of History of German Law in Poland.
Staff structure:
Prof. Dr. hab Danuta Janicka – the Head of the department
Dr. Marta Baranowska – assistant professor
Dr Andrzej Madej – assistant professor
Dr Anna Tarnowska – assistant profesor
There are also two retired professors who participate in the Department’s activity: Prof. Stanisław Salmonowicz and Prof. Janusz Justyński.
Field of Scientific research:
Research interests of past and contemporary staff members comprise legal history and legal and political thought (from Antiquity to 20th c.). Prod. Dr. hab. Danuta Janicka is an expert in the legal history, especially Polish and German. In her researches she is focused on the history of criminal law and criminal law science, legal history of Pomerania and Chełmno (Culm) Land, history of Prussia and Prussian law as well as political system and law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Marta Baranowska is concerned with views of Niccolò Machiavelli, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Friedrich Nietzsche, the history of socialist thought and the issues of nationalism and national identity. Andrzej Madeja’s main scope of research belongs to so called European studies, particularly these are concepts of European unity and attempts of their implementation undertaken in political practice. His interests comprises also socio-cultural matters such as origin and evolution of modern state and legal culture. Anna Tarnowska’s researches are focused on German (especially Prussian) law and political system, Polish-German relations history, history of constitutionalism and administration in Poland and Europe.
Main achievements of the Department:
Professor Janicka has held many scholarships founded by German universities and research centers and is a fellow of several German research boards. In 2004 she won a prestigious Eike von Repgow prize granted by Mayor of Magdeburg and Rector of Magdeburg University. In 2015-2017 she presided over a realization of Polish National Science Centre grant: From classic to sociological school. Luminaries of Polish criminal science and their works (OPUS 8). In 2015-2018 Dr Tarnowska partook in ERC project Reconsidering Constitutional Formation (ReConFort), realized at University of Passau in Germany (ERC Advanced Grant no. 339529). Since 2017 she has been involved as a head of project in another National Science Centre grant: Legislative delegation in a representative democracy (OPUS 11).
(A detailed list of all publications available on the Polish website of each of the Scholars)
International cooperation:
For many years the Department has maintained and deepened Polish-German scientific cooperation. Members of the Department are fellows of German research boards, they present results of their researches and publish them in Germany. In 2015 in cooperation with Faculty of Law at Kiel University the Department held 8th Conference on Legal History in the Baltic Sea Area and published the large conference volume in 2016.