Militarisation of behaviours: an investigation into the development of the 20th century Polish criminal law through lenses of legal textbooks

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Date
2019
Authors
Kaucz, Błażej
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University College Cork
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Abstract
The phenomena under investigation in this research are hidden curriculum, guilty knowledge, moments of significance, and most importantly militarisation of behaviours. Hidden curriculum refers to concealed, unofficial, and overlooked didactic processes which subsume guilty knowledge. Guilty knowledge entails elements of professional knowledge (i.e. so-called tricks of the trade) not to be shared with non-professionals. Fragments of that knowledge are in the form of moments of significance to the development of a specific legal profession and the legal system itself. Moments of significance are transitory periods in which law (and its development) were affected. Traces of moments of significance can be found in (legal) textbooks by studying them. An original research approach was employed, with textbooks acting as the starting point of a socio-historical study. More specifically, this research unearthed moments of significance when criminal law intersected with economic, political, or cultural change. That was done by examining the context of the most prominent Polish criminal legal textbooks. This study illustrated the role of the relevant Polish legislation, including several decrees (pseudo-legislative dispositions enforced without legal basis), relating to the social and legal development. Hence, it evidences that textbooks are sources of relevant secondary historical and social information. The researcher named the main process discovered as part of that research, affecting some of the moments of significance to the development of criminal law (in Poland) as militarisation of behaviours. Militarisation of behaviours refers to a treatment of citizens by their state in a manner resembling a treatment of soldiers by the army. States employ it through their officials. Thus, this process is discussed in length as part of this enquiry in the context of the development of the Polish criminal law, organised crime, and the criminal justice system. Moreover, by examining militarisation of behaviours, this research created a framework for the socio-legal and historical study of criminal law in Poland. It, also, looks at links and influences between the law (and more precisely criminal law) and 9 the development of conditions relevant to the criminal activity of organised crime groups in Poland. This thesis explores the formation of Polish criminal law from 1943/4 to 1989 relevant to a discovered process of militarisation of behaviours. It introduces and examines relevant legislation (including several decrees) relating to that evolution. Thus, three stages of the development of Polish socialism were detected: (1) the militant parent (from 1943/4 up to 1956), (2) the father figure (from 1956 up to 1976), and (3) the parental failure/disillusionment (from 1976 up to 1989). These represent social development and relate to the stages of employment of the process of militarisation of behaviours in the Polish People’s Republic.
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Keywords
Militarisation , Law , Poland , Social control , Guilty knowledge , Hidden curriculum
Citation
Kaucz, B. 2019. Militarisation of behaviours: an investigation into the development of the 20th century Polish criminal law through lenses of legal textbooks. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.