Topic: Sources and areas of law

Author: Anna Rabiega

Addressee:

high school / technical school student

Core curriculum:

• old curriculum:

standard level:

2. Law and Courts.

The student:

3) lists the sources of law; finds a specific legislative act and interprets simple legal provisions.

extended level:

29. Law.

The student:

3) distinguishes between sources from which standards in different legal systems derive (customary, case, religious, positive law).

• new curriculum:

standard level:

V. Law of the Republic of Poland.

The student:

2) presents the sources of law of the Republic of Poland –indicates a special power of the Constitution; presents the legislative procedure.

extended level:

XI. The legal system of the Republic of Poland.

The student:

1) distinguishes between sources from which standards in different legal systems derive (customary, case, religious, positive law).

The general aim of education:

The student characterises the institutions of the Polish legal system.

Learning outcomes:

The student:

• presents the meaning of the terms: legal norm, legal regulation, legislative act.

• presents types of legislative acts in Poland.

• analyses the most common legal systems and explains different types of law.

• indicates the publication authority where the particular sources of law can be found.

Key competences:

• communicating in a foreign language,

• digital competence,

• learning to learn,

• social and civic competences.

Teaching methods:

• mind map,

• teaching conversation using interactive scheme, interactive exercises.

Forms of work:

• self‑learning,

• whole‑class activity.

Material & equipment needed:

• computers with loudspeakers/headphones and internet access,

• multimedia resources from the e‑textbook,

• interactive whiteboard/blackboard, felt‑tip pen/a piece of chalk.

Lesson plan overview (Process):

Introduction:

1. The teacher presents the goal of the lesson: You will analyse the sources of law applicable in Poland; you will learn about different law systems and ways of dividing the law.

2. The teacher asks the students to recall when and how they found out that crossing at a red light is forbidden. It is likely that students will mention early childhood and knowledge from someone close to them. Then, the teacher asks if it is possible that they have read the relevant provisions of the Road Traffic Code and they have learned about the functioning principle in that way? If they did not know the provision, what did they know? The teacher uses this example to introduce the students to the definitions of legal norm, legislative provisions and normative act in a teaching conversation.

Implementation:

1. The teacher asks students if they have ever watched a film or series on legal issues that takes place in the United Kingdom, the United States of America or another Anglo‑Saxon country. The teacher asks students what differences they notice between the course of a trial in these countries compared to our country. Students write their suggestions on the board. In a teaching conversation, the teacher explains to the students that these differences result from a different legal system (civil and custom law system).

2. The teacher asks the students to do Exercise 1. Students do the exercise and then the willing/selected students verify the correctness of their answers with the whole class.

3. The teacher displays the “Various types of law” scheme on the interactive whiteboard. The teacher presents to students different types of law and asks them to give examples of legal regulations/norms or entire legislative acts within the given scope. Willing/selected students give their suggestions, the teacher corrects and completes them, if necessary.

4. The teacher informs students that, based on an excerpt from the Constitution of Poland contained in the abstract and their own knowledge, they will create a mind map illustrating the sources of law of the Republic of Poland. The teacher sets the time for completion of the task and appoints a moderator, who will write down the suggestions of his/her colleagues on the blackboard, as well as a reader, who reads out loud the successive excerpts from the Constitution, introducing particular sources of law. Students, on the basis of the Constitution, write down the sources of law, and then supplement the information about them, adding, for example:

• Who adopts/issues a given legislative act?

• What is the relationship between this legislative act and higher‑ranked legislative acts?

• What matters are usually regulated in a given normative act?

• What examples of acts of this type can they give?

If necessary, the teacher may ask additional leading questions, as well as correct and supplement the students' statements.

5. The teacher asks the students to count down to four. The teacher informs them that their task will be to determine, using online sources, what type of legislative acts are contained in particular official journals:

I. Journal of Laws,

II. Official Journal of the Republic of Poland (Monitor Polski),

III. Official Journals of the Ministry,

IV. Official Journals of the Voivodeship.

Students visit the websites of particular journals (according to the number they were assigned with) and note down the types of legislative acts they find there. Then the teacher asks the willing/selected students to share the information they have found with the rest of the class. The teacher corrects and complements the students' statements, if necessary.

Summary:

1. At the end of the class the teacher asks the students to finish the sentences:

• Today I learned…

• I understand now that…

• I was surprised…

• I found out…

• It was easy for me…

• It was difficult for me...

The last two sentences help evaluate the difficulty of the discussed question; they enable the student to evaluate his own knowledge and skills.

2. Homework proposal:

a. Find different types of official journals of normative acts (Journal of Laws, Monitor Polski, Official Journal of the Voivodeship and the Ministry) on the Internet and write down two different examples of normative acts each that you have found in this journal.

b. Listen to the abstract recording to review the material and new vocabulary. Then do the vocabulary exercise at the end of the chapter.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Sources and areas of law

Legal norm

A rule of behaviour established by a legitimate state authority that explains who and under what circumstances should behave in a certain way.

Structure of the legal norm:

• The hypothesis specifies the addressee of the norm and the conditions and circumstances in which the rule of behaviour applies.

• The disposition specifies the prohibited, prescribed or permitted behavior in the circumstances described in the hypothesis.

• The sanction determines the consequences connected with behavior incompatible with the disposition of the norm.

The relationship between a legal norm and a legal provision is the same as the relationship between content and form. The content defining the rules of behaviour is the legal norm, the provision is only a form in which the content of the norm is included. In other words, norms (rules of behaviour) can be derived from the analysis of legal provisions.

Normative acts vary depending on the organs authorized to issue them, subject to regulation or place in the hierarchy of sources of law.

In Poland, normative acts are published in various publishing organs (formal sources of law). At present, normative acts are also published online. To understand normative acts it is also useful to analyze case law including, for example, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court or the European Court of Justice rulings.

The Online Legal Database is a very practical tool to search for legal acts.

Official publishing organs (formal sources of law) in Poland

• Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw);

• Gazette of the Republic of Poland “Monitor Polski” (the Polish Monitor);

• journals of ministries, central offices and voivodeships.

Only legal acts published in the Official Journal or the Polish Monitor constitute a legitimate source of law in Poland. The journals of ministries, central offices and voivodeships only reprint the legal acts published elsewhere.

A legal system consists of structured and interrelated norms enshrined in normative acts binding at a given time in a state. In modern states there are two different types of legal systems. One of them is sometimes referred to as the system of continental law (or the civil law system), while the other is called the Anglo‑Saxon law system (or the common law system).

The legal system in Poland is a system of continental law. The key role in this system is played by positive, codified law, which should constitute a complete and consistent set of norms. The law is created as a result of decisions of the most important state authorities (the parliament, government, President of the Republic, local authorities). Today, however, we are also dealing with an increasing impact of international law and European Union law on the national Polish legal system. Most of the laws passed by our Sejm after Poland's accession to the European Union structures are connected with the necessity to introduce EU directives into domestic legislation.