Kazimierz Kolańczyk (1915-1982) and a New Approach to the Teaching of Roman Law in Post-war Poland

An entirely new approach to the teaching of Roman law was long-awaited in post-war Poland. There were not many studies for learning the subject, and in the case of the available ones, their weaknesses were highlighted. A breakthrough in the area of the Roman law academic textbook came with the publication of “Roman Law” by Kazimierz Kolańczyk. It is considered one of the best Roman law textbooks, if not the best, in the 20th century in Poland. The work was significantly different from the other hitherto available textbooks, primarily because the author developed his own concept for that type of study. As it turned out, the work by K. Kolańczyk opened a completely new phase in the Polish didactics of Roman law. It is therefore useful to take a closer look at its assumptions and K. Kolańczyk’s approach to the teaching of Roman law, and also to evaluate the permanence of the changes in teaching caused by that study.