Oratio pro domo sua. A Few Remarks on the Science of Legal History in Poland

The text is addressed at first to young historians and historians of law. It stresses the peculiar importance of the science of the history of law and legal education in Polish historical science, especially in the period between 1850–1914. The science of history of law has been strongly connected with historical science, and law was a phenomenon shaped par excellence by history. In 19th century Poland, when the partitioners were replacing Polish law and Polish institutions by their own legal systems, Polish historians of law had to struggle to preserve national legal traditions. That is why the strong position of F. K. von Savigny’s historical school of law is presented in Polish Romanticism. The article describes the achievements of Polish historians of law in the field of national history science. It points out that many of the historians in this period were lawyers by education (Szymon Askenazy, Tadeusz Korzon, Władysław Smoleński, Marceli Handelsman, Władysław Konopczyński). Nowadays the role of the science of history of law is underestimated, although the cooperation of historians of law with the representatives of other historical disciplines is fruitful