The article is devoted to characterising the forms of the dual documented in two preserved examples of West Ruthenian literature from the 16 th –17 th centuries. They represent the first ( Supraśl Chronicle ) and last ( Bychowiec Chronicle ) redactions of the chronicles of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Chronicle literature reflected the state of the living language of that period to a greater extent than religious texts subordinated to the canons of Church Slavonic tradition. The aim of the research was to analyse the degree of preservation of the dual category in relation to the unified Rus’ period. An analogous period of Polish language development was also taken into account. The analysis of dual declensional and conjugational forms excerpted from the text was discussed within three groups: natural pairs, combinations with the numerals dwa-dwie , oba-obie (‘two’, ‘both’), and duality conditioned by context. Despite signs of regression in each of the studied groups, the dual still retained a certain vitality, mainly in the chronologically older Supraśl Chronicle (1519). In the sphere of nominal declension, this was most clearly documented by noun forms in distribution with the numerals dwa-dwie (mainly in Nom/Acc), with feminine formations showing a somewhat greater number of uses than masculine formations. The dual number was preserved in trace amounts in syntactic groups reflecting combinations of nouns with congruent forms of adjectives and pronouns. In conjugation, the dual was preserved in the 3rd person aorist, used as a specific stylistic device in narratives of the past. Analysis of the source material proved that in the 16 th –17 th century period, the dual as a grammatical category expressing pairing/duality showed clear regression, with its role being gradually taken over by the plural.
This article presents a multidimensional analysis of the implications of the 2024 amendment to Article 49 of the Spanish Constitution, arguing that this change, extending far beyond the legal text itself, is a catalyst for profound transformations in the legal, social, and philosophical spheres. The paper demonstrates that, on the legal level, the reformed provision strengthens the case law of the courts, legitimizing the use of affirmative action and the duty to provide reasonable accommodation, as illustrated by key rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal and the Court of Justice of the EU. In the social dimension, the reform is presented as a tool to combat negative stereo-types, not only towards persons with disabilities but also towards the elderly, and as a symbolic strengthening of the role of organized civil society. Finally, in the philosophical sphere, the article analyzes how the amendment redefines the constitutional concept of dignity, moving away from the medical model towards a human rights-based paradigm. It also identifies key ethical dilemmas, such as the conflict between the principle of full autonomy and the duty of protection, which will pose a major challenge for the Spanish legal order in the coming years.
The subject of the article is the issue concerning the material scope of personal data processed in petty offence cases and the problem of their protection. The author points out that such data are processed by the authorities conducting these proceedings without any form of external audit. The provisions of the 2018 Personal Data Protection Act, as well as the provisions of the 2016 Regulation (EU) of the European Parliament and of the EU Council on the processing and protection of such data (GDPR), do not apply to them. It is noted that such data are processed on the basis of the provisions of Directive (EU) 2016/680 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 2016, as well as national procedural regulations (i.e. the Code of Procedure in Petty Offence Cases and the Code of Criminal Procedure), which provide a certain level of protection – however, this protection is insufficient. Courts are free to decide which data they obtain, record, and disclose. The author argues that an excessive amount of such data is processed in these proceedings and postulates, de lege ferenda, that the scope should be limited to data that serve to identify the participant in the proceedings. He further contends that the current legal framework for the protection of personal data in petty offence cases is inadequate and fails to ensure legal certainty.
The goal of this study is to present the anthroponomasticon of the Silva rerum novel cycle by the Lithuanian writer Kristina Sabaliauskaitė. The novel is divided into four parts depicting the dramatic story of one generation of the Norvaiša noble family, residing in 17th and 18th-century Lithuania. The source material consists of personal names identifying the characters in the novel, excerpted from the Polish translation of the book. The characters presented in Silva rerum have a highly varied nature. Two distinct categories of protagonists can be identified within the text: fictional characters that are plausible within the context of the era depicted, such as the majority of the Norvaiša family, and real characters are based on historical figures, including representatives of the Polish magnate family of Radziwiłł. The personal names served to illustrate the linguistic and cultural diversity of the community living in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania 17th–18th centuries. These anthroponyms are distinguished by both structural and genetic heterogeneity. The personal names in question primarily demonstrate links with Lithuanian and Polish languages, less frequently with the Ruthenian or Jewish languages, and incidentally with Karaim, German or Tartar.
