Professor Marek Smolak

Academic position: Professor, Head of the Department of Theory and Philosophy of Law AMU
E-mail: smolak@amu.edu.pl
Duty hours: Tuesday: 13-14; Friday 15- 16 Ms Teams
Academic interests: Legal Theory, Constitutional law, Constitutionalism, Legal Argumentation, Philosophy of Law

ACADEMIC PROFILE

I. Selected publications

I.1. Books:

  1. Judicial justification as a moral-political argumentation, Krakow 2003, pp. 260 (in Polish).
  2. Legal interpretation from pragmatic point of view, Warsaw 2012, pp. 260 (in Polish).
  3. with W. Sadurski, T. Chirkowska- Smolak, Judicial Justification, Public Reason, Judge’s Mind, Poznań 2020, pp. 379 (in Polish).

I.2. Papers:

  1. L.A. Hart’s postscript, “The Cambrian Law Review”, vol. 27, 1996, pp.75-81.
  2. Morfological functions of legal concepts, “Legal, Sociological and Economical Review”, vol. 2, 1997, pp.1-13 (in Polish).
  3. Challenges for legal reasoning, toleration policy in Poland, “Legal, Sociological and Economical Rev”, 3-4, 1998, pp. 23-35 (in Polish)
  4. Minority Rights and Legal Interpretation, [w:] Lidska prava proti Rasismu, T.Machalova (ed.), Brno, 2001, pp.185-199.
  5. The Rule of Law and the Politics of Adjudication in Poland, “East Central Europe, Eine wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift”, 28. 2001, pp.51 – 61.
  6. Lustration and Reconciliation. Polish and South African Experience, “Archiv für Rechts und Sozialphilosophie”, no. 3. 2003.
  7. The Constitutional Review and Autonomy of Law, “Legal, Sociological and Economical Review”, 1. 2003 pp.13-22 (in Polish)
  8. Polish Constitutionalism. Challenges and Risks, “Waseda Proceedings of Comparative Law”, vol.8, 2005, pp.39-57, Japan.
  9. Activism of Constitutional Courts and Purposive Interpretation. Remarks on parliamentary democracy. “Vienna Journal on International Constitutional Law”, vol 5 issue 2 2011, pp. 211-218, Austria.
  10. The Method of Reflective Equilibrium in Moral Reasoning, “Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej” 1, 2015, pp. 89-96.
  11. Is There an Imitative Ratio Legis, and if so, How Many Are There? Psychological Perspective [in:] Ratio Legis. Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives, [ed.] Klappstein Verena, Dybowski Maciej, Springer Berlin Cham 2018, p.137- 157.
  12. with T. Chirkowska-Smolak, Moral Reasoning of Judges and the Rule of Law, [in:] The Rule of Law and Democracy, [ed.]. Hirohide Takigawa, Franz Steiner Verlag Stutgart 2020, pp.165-179.

II. Selected Conference Presentations

  1. World Congress IVR, Pace University, New York, June 1999, presentation: European Union challenges for legal reasoning and judicial decision in Poland.
  2. Spring Seminar in: Centre for Law and Society, Edinburg, May 2000, presentation: The Role of Legal Interpretation in Political Transformation.
  3. Conference on Rights and Citizenship in Constitutional Transitions, Onati, May 2001, presentation: Can Constitutional Courts bring about political change?
  4. World Congress IVR Amsterdam, June 2001, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, presentation: Lustration and Reconciliation. Polish and Southafrican experience.
  5. World Congress IVR Granada, 24-29 May 2005, presentation: Challenges and Risks for Ethics of Legal Professions in Poland and Japan.
  6. World Congress IVR China, Beijing 15-22 September 2009, presentation: Collective memory and court’s decisions.
  7. The International Symposium: The Human Rights Convention and Constitutional Courts in Integrated Europe, Nagoya University, Japan, 24 -30 November 2010, presentation: Purposive interpretation and judicial activism of constitutional courts: human rights at stake.
  8. Washington College of Law, Washington, 16-18 April 2012, presentation: Activism of constitutional courts. Remarks on parliamentary democracy.
  9. World Congress IVR Georgetown Univ. School of Law, American Univ. College of Law, Baltimore College of Law, USA, 26-30 July 2015 presentation: Application of the Weight Formula and moral reasoning in the situation of legal and moral pluralism.
  10. World Congress IVR Lisbon, Faculty of Law, Portugal 14- 21 July 2017, presentation: Imitative Ratio Legis. Institutional and Psychological Perspective.
  11. Perugia 26-27 October 2018,Centro Internazionale Magistrati “Lugi Severini”  International Symposium.  50 Corso di Studi, The Enforcement of Judgments in the European Court of Human Rights and the Margin of Discretionary Assessment,  invited lecture: Polish contribution to the doctrine of the margin of appreciation.
  12. IVR Japan 1st International Conference Democracy and the Rule of Law. Kyoto 6-8 July 2018 r. Doshisha Univ. Kyoto, presentation: The rationalization of judicial decision: on the relation between moral reasoning of judges and the rule of law.
  13. Invited lecture: On the relation between democracy and the Rule of Law: How to weight constitutional rights in the situation of moral and legal pluralism, Graduate School of Law, Nagoya Univ. 11 July 2018.
  14. Invited lecture: How do judges solve moral dilemmas? Syracuse Univ. College of Law 10 April 2019.
  15. World Congress IVR in Bucharest, Dimitrie Cantimir University, Justice, Community, Freedom, Bukareszt, 3-8 July 2022 presentation: The Vocabulary of the Languages of the Law in the Conventional-Pragmatic

III. Achievements

  1. Head of Research Project State Committee for Scientific Research, project title: Legal interpretation in the situation of political and social transformation, (1H02A01519), 2000-2002.
  2. Head of Research Project State Committee for Scientific Research, project title: Values and linguistic and nonlinguistic directives purposive interpretation, (N N 110057535) 2008-2011.
  3. Head of Research Project National Science Centre-Opus 8, project title: Application of the Weight Formula and moral reasoning in the situation of legal and moral pluralism, UMO-2014/15/B/HS5/00650, 2015- 2021.
  4. The Swedish Institute Scholarship, Lund University, January – June 1996.
  5. University of Edinburgh Scholarship, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh 2000, May– July 2000.
  6. Visiting professor, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town, South Africa, July 2001.
  7. Visiting professor, School of Law University of Nagoya, Japan, December 2004 – March 2005.
  8. Slavic Research Centre Scholarship, Sapporo University, Japan, July – September 2007.
  9. Research Studies, Syracuse Univ., USA, 8-15 April 2019.
  10. Member of Polish Academy of Sciences, Committee of Legal Sciences, 2020-2024.
  11. Member of The International Association for the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy
  12. Member of The Poznan Society for the Advancement Arts and Sciences.
  13. Editor in Chief of Poznan Journal of Law, Economics and Sociology.