O prawie cywilnym i karnym od Wieku Światła i Rozumu do spustoszonego stulecia

Abstract

In the 18th century the rule of ratio was supposed to rebuild the world and to make an order in it. The philosophers followed many illusions then. One of them was the belief that the ideal law is almighty and it may give happiness to the mankind. The revolution was also supposed to be a great project for the mankind. Liberty, Equality, Property (by Jan Baszkiewicz) were placed on revolutionary banners. Liberty, equality, property are the most important natural laws, which were supposed to be transformed into codes. The 20th century has inherited many different ideas, also utopian – coming from the Age of Enlightenment. The starting point – as usual in the utopias – was to destroy the old order, especially legal order. Two tragic totalitarian systems tried to realize these utopias. The 20th century is called the Ravaged Century (Robert Conquest). But when the last totalitarian state in Europe fell down in the end of this century, we returned to the Enlightenment roots in penal and civil law.