O wskrzeszeniu Rzeczypospolitej raz jeszcze. Problem restytucji państwa polskiego z perspektywy prawa międzynarodowego

Abstract

The legal aspects of regaining independence by Poland in 1918 have been analysed many times in the literature on the subject. In the interwar period, the axis of one of the main disputes in the environment of Polish international lawyers was whether the Second Polish Republic could be treated as a new state or a continuation of the pre-partition state. Until today, a uniform position of the doctrine on this topic, which is also taken up in contemporary publications, has not crystallised. Both sides of the dispute, however, overlook many aspects related to the law of nations concerning the collapse and continuity of states, which has changed throughout history. The aim of this article is to re-analyse the partition and regaining independence by Poland against the background of norms of international law of the time. This will help to systematise the knowledge about the history of Poland and this part of Europe, to resolve a weighty dispute in the history of Polish doctrine of international law, and to point out important aspects related to the struggle of nations still trying to regain independence.