The article analyzes early U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence on the Second Amendment, focusing on United States v. Cruikshank (1876), Presser v. Illinois (1886), and United States v. Miller (1939). It examines how these rulings interpreted the right to keep and bear arms and their influence on shaping the amendment’s meaning. Using case law analysis, historical methods, and comparative review of American and Polish legal scholarship, the study highlights that early Supreme Court decisions viewed the right to keep and bear arms not as an individual guarantee against state interference, but as a collective entitlement tied to well regulated militia. This collective interpretation dominated for over a century until District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), which redefined the Second Amendment as a source of individual rights to possess and carry firearms. The analysis clarifies the historical evolution of Second Amendment interpretation and its enduring importance for contemporary constitutional debate. The findings demonstrate that early jurisprudence profoundly shaped American constitutional culture and that the modern, individual-rights understanding of the Second Amendment is a relatively recent product of constitutional reinterpretation.
This study examines how Polish-Lithuanian political myths, stereo- types, and historical phobias are reproduced and transformed in contemporary media discourse. Although many of these narratives originate in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century nation-building processes, they continue to shape rhetorical strategies, identity boundaries, and perceptions of the “Other” in both states. The research employs an inductive methodological framework informed by Abdelal et al. (2009), Allan (2016), and Hopf (2005), treating media discourse as an intersubjective site where collective identities are constructed and contested. Inductive content analysis identifies recurring lexical choices and evaluative patterns, while inductive discourse analysis reconstructs broader narrative logics and ideological oppositions without imposing predefined categories. The empirical material comprises Polish and Lithuanian media texts published between December 2010 and March 2014, a period marked by intensified debate following protests against Lithuania’s amended Education Act. Approximately 600 media items from major Polish broadcasters and Lithuanian- and Polish-language newspapers form the dataset. The findings demonstrate that historical myths, stereotypes, and anxieties – such as fears of occupation, accusations of chauvinism, and competing narratives of victimhood – persist in twenty- first-century rhetoric, resurfacing particularly in moments of political tension. These discursive patterns illuminate the enduring role of media in reproducing asymmetrical national identities within Polish-Lithuanian relations.
The article is devoted to characterising the forms of the dual documented in two preserved examples of West Ruthenian literature from the 16th–17th centuries. They represent the first (Supraśl Chronicle) and last (Bychowiec Chronicle) redactions of the chronicles of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Chronicle literature reflected the state of the living language of that period to a greater extent than religious texts subordinated to the canons of Church Slavonic tradition. The aim of the research was to analyse the degree of preservation of the dual category in relation to the unified Rus’ period. An analogous period of Polish language development was also taken into account. The analysis of dual declensional and conjugational forms excerpted from the text was discussed within three groups: natural pairs, combinations with the numerals dwa-dwie, oba-obie (‘two’, ‘both’), and duality conditioned by context. Despite signs of regression in each of the studied groups, the dual still retained a certain vitality, mainly in the chronologically older Supraśl Chronicle (1519). In the sphere of nominal declension, this was most clearly documented by noun forms in distribution with the numerals dwa-dwie (mainly in Nom/Acc), with feminine formations showing a somewhat greater number of uses than masculine formations. The dual number was preserved in trace amounts in syntactic groups reflecting combinations of nouns with congruent forms of adjectives and pronouns. In conjugation, the dual was preserved in the 3rd person aorist, used as a specific stylistic device in narratives of the past. Analysis of the source material proved that in the 16th–17th century period, the dual as a grammatical category expressing pairing/duality showed clear regression, with its role being gradually taken over by the plural.
