Papers by Tomasz Pietrzykowski
Państwo i Prawo nr 3, 2022
The constitutional crisis in Poland is causing disastrous consequences
for the legal order, the r... more The constitutional crisis in Poland is causing disastrous consequences
for the legal order, the rule of law, legal certainty, and the situation
of citizens. At the same time, it constitutes unique material for legal research
that should seek and test the most valuable and useful explanatory approaches. The paper attempts to describe the phenomena taking
place in the Polish law from the perspective of contemporary legal positivism.
From such a point of view, they are an interesting example of
a pathology of a legal system in the meaning outlined by H. L. A. Hart
more than half a century ago. Its essence is the growing discrepancy in
the content of the rule of recognition applied by two groups of officials
within the legal order. As seen from the outside, only reunification of the
officials’ practice will determine which of the conflicting set of validity
criteria corresponded to the actually valid law. To the extent the practice
remains split, the actual legal order may be reconstituted ex-post only.
Radca.pl, 2023
The article discusses the legal aspects of non-scientific and pseudo-scientific medical practices... more The article discusses the legal aspects of non-scientific and pseudo-scientific medical practices (so-called alternative and complementary medicine). We argue that the current legal approaches to regulating such practices are not sufficiently well-considered and may have serious, harmful consequences. Two extreme regulatory solutions - paternalistic ban and fully liberal, laissez-faire options should be rejected. Instead, more balanced, refined regulations are needed, based on mandatory disclosure of accurate information and preventing misrepresentation of the actual nature of services offered to customers.
Krytyka Prawa. Niezależne studia nad prawem, 2022
Constitutional crisis confronts legal practice with philosophical problems that normally may seem... more Constitutional crisis confronts legal practice with philosophical problems that normally may seem abstract or even purely academic. Among those, there is a question of material (content-dependent) criteria of legal validity, namely whether legal norms may actually have any content and remain binding elements of the law. It becomes palpable due to the legislative initiatives to decriminalize some violations of law committed by governmental officials. Such regulation deserves discussion in the light of theoretical conceptions of the claim to correctness (justice, righteousness) as a necessary feature of each act of enacting or applying the law. Arguably, even weaker conception of such claim, relying on the correctness relative to the public morality reflected in the fundamental values and principles of the positive law, is sufficient to challenge the potential presumption of validity of such decriminalizing provisions entailed by their possible formally accurate enactment.
Przegląd Prawa Medycznego, 2022
The extensive amendment to the Act of Dec. 5th 1996 on physicians
and dentists professions, adopt... more The extensive amendment to the Act of Dec. 5th 1996 on physicians
and dentists professions, adopted in 2020, introduced many changes to
the provisions regulating medical experiments. In addition to clarifying
the regulations currently in force, it made testing of biological samples
collected from humans for scientific purposes, a new type of medical
experiment. The provisions defining its principles, however, raise significant
doubts and questions regarding their proper interpretation and application. The analysis of possible ways of interpreting these provisions
shows that each of them leads to troublesome consequences and
the legal status concerning the examination of human biological material
introduced by the amendment must be considered defective and far from
sufficient.
Trials, 2021
Background: Informed consent is a basic concept of contemporary, autonomy-based medical practice ... more Background: Informed consent is a basic concept of contemporary, autonomy-based medical practice and facilitates a shared decision-making model for relations between physicians and patients. Thus, the extent to which patients can comprehend the consent they grant is essential to the ethical viability of medicine as it is pursued today. However, research on patients' comprehension of an informed consent's basic components shows that their level of understanding is limited. Methods: Systemic searches of the PubMed and Web of Science databases were performed to identify the literature on informed consent, specifically patients' comprehension of specific informed consent components. Results: In total, 14 relevant articles were retrieved. In most studies, few clinical trial participants correctly responded to items that examined their awareness of what they consented to. Participants demonstrated the highest level of understanding (over 50%) regarding voluntary participation, blinding (excluding knowledge about investigators' blinding), and freedom to withdraw at any time. Only a small minority of patients demonstrated comprehension of placebo concepts, randomisation, safety issues, risks, and side effects. Conclusions: We found that participants' comprehension of fundamental informed consent components was low, which is worrisome because this lack of understanding undermines an ethical pillar of contemporary clinical trial practice and questions the viability of patients' full and genuine involvement in a shared medical decision-making process.
