Legal Change: Philosophical Legisprudence
Legislation is extremely important for contemporary democracies, given the rapid and multi-
directional dynamics that democratic legal systems have recently been subject to. There are
numerous sociological, technological, ideological, or purely political drivers of change,
influencing law’s transformation.
Researchers: Maciej Chmieliński, Michał Rupniewski
Human Dignity and Law
This line of research focuses on human dignity as a legal category, as well as on the philosophical
foundations thereof. The starting point of the research was identifying the special place that dignity
occupies within various legal systems, along with the growing interest in courts’ jurisprudence.
Researcher: Michał Rupniewski
Polish Ancient Constitution
The label “Polish Ancient Constitution” embraces one of the crucial research activities at the
Tocqueville Center. It focuses on the doctrinal hertiage of the Polish-Lithuanian
Researchers: Marek Tracz-Tryniecki, Zbigniew Rau, Maciej Chmieliński, Tomasz Tulejski, Patrick Higgins, Paweł Sydor, Maho Furukawa, Fulya Azra Karakus
Political Legitimacy and Authority: Classical Tradition of Western Political and Legal Thought
The problem of the legitimacy of authority and the origin of civic/political obligation remains one of
the most enduring issues in political philosophy, state theory, and political theory.
Researchers: Tomasz Tulejski, Tomasz Banach, Karina Żmudzińska
Legal Implications of Political Philosophy: John Rawls
The first dimension of research conducted within this framework involves an examination of
political philosophy from a legal perspective.
Researcher: Michał Rupniewski
Classical Philosophy in Popular Discourse: Interdisciplinary Research
The main goal of this unique research project was to explore, operationalize and
reconstruct political beliefs present in the popular discourse of contemporary Polish society.
Researchers: Zbigniew Rau, Maciej Chmieliński, Tobiasz Bocheński
Social Contract Theory and Its Critics
In its early years, the Center’s research efforts were focused on the issue of the social
contract, which is one of the fundamental issues of the philosophy and political thought of
classical liberalism and republicanism.
Researchers: Maciej Chmieliński, Zbigniew Rau
Distributism, Catholic Social Teaching, and Latin Civilization: Law within the limits and in the service of human nature
A society characterised by universal access to material goods remains an unfulfilled postulate
in the modern world, in which the accumulation of capital occurs on an unprecedented scale.
Researcher: Paweł Boruta
Between Faith and Reason: Political and Legal Heritage of St. Augustine of Hippo
To a researcher of political and legal doctrines, it might only seem that the state of research on
Augustinian doctrine is exhausted. The Bishop of Hippona was a versatile and prolific writer,
and left behind a vast intellectual material, which became not so much the ground for a
significant and influential current of “political Augustinianism” as it was constructing basic,
essential concepts and cognitive figures in the field of political-legal doctrines.
Researcher: Arman Gevorgyan
The Library of Old Polish Political Thought
The goal of this Project is to translate (from Latin to Polish) and publish selected political treatises by
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth authors from the 17th century. The implementation of the Project
aims to: support the development of research on 17th-century political thought of the Polish-
Lithuanian Commonwealth, enable a fuller understanding of the sources of that political culture, and
contribute to the popularization of the doctrinal legacy of Poland’s “Silver Age.”
Project coordination: Marek Tracz Tryniecki
