The Socialist Legal Nihilism in the Polish People’s Republic and Paths Overcoming This Concept

Abstract

After World War 2 in Poland, the process of building a new order began. Marxism, as interpreted by Lenin and Stalin, was adopted as the foundation. The creation of a system consistent with the official ideology required the implementation of abstract ideas in practice. One of the main tools used by the communists was law. It was an example of the practical implementation of legal nihilism, accompanying the construction of a totalitarian state. After 1956, a process began in Poland, aimed at overcoming the forcefully imposed order covering many areas of culture and science. The article provides the presentation of selected ideas from the field of law theory in communist Poland, the development of which reduced the influence of Marxism-Leninism in law. The main thesis of the article assumes that the process of de-Stalinization of Polish legal sciences had progressed gradually since 1956. The research objective of the article is to verify the hypothesis that the changes in Polish legal sciences related to overcoming the tenets of the Marxist-Leninist ideology took place in a manner similar to other areas of cultural and academic life. The issue has not yet been addressed in the way presented in the article, so the study can provide a useful material for research on the period of the Polish People’s Republic.

Keywords

• polska ludowa
• nihilizm prawny
• marksizm-leninizm
• teoria prawa
• prawoznawstwo