Should the dispute over the interpretation of the 1815 constitution of Congress Poland be considered a key factor that shaped Polish political liberalism, and if so, why? The authors of this volume explore this question against the backdrop of constitutional development in post-Napoleonic Europe. The aim of this book is to illustrate the mutual interdependence between political liberalism and constitutionalism after the Congress of Vienna and to examine how Western European constitutional and liberal ideas intermingled with traditional Polish aristocratic republicanism.
Contents
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
1 Introduction
1 The Constitutional Congress Kingdom of Poland in the European Context and
the Research Problems
2 Soft versus Hard and Global versus Local Constitutional History
3 Structure of the book
4 State of Research and Specificity of Source Materials
2 Evolution of Political Thought: Polish Traditional Republicanism and the
Birth of Liberalism
1 Old Polish Republicanism
2 The Legacy of the Gentle Revolution of the Great Sejm (17881792)
3 Between Old Polish Republicanism and Future Conservatism: The Relay Team
4 The Origins of Polish Political Liberalism
5 Sources of Inspiration and Ways of Development for Political Liberalism in
the Kingdom of Poland
3 The Constitution
1 Inspirations and Dilemmas: The Dynamics of European Constitutionalism in
the First Decades of the Nineteenth Century
2 Napoleonic Constitutionalism in the Duchy of Warsaw (18071815)
3 The Coming about of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland of 1815
4 Sources of Inspiration for the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland and
the Anachronicity of the Constitution of 3 May 1791
5 What Was the Constitution of Kingdom of Poland to Poles and to the Tsar?
4 The Monarch
1 The Monarchical Principle in France and Germany in the First Half of the
Nineteenth Century
2 Controversy over the Monarchs Sovereign Rights in the Kingdom of Poland
3 Omnipotence of the Monarch in the Executive
5 The Executive Branch
1 Organization of the Central Government: Modification of the System
Established under the Duchy of Warsaw
2 Centralized Bureaucratic Administration Inherited from the Duchy of
Warsaw
3 From Glorification to Aversion to Officials
4 Collegiality in the Administration: The Violation of the Central
Constitutional Principle in the Executive Branch
6 The National Representation
1 Organisation of the Sejm
2 Powers in the Legislative Area
3 Monitoring Powers and Constitutional Accountability
4 Attitude towards the Supremacy of the Insurgent Sejm during the November
Uprising (18301831)
5 Voivodeship Councils
7 Citizenship Rights and Freedoms, Independence of the Judiciary, and the
Rule of Law
1 Citizenship Rights and Freedoms in Poland, France and South Germany
2 Crippled Equality before Law: The Issue of Political Rights
3 Personal Freedom and Inviolability of the Person
4 Inviolability of Property
5 Independence of the Judiciary
6 Freedom of Religion
7 Freedom of the Press
8 The Rule of Law
8 Conclusions
Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
Micha Gadek, Dr. iur. (2010), Dr. hab. iur. (2018), is Professor and Chair of the Department of Legal History at the University of Gdask, as well as Vice-President for Science of the Polish Society for Legal History. His most recent monograph is Ideology and Private Law: Polish Experiences in the Long 20th Century (Brill, 2025).
Anna Tarnowska, Dr. iur (2007), Dr hab. iur. (2020), is Professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toru's Department of the History of Legal and Political Thought and German Law, Chairwoman of the Legal-Economic Chapter of the Scientific Society in Toru, and Vice-President of the Polish Society for Legal History. She has authored numerous books and articles on legal history and constitutionalism.