Animals, 2022
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Przegląd Sądowy nr 1, 2022
Bezstronność jest jedną z podstawowych wartości wymiaru sprawiedliwości i jednym z najbardziej in... more Bezstronność jest jedną z podstawowych wartości wymiaru sprawiedliwości i jednym z najbardziej interesujących pojęć teorii prawa. Wydarzenia i spory toczące się w Polsce przez ostatnie lata w istotny sposób wpływają na sposób postrzegania i rozumienia tego pojęcia – zarówno w znaczeniu instytucjonalnych uwarunkowań wypełniania urzędu sędziego (sytuacji bezstronności), jak i wewnętrznej postawy osób sprawujących ten urząd (postawy bezstronności). Skłania to do krytycznej rewizji niektórych poglądów formułowanych we wcześniejszym piśmiennictwie prawniczym (także jego własnych). Powinno także prowadzić do uwzględnienia tych ważnych doświadczeń kryzysu konstytucyjnego w Polsce w dalszym rozwoju zarówno teoretycznego ujęcia bezstronności, jak i praktycznych, w tym zwłaszcza legislacyjnych i dyscyplinarnych konsekwencji naruszania tej wartości w praktyce działania instytucji oraz poszczególnych osób powołanych na stanowiska sędziowskie.
w polskiej literaturze prawniczej rzadko ukazują się prace, w których zamierzeniem autora jest za... more w polskiej literaturze prawniczej rzadko ukazują się prace, w których zamierzeniem autora jest zakwestionowanie niemal całego dorobku dotyczącego określonego zagadnienia o pierwszorzędnym znaczeniu i podjęcie próby skierowania toczącej się na jego temat dyskusji na zupełnie inne tory. niestety, nie doczekaliśmy się w polskim prawoznawstwie żadnej Grundlagendiskussion2. Stąd też pojawienie się pracy krakowskiego filozofa prawa średniego pokolenia – Andrzeja Grabowskiego, poświęconej pojęciu obowiązywania prawa, uznać trzeba za wydarzenie znaczące. wrażenie to umacnia oryginalność i odwaga, a zarazem wnikliwość i rzetelność prowadzonych w niej rozważań (z których autor ten zresztą słynie). choć nie należy ona do lektur łatwych, wysiłek intelektualny włożony w prześledzenie niemal 600 stron nierzadko bardzo subtelnych rozumowań zostaje ze wszech miar wynagrodzony. A. Grabowski zmierza bowiem, jak sam deklaruje, do skonstruowania takiej koncepcji obowiązywania prawa, „która byłaby nie t...
The accusation and conviction of Alfred Dreyfus was one of the most shameful events in the histor... more The accusation and conviction of Alfred Dreyfus was one of the most shameful events in the history of the European judiciary and a great political scandal, which took place in France at the end of the 19th century and absorbed people in the rest of Europe. Many key figures in the so call Dreyfus affair were opponents of the parliamentary values, human rights, secular republic and promoted the strong reactionary feelings especially in the army and clericals group. The conflict over the Dreyfus case to a large extent consolidated two opposing visions of the state—the reactionary and the republican one—as well as helped to establish their underlying ideological narratives. The clash of values revealed by the Dreyfus affair has left the French democratic landscape deeply divided into the secular, republican side and the conservative right advocating the public role and influence of religion and allied with the religious communities. Ultimately it has led to the replacement of the old pr...
Journal of Bioethical Inquiry
Committees established for the ethical review of research involving animals have become a widespr... more Committees established for the ethical review of research involving animals have become a widespread legal standard around the world. Despite many differences in their composition, powers, and institutional settings, they share many common problems related to the well-established standards of procedural justice in administrative practice. The paper adapts the general theory of procedural justice to the specific context of ethical review committees. From this perspective, the main concerns over the procedural aspects of the ethical evaluation of research projects are identified and examined. They include in particular the standards of the committees’ composition, impartiality, fair hearing, appeal, transparency, and benevolence. Their proper reflection in the regulatory regimes of animal ethics committees is necessary to secure the standards of fairness of the ethical review itself. This, in turn, is a condition of the moral and social legitimacy of all administrative and quasi-admin...
