Theory of adjudication

In 2012, I attended for the first time the Critical Legal Conference and - thanks to illuminating conversations with Jakub Łakomy - I started developing an interest in legal theory, and in particular legal interpretation. As a result, I started researching the impact of ideology on judicial decision-making on one hand, and the impact of adjudication on social antagonisms, i.e. the political. In 2018 I published a monograph (in Polish) on the critical theory of adjudication, which I succesfully presented as my habilitation book (Habilitationsschrift) at the University of Wrocław where in 2019 I was awared the Habilitation (Doctor habilitatus iuris degree). My version of the critical theory of adjudication draws largely on Anglo-American critical legal theory (Costas Douzinas & Duncan Kennedy, in particular), but also integrates Chantal Mouffe's political theory, as well as proposes an analytical dimension for the critical analysis of case-law. 

I. Theoretical framework

•  ‘Judicial Decision-Making, Ideology and the Political: Towards an Agonistic Theory of Adjudication,’ Law and Critique 33 (2022): 175–194 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-021-09288-w | ssrn | academia | researchgate

• 'On Law, Ideology, and Violence: A Reply to Maciej Pichlak,’ Krytyka Prawa 15(1) 2023: 326-338. https://doi.org/10.7206/kp.2080-1084.585 | ssrn | researchgate

•  ‘Critique of the “Juridical”: Some Metatheoretical Remarks,’ Journal of the University of Latvia. Law 11 (2018): 24–37. https://doi.org/10.22364/jull.11.03 | researchgate

• ‘Ideology and Legal Interpretation: Some Theoretical Considerations’ in Constitutional Values in Contemporary Legal Space, ed. Kalvis Torgāns et al. (Riga: Latvia University Press, 2016), vol. I: 117-126. open access | academia | researchgate

• W stronę krytycznej filozofii orzekania: Polityczność, etyka, legitymizacja [Towards a Critical Theory of Adjudication: The Political, Ethics and Legitimacy] (Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 2018), 296 pp. ISBN 978-83-8142-090-7. open access.

  -         review by Krzysztof Otręba, Państwo i Prawo 1 (2020): 130-132

  -         review by Maciej Pichlak, Krytyka Prawa 12.1 (2020): 109-125. https://doi.org/10.7206/kp.2080-1084.398 

  -         review by Mateusz Wojtanowski, Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej 4(25) (2021): 118-126. https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2020.4.118

  
  

II. Empirical applications (case studies) 

•  ‘The Centre–Periphery Antagonism in Adjudication: A Case Study on the Spatial Dimension of the Political,’ Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Iuridica, 94 (2021):
  121–140. https://doi.org/10.18778/0208-6069.94.07 | ebsco | cejsh | ceeol | academia | researchgate

•  ‘Dimensions of the Political in Adjudication: A Case Study,’ Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Iuridica, 92 (2020): 5–16. https://doi.org/10.18778/0208-6069.92.01 | ceeol | cejsh | academia | researchgate

• ‘Symbolic Violence in Technocratic Law and Attempts at its Overcoming: Politicisation Through Humanisation?’, Studia Erasmiana Wratislaviensia 11 (2017): 31-64. open access | academia | researchgate

  
  

III. Other papers on legal interpretation 

•   ‘The Impact of EU Membership on Private Law Adjudication in Poland: A Case Study of the Polish Supreme Court’s Case Law on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts’ in Central European Judges under the European Influence: The Transformative Power of the EU Revisited, ed. Michal Bobek (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2015): 73-97. ssrn | academia | researchgate

• ‘Multilingualism, Divergent Authentic Versions of a Legal Rule and Legitimate Expectations of Individuals,’ Studies in Logic, Grammar & Rhetoric 45 (2016): 141-159. https://doi.org/10.1515/slgr-2016-0021 | sciendo | academia | researchgate

•  ‘The Use of Extra-Legal Arguments in the Judicial Interpretation of European Contract Law: A Case Study on Aziz v Catalunyacaixa (CJEU, 14 March 2013, Case C-415/11),’ Law and Forensic Science 10.2 (2015): 7-26. academia | researchgate

•   ‘Multilingualism at the Court of Justice of the European Union: Theoretical and Practical Aspects’ (with Olga Łachacz), Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 34 (2013): 75-92. https://doi.org/10.2478/slgr-2013-0024 | sciendo | ssrn | academia

•  ‘“War of Courts” as a Clash of Legal Cultures: Rethinking the Conflict Between the Polish Constitutional and Supreme Court Over “Interpretive Judgements”’ in Law, Politics, and the Constitution: New Perspectives from Legal and Political Theory, ed. Michael Hein, Antonia Geisler & Siri Hummel (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2014): 79-94. ssrn | academia | researchgate

•  ‘Resistance towards the Unfair Terms Directive in Poland: the interaction between the consumer acquis and a post-socialist legal culture’ in European Consumer Protection: Theory and Practice, ed. James Devenney & Mel Kenny (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012): 412-434. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139003452.025 | ssrn | academia | researchgate

•  ‘Homo iuvens przed Trybunałem: wyrok Leitner w perspektywie teorii i filozofii prawa’ [Homo Iuvens before the Court of Justice: the Leitner Judgment in the Light of Legal Theory and Philosophy of Law] in Prawne aspekty podróży i turystyki – historia i współczesność. Prace poświęcone pamięci Profesora Janusza Sondla [Legal Aspects of Travel and Tourism: History and Modern Times. Studies in Memory of Professor Janusz Sondel], ed. Piotr Cybula (Kraków: Wydawnictwo UJ, 2018). Open access