“Foundations of Law: The Polish Perspective” covers a range of issues forming the core of academic legal education in Poland. It provides basic knowledge about Polish law and Polish legal culture, and constitutes an innovative introduction to the European approach to the concept of law, legal reasoning, recent challenges and the problems of legal development.

The book contains nineteen chapters, the aim of each being to give an understandable presentation and discussion of a specific area of law. The early chapters present an overview of the historical foundations of Polish law and the Polish theory and philosophy of law. The following chapters address private, public, criminal and economic law as is applied in Poland. Diagrams have been included to increase clarity of the text and some contributions are supplemented with case studies. Further reading in other languages recommended by the authors of individual chapters will facilitate a more in-depth understanding of Polish law and Polish legal culture as a part of the tradition of civil law, which is currently also a reflection of the legislative activity of the European Union.

This publication is the joint work of members of the Faculty of Law and Administration, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań. The Faculty is one of the largest and best law schools in Poland and has been consistently rated as one of the best in the country. The Faculty was established in its original form in 1919, at the same time as the University itself. The Faculty meets the requirements of contemporary trends in higher education by conducting high level research. The academic staff recognize the demands of social processes and seek to create value for society, science, culture and the economy. Consequently, the results of the research conducted at the University at local, international and interdisciplinary level may be applied in practice.