Prof. dr hab. Jerzy Zajadło has become the winner of this year's edition of the Prof. Tadeusz Kotarbiński Contest. The prize for the best humanities book in Poland was won by Professor Zajadło's work entitled 'Minima luridica. Refleksje o pewnych (nie)oczywistościach prawniczych', published by University of Gdańsk Publishing House and Arche Publishing House.

As we read in the justification for the award: "In his reflections on the contemporary meaning of Roman Legal Maxims, Jerzy Zajadło refers to the achievements of the philosophy of law, the practice of creating and applying the law, as well as the issues of the relationship between ethics and law and the science of law. What is important for him is such an ethical conception of the science of law that should defend itself against <<political instrumentalisation>>".

The Prof. Tadeusz Kotarbiński Award for outstanding scientific work in the humanities is a distinction of a national rank. The idea of the competition was born at the University of Łódź, reminding of the importance of research and publications in the humanities as well as the humanities themselves. The award is granted by the Competition Jury consisting of scientists from leading Polish scientific institutions, including the winners of previous editions.

'This award is a great honour for me and for my university, the University of Gdańsk, with which I have associated my entire scientific life,' - says Professor Jerzy Zajadło. - 'From the point of view of the discipline of knowledge I represent, legal sciences, this satisfaction has a double dimension, because in the Polish classification of sciences they are classified as social sciences, whereas the award concerns the broadly understood humanities. Firstly, as a philosopher of law, I may have succeeded in pointing out, as the Award Committee recognised, that law and legal studies are not merely instruments of social engineering, but have a profound humanistic dimension. But there is also another aspect - the person of the patron of the Award, prof. Tadeusz Kotarbiński. After all, we all associate him with the birth of praxeology and the well-known "Traktatem o dobrej robocie" (TN: "Praxiology. An Introduction to the Science of Efficient Action"). We live in times when, unfortunately, the law has become a subject of exceptionally bad work and this in all its dimensions - creation, application, interpretation, binding and observance. Perhaps this book, which is addressed not only to lawyers but to all citizens, will be an impulse to return to the idea of good work, also with regard to law and legal studies,' he adds.

In his book prof. Jerzy Zajadło refers to the work of Theodor Adorno entitled 'Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life'. The author of Minima Iuridica... reminds us of thirteen famous Latin legal maxims that constitute a kind of paradigm of legal knowledge. Writing about the original meaning of such simple sentences as dura lex sed lex, he simultaneously points to their contemporary meaning. As the author writes in the introduction '(...) just as the trampling of moral minima (minima moralia) may result in a damaged life, so the violation of legal obviousness (minima iuridica) may sooner or later end in a damaged law". Reflections on each of the sentences become a separate essay in a concise form.

The book received excellent reviews, not only from scholars but also from readers. Encouraging the reader to read the publication, prof. Tadeusz Sławek wrote 'Minimima iuridica is a collection of <<legal obviousnesses>>, but each of the thirteen quoted sentences proves that this obviousness seems clear at the declarative level, but we soon find out that its obviousness is not so clear when it comes to examining individual cases. In other words, there is a problem when an approved theoretical principle has to be applied in practice. This is the dilemma of the judge who finds himself <<between the ideal of law as an ordered system and the chaotic reality of law as a decision about the fate of a particular person>>'.

6th gala event at which Prof. Tadeusz Kotarbinski Award was presented - photo: University of Łódź