International Journal on Minority and Group Rights
This article describes the ethnic revival in Upper Silesia in Poland, and the struggle faced by r... more This article describes the ethnic revival in Upper Silesia in Poland, and the struggle faced by regional organisations to formally recognise the Silesian people as an ethnic minority in Poland. After years of having their culture repressed by the homogenising inclinations of the communist regime, there are a growing number of people identifying themselves as belonging to a separate Silesian national minority. This social change quickly translated into the initial organisations dedicated to preserving the culture and fighting for minority rights. Those organisations then made both judicial (on a national and international level) and legislative attempts at the formal recognition of the Silesian nationality, and have been undertaking actions aimed at stirring up and building feelings of national identity among the people living in Silesia.
Journal of Parkinson's Disease
Background: Despite optimal dopaminergic treatment most patients in moderate to advanced stages o... more Background: Despite optimal dopaminergic treatment most patients in moderate to advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience progressively increasing disabilities, necessitating a shift from oral medication to device-aided therapies, including deep brain stimulation (DBS), intrajejunal levodopa-carbidopa infusion (IJLI), and continuous subcutaneous apomorphine infusion (CSAI). However, these therapies are costly, limiting their implementation. Objectives: To perform a systematic review on cost-effectiveness analyses for device-aided therapies in PD. Methods: References were identified by performing a systematic search in the PubMed and Web of Science databases in accordance with the PRISMA statement. In the absence of universal cost-effectiveness definitions, the gross domestic product per capita (GDP) in the country where a study was performed was used as a cut-off for cost-effectiveness based on cost per quality adjusted life year (QALY) gained. Results: In total 30 stud...
Personhood Beyond Humanism
The mounting difficulties facing the humanistic philosophy of personhood in law raise doubts whet... more The mounting difficulties facing the humanistic philosophy of personhood in law raise doubts whether this approach to the essence and role of humanness in the axiology of law can be sustained. They also prompt a search for alternative paradigms, which might be better suited to address the challenges of rapidly developing science and technology.
Legal Personhood: Animals, Artificial Intelligence and the Unborn, 2017
Law traditionally divides reality into persons and things. This dualistic approach is no longer a... more Law traditionally divides reality into persons and things. This dualistic approach is no longer able to adequately respond to many ethical challenges facing the contemporary legal systems. The paper discusses the idea of an intermediate category of non-personal subjects of law. It is primarily aimed at defining the legal status of non-human sentient animals, but it may also be applicable to addressing the controversies caused by some other types of creatures. Non-personal subjects of law differ from objects (things) through the recognition of their ability to have their own subjective interests that matter ethically and legally. However, they also differ from the natural and juristic persons by the inability to have most of the rights traditionally attributed to persons. They hold only one single right – to be taken into account. The essence of this right is to have the vital subjective interests of an individual creature taken into consideration in all decisions that may substantially affect them. In many cases they have to be balanced and may be outweighed by other conflicting reasons. Nonetheless, they must not be ignored and their balancing is testable by the general principle of proportionality. The author argues that the idea of non-personal subjects of law is preferable to the popular claims to grant animals the status of persons.
Doxa, 2004
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ARCHIWUM FILOZOFII PRAWA I FILOZOFII SPOŁECZNEJ JOURNAL OF THE POLISH SECTION OF IVR, 2021
: Animal protection as an emerging field of legislation needs to be constitutionalized as well as... more : Animal protection as an emerging field of legislation needs to be constitutionalized as well as comprehensively expounded by legal scholars. As it is a growing body of regulation and accompanying legal theories, it needs to develop a solid conceptual and axiological framework, in particular a set of basic values and principles on which detailed rules are to be founded. Lacking these, the domain of animal law is still in the pre-paradigm stage and remains an assemblage of dispersed ideas, concepts and regulatory measures. It yet has to develop into a coherent whole that may grow to be a mature regulatory and doctrinal domain of the law. In order to reach this stage, it should be founded on clear theoretical and constitutional grounds. Lacking those, its further development, and effective operation may be seriously impeded. There seem to be two basic approaches that may serve as the possible foundations for a viable model of animal protection law. The first may be referred to as the “dignity” approach and the other, as the “sentientist” approach. According to the first of those two approaches, animal protection law should rely on the concept of animal dignity as its philosophical foundation. The second approach rejects the idea that the concept of animal dignity as the basis for the relevant legislation as philosophically dubious and entailing objectionable normative consequences for the scope and content of legal protections of animals. Thus, it aims rather at legal norms and policies being based directly on scientifically informed theories of sentience, evolutionarily developed nervous structures underlying cognitive and emotional capabilities or species-typical biological and psychological needs that condition the subjective well-being of a given creature. The aim of this paper is to analyse and discuss both these approaches and to argue that the former is philosophically, conceptually and practically flawed. The second approach, even despite some serious disadvantages, is therefore deemed to be preferable and more promising.
