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. According to our approach, legal change may be understood
deeper when a political philosophy perspective is taken up. Political philosophy may be used
as an interpretative device to understand the ongoing processes of change as well as their
outcomes such as new laws, judicial interpretations, or constitutional amendments. However,
the main focus is legislation. The fundamental question is: what made legislation so important
for contemporary law and what happened with contemporary legislation that the ancient
Greek metaphor of law as the eternal, unchangeable cosmic order has been transformed into
something quite opposite in the modern democratic society? In the history of political
philosophy, two fundamental positions can be distinguished regarding the issue of legal
change. First, the deterministic position, within which the task of the legislator is to reproduce
and discover normative patterns as carefully as possible. Second, the creationist position, in
which the legislator plays an active role, consisting in creating legal norms. In modern
democracies, the latter definitely dominates. In subsequent publications, the participants study
both historical processes, philosophical justification and practical consequences of legislation
and the dynamics of changing the law.
This stream of research was financially supported by the National Science Centre, under the
project “Normative Models of Political Legitimation of Change of Law in a Democratic
State”. The project No. 2015/19/B/HS5/02522.
Publications
Monographs:
Chmielinski M., Kreacja prawa: prawodawstwo między społeczną użytecznością a rozumną
zgodą [Legal creation: Legislation Between Social Utility and Reasonable Consent], Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2024;
Chmielinski M., Rupniewski M. (eds.), The Philosophy of Legal Change: Theoretical
Perspectives and Practical Processes, Routledge, London New York 2020.
Journal articles:
Chmieliński M., „Filozofia polityczna jako narzędzie badania prawa” [Political Philosophy as
a Tool for the Study of Law], Przegląd Sejmowy 170,
3, 2022;
Chmieliński, M., Rupniewski, M. “Justification of Legal Change: In Search for a Model of
Neutrality”, Studia Iuridica Lublinensia, 30, 2021.
Chapters in monographs:
Chmieliński M., “Introduction: Legal Change and Political Philosophy”, in: Chmieliński M.,
Rupniewski M. (eds.) The Philosophy of Legal Change: Theoretical Perspectives and
Practical Processes , Routledge, London New York, 2020;
Chmieliński M., “Legal “Determinism” or/and Legal “Creationism”? Conservative-
communitarian versus Contractarian Approaches to Legal Change”, in: Chmieliński M.,
Rupniewski M. (eds.) The Philosophy of Legal Change: Theoretical Perspectives and
Practical Processes , Routledge, London New York, 2020;
Chmieliński M., “Economism, Voluntarism, and Materialist Historicism: Three Faces of the
Marxist Instrumental Approach to Legal Change”, in: Chmieliński M., Rupniewski M. (eds),
The Philosophy of Legal Change: Theoretical Perspectives and Practical Processes ,
Routledge, London New York, 2020;
Chmieliński M., „Prawo we współczesnej teorii publicznego wyboru” (The Law in
Contemporary Public Choice Theory), in: Filozofia polityczna w Polsce i na świecie po 1989
r., J. Miklaszewska (ed.), Kraków, 2011;
Rupniewski, M., “Public Reason, Background Culture, And The Justification of Legal
Change”, in: Chmieliński M., Rupniewski M. (eds), The Philosophy of Legal Change: Theoretical Perspectives and Practical Processes , Routledge, London New York, 2020;
Rupniewski, M. Natural Law Ethics And The Issue of Legal Change, in: Chmieliński M.,
Rupniewski M. (eds), The Philosophy of Legal Change: Theoretical Perspectives and
Practical Processes , Routledge, London New York, 2020;
Rupniewski, M., “Conclusion: The Philosophy of Legal Change As a Research Method”, in:
Chmieliński M., Rupniewski M. The Philosophy of Legal Change: Theoretical Perspectives and Practical Processes , Routledge, London New York, 2020.
Rupniewski, M., „Elementy kreacjonizmu i determinizmu prawnego w nowelizacji KPC z 4
lipca 2019 r.”, [w:] S. Cieślak (ed.), Założenia aksjologiczne nowelizacji KPC z 4 lipca 2019 r.
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2020.