On January 20th, 2025, the world imploded when President Donald J. Trump signed the Executive Order 14169: “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid” imposing a 90-day pause on U.S. foreign development assistance. E.O. 14169 exposed structural flaws in the governance of U.S. foreign assistance with far reaching legal, ethical, and geopolitical consequences. Federally mandated foreign assistance has been the foundation of the United States soft power, and a catalyzer for dialogue on the world stage. While limited in its scope the following note touches upon the reach of executive power and international collaboration in the context of food security. What follows is an analysis of the legal implications of the E.O based on the Impoundment Control Act, the Anti Deficiency Act as well as the Take Care Clause of the U.S. Constitution. This note will briefly introduce two cases: AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition v. United States and Global Health Council v. Trump (D.D.C.) as examples of the litigation landscape under the E.O. The note is merely an overview to a complex myriad of problems and what is a dynamically developing situation related to how the U.S. will reimagine foreign aid and prioritize domestic food production. Considering a rapidly changing food aid landscape, new international partnerships will be forged as the international community bears witness to the unfolding of a new world order. It is an opportune moment for legal scholarship to examine the lack of U.S. federal assistance with respect to food aid.
The subject of the article is the common experience of disinformation in Poland and selected NATO countries. Disinformation is defined in the context of state security and as a tool used by state agencies to achieve the goals set out by political authorities. The analysis included publicly available reports of the agencies responsible for state security, both Polish and those of other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The research question posed in the article is: are the same methods of disinformation used against Poland and other NATO member states and what issues do they concern? The article primarily uses the method of analysis and comparative analysis of the above-mentioned reports and information materials from security agencies, both intelligence and counterintelligence. The mechanisms of counteracting and combating disinformation are exposed and recommendations for combating disinformation are made.
Increasing globalization and the growth of cross-border consumer activity make the issue of international consumer insolvency increasingly important. This paper focuses on an analysis of the legislation currently in force in Poland that applies to this issue. Therefore, its purpose is to identify a normative structure, relevant from the perspective of Polish legislation, that regulates, based on the provisions of both EU and national law, such issues as the conflict of jurisdiction, recognition of foreign insolvency proceedings, cooperation between the bodies involved in these proceedings, and protection of the rights of the insolvent person and creditors from other countries.
The Act of 25 June 2010 on sports defined the concept of professional sports. Thanks to this, it was finally possible to say goodbye to apparent amateurism and the employment of athletes in fictitious positions in workplaces. Currently, athletes are employed by sports clubs. The regulations governing the employment of athletes vary depending on the given sports association, but they must be consistent with the statutes of the world sports federations. The author presents the issue of employing athletes using the examples of the regulations in force in the Polish Football Association and the Polish Athletics Association.
Between 2004 and 2005, the Ministry of Justice drafted three legislative proposals concerning broadly understood free legal aid, civic assistance, and legal education. These drafts were the result of engagement not only by the Ministry but also by non-governmental organisations and the legal community and culminated in the adoption of the Act in 2015. The final Act drew on earlier proposals, particularly the establishment of Legal Aid Offices, support for low-income individuals, and the involvement of professional lawyers.
This article advances a constructivist account of artificial intelligence (AI) as a political artefact in international relations (IR). Drawing on technopolitics, Actor–Network Theory (ANT), and postphenomenology, it argues that AI systems should be examined not only through the meanings stakeholders ascribe to them, but also through how design choices materialize normative commitments that preconfigure perception, judgment, and action. ANT highlights the agency of non-human actants and the affordances inscribed in technical artefacts, while postphenomenology specifies the mediation modes – embodiment, hermeneutic, alterity, and background – through which increasingly autonomous and data-driven systems reshape IR decision environments. The article is conceptual in nature, supported by illustrative evidence from decision-support systems (DSS) used in NATO and the European Union, including AI-enabled tools for operational command and conflict early warning. These cases demonstrate how DSS redistribute epistemic authority and responsibility across technical and institutional layers, accelerating sense-making under time pressure while introducing new risks. The contribution addresses a research gap by integrating insights from postphenomenology and the sociology of technology into IR, proposing a permissive ontology that treats (semi-)autonomous systems as analytical actants without assuming personhood, and offering conceptual tools for examining mediation in practice and the political implications of disruptive technologies.
