On the Need for Studies on the History of Law

Considerations on the Background of Tomasz Opaliński’s Thoughts Included in the Monograph “State of Peasantry in the Duchy of Warsaw in the Light of Court Records”

Abstract

Studies on the history of political systems and law involve a necessity to present historic law institutions with a modern view. This requires from the researcher a good command of legal language and scientific terminology. This article is an attempt to analyze the characteristics of studies dealing with the history of law against the background of Tomasz Opaliński’s thoughts included in the monograph “State of peasantry in the Duchy of Warsaw in the light of court records”. The Author described the situation of peasants in the years 1808–1815 in the light of the judicial documents of courts of peace. This issue is important because the Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw, abolishing „slavery”, introduced the equality of all citizens in terms of the law, which enabled the establishment of common courts. The historical and legal method was applied in this research. The book consists of four chapters, numerous appendices and its contents were organized according to subject-chronology. The Author discussed general issues (including the organization of the judiciary in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and in the Duchy of Warsaw), court records, major social and economic problems of peasants, as well as interstate relations (between peasants, peasants and nobles, peasants and burghers, peasants and Jews, peasants and clergy).