The Interim People’s Government of the Polish Republic run by Jędrzej Moraczewski, was established by Józef Piłsudski on 18th November 1918. In political terms, it partly continued the policies of the Lublin-based government led by the Prime Minister Ignacy Daszyński. Moraczewski’s Government declared the establishment of a Legislative Sejm, to be elected through a secret,… Continue reading Statement from the Polish government
Headed by Ignacy Daszyński as Premier, the Provisional People’s Government of the Polish Republic was established on November 7, 1918 in Lublin by a group of independence-oriented Leftist activists (PPS, PSL Wyzwolenie). This Government did not however attain a nation-wide reach, and functioned alongside other power centres, among them the Polish Liquidation Commission in Galicia.… Continue reading Manifesto of the People’s Government of the Republic of Poland
The title of the supreme judge was one of the powers of a monarch – first in the Kingdom of Poland and then in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. All judgements were rendered in the king’s name, he had the power of pardon at his disposal and he was the last instance of appeal. The courts of… Continue reading Constitution establishing the Crown Tribunal
The conflict between the nobility and the clergy dated back to the Middle Ages and it mainly concerned the limits of secular and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. However, it was very difficult to make a clear distinction: the claims of both parties often overlapped, which provoked a complicated discussion, where legitimate rights mixed with badly understood group… Continue reading Excerpts from the constitutions regarding the end of the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts over the nobility
The 16th century was a time of dynamic changes to the political system of the Polish-Lithuanian state. The restoration of the royal domain, which – according to ideas of that time – was supposed to be the main source of income for the Republic, became a major problem for the rule of Sigismund I. He… Continue reading Appeal to the Polish noblemen (excerpts)
In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth there was no equality before the law. Though that was actually nothing unusual in a class society, some manifestations of that injustice were striking. The issue of the penal judiciary and the attempts to make punishment for homicide (homicidium) more severe were discussed throughout the 16th century. The Old Polish law… Continue reading On improving the Commonwealth (excerpts)
Best known for his work On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres in which he presented the heliocentric theory of the universe, the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) from Toruń was a real Renaissance man. He practised medicine and, apart from astronomy, was also engaged in mathematics – he was the author of several works on… Continue reading Copernicus’ Writings about Money