This text analyzes the physical aspects of Barbara Radziwiłł’s portrayal in Magdalena Niedźwiecka’s novel Barbara Radziwiłł. The author examines how the writer constructs Barbara’s image based on her physical characteristics, which constituted a fundamental determinant in the creation of a female image during the Renaissance. This image is primarily shaped by appearance, which in Barbara’s case played a key role. The protagonist is portrayed in the novel primarily through the prism of her physical attractiveness, which deprives her character of expressiveness and depth. This, in turn, leads Niedźwiecka’s novel to perpetuate stereotypes of Barbara as a beautiful woman lacking intelligence and good manners, and to reduce August’s love to blind lust.
This article discusses selected aspects of cross-border economic co-operation between two post-Soviet countries, Poland and Lithuania, which have become important trade partners since they became independent of the Russian economy and opened up to Western European markets. The growth of mutual trade has been linked to major political developments, including the accession of both countries to the European Union and the Schengen Area, and the outbreak of war in Ukraine and the imposition of economic sanctions by the EU Member States on Russia and Belarus. The authors examined cross-border economic cooperation at three levels: between Poland and Lithuania, between the Podlaskie Voivodeship (a region located in north-eastern Poland) and Lithuania, and within the Polish-Lithuanian border area. The basic forms of economic cross-border co-operation between Poland and Lithuania have been described, and then statistical data on this co-operation have been collected and analysed. The causes and effects of the increase in traffic at the Polish-Lithuanian border crossings, which contributed, inter alia, to the growth of cross-border trade and establishing of companies whose human capital is of mixed nationality in the border area, are also identified. The aim of this article is to analyze and evaluate selected legal and economic aspects of cross-border cooperation on the Polish-Lithuanian border, with particular emphasis on the Podlaskie Voivodeship.
Benedict de Soxo, who is sometimes considered one of the best rectors of Vilnius, is the author of a treatise entitled Claves juris, published in 1648. It was the first textbook on the study of law in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, studied by candidates preparing for utrisque iuris doctorates.
Freedom is one of the fundamental rights of the individual, protected by law in democratic countries. This lasting achievement has been marked by various fluctuations over the centuries.
In this paper we address the issue of improbable knowledge within probabilistic epistemic logic. This problem occurs when an agent possesses knowledge of a certain proposition despite the evidential probability of that knowledge being exceedingly low. The existence of such knowledge is paradoxical and poses significant challenges for probabilistic accounts of justification. We identify that the problem arises from assumptions about the non-transitivity of the epistemic accessibility relation which leads to the rejection of Axiom 4 according to which if one knows one knows that one knows. By redefining the epistemic operators we demonstrate that accepting Axiom 4 is feasible thus preventing improbable knowledge. Furthermore we explore the distinction between potential and actual knowledge as a solution to the problem of logical omniscience. We construct a probabilistic epistemic logic system that accurately models actual knowledge for agents with limited deductive abilities. Finally we introduce key semantic concepts for a dynamic probabilistic epistemic logic designed for non-omniscient agents providing a promising foundation for studying the dynamics of knowledge and its relationship with probability.
At the level of assumptions, Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms is related to Marburg’s interpretation of Kant’s transcendentalism.
Thought suppression and distraction are related concepts with intentional changes in the content of consciousness at their core. However research on these strategies has not been sufficiently integrated. The separation of research contexts and the neglect of clear definitions have led to divergent evaluations and biased measurement of the effectiveness and adaptiveness of these similar constructs. In this paper thought suppression and distraction are characterized and defined. Although the two concepts can be differentiated they overlap substantially. The differences between distraction and thought suppression are subtle and do not account for the contrasting evaluations of their effects. To reduce bias and facilitate clearer communication and better integration of findings it is recommended that studies provide working definitions of suppression and distraction accompanied by descriptions of their specific mechanisms.