The reality of informed consent: empirical studies on patient comprehension—systematic review, 2021
Background: Informed consent is a basic concept of contemporary, autonomy-based medical practice ... more Background: Informed consent is a basic concept of contemporary, autonomy-based medical practice and facilitates a shared decision-making model for relations between physicians and patients. Thus, the extent to which patients can comprehend the consent they grant is essential to the ethical viability of medicine as it is pursued today. However, research on patients' comprehension of an informed consent's basic components shows that their level of understanding is limited. Methods: Systemic searches of the PubMed and Web of Science databases were performed to identify the literature on informed consent, specifically patients' comprehension of specific informed consent components. Results: In total, 14 relevant articles were retrieved. In most studies, few clinical trial participants correctly responded to items that examined their awareness of what they consented to. Participants demonstrated the highest level of understanding (over 50%) regarding voluntary participation, blinding (excluding knowledge about investigators' blinding), and freedom to withdraw at any time. Only a small minority of patients demonstrated comprehension of placebo concepts, randomisation, safety issues, risks, and side effects. Conclusions: We found that participants' comprehension of fundamental informed consent components was low, which is worrisome because this lack of understanding undermines an ethical pillar of contemporary clinical trial practice and questions the viability of patients' full and genuine involvement in a shared medical decision-making process.
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Papers by Tomasz Pietrzykowski
for the legal order, the rule of law, legal certainty, and the situation
of citizens. At the same time, it constitutes unique material for legal research
that should seek and test the most valuable and useful explanatory approaches. The paper attempts to describe the phenomena taking
place in the Polish law from the perspective of contemporary legal positivism.
From such a point of view, they are an interesting example of
a pathology of a legal system in the meaning outlined by H. L. A. Hart
more than half a century ago. Its essence is the growing discrepancy in
the content of the rule of recognition applied by two groups of officials
within the legal order. As seen from the outside, only reunification of the
officials’ practice will determine which of the conflicting set of validity
criteria corresponded to the actually valid law. To the extent the practice
remains split, the actual legal order may be reconstituted ex-post only.
and dentists professions, adopted in 2020, introduced many changes to
the provisions regulating medical experiments. In addition to clarifying
the regulations currently in force, it made testing of biological samples
collected from humans for scientific purposes, a new type of medical
experiment. The provisions defining its principles, however, raise significant
doubts and questions regarding their proper interpretation and application. The analysis of possible ways of interpreting these provisions
shows that each of them leads to troublesome consequences and
the legal status concerning the examination of human biological material
introduced by the amendment must be considered defective and far from
sufficient.
for the legal order, the rule of law, legal certainty, and the situation
of citizens. At the same time, it constitutes unique material for legal research
that should seek and test the most valuable and useful explanatory approaches. The paper attempts to describe the phenomena taking
place in the Polish law from the perspective of contemporary legal positivism.
From such a point of view, they are an interesting example of
a pathology of a legal system in the meaning outlined by H. L. A. Hart
more than half a century ago. Its essence is the growing discrepancy in
the content of the rule of recognition applied by two groups of officials
within the legal order. As seen from the outside, only reunification of the
officials’ practice will determine which of the conflicting set of validity
criteria corresponded to the actually valid law. To the extent the practice
remains split, the actual legal order may be reconstituted ex-post only.
and dentists professions, adopted in 2020, introduced many changes to
the provisions regulating medical experiments. In addition to clarifying
the regulations currently in force, it made testing of biological samples
collected from humans for scientific purposes, a new type of medical
experiment. The provisions defining its principles, however, raise significant
doubts and questions regarding their proper interpretation and application. The analysis of possible ways of interpreting these provisions
shows that each of them leads to troublesome consequences and
the legal status concerning the examination of human biological material
introduced by the amendment must be considered defective and far from
sufficient.
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