EXCERPTS FROM THE INTRODUCTION BY JANUSZ KOCHANOWSKI:
It is not a coincidence that it is in the year 2001, at the turn of the century, that the magazine, whose program goals are expressed by its title “Ius et Lex” has appeared on the publishing market – a magazine, whose purpose is the study of the foundations of legal thought and culture.
There are two reasons for –the currently necessary – return to the sources and the nature of law, whose concept accompanies the development of civilization. These are the sense of a crisis in law experienced in the last century and the already emerging challenges of the ne century.
The sense of a crisis in law originating in the XX century, is particularly severe in our country, where the constitutional statement establishing the state of law seems – to some of us – to be slowly turingn into its opposite. When talking about the crisis in law, one usually thinks of:
- the juridization of life, which is mostly regulated by the legislator by unknown regulations;
- the instrumental approach to law, both by those implementing it and the legislator, who believes that he can make law almost arbitrarily due to his conventional mandate;
- finally, to use the terminology of Lon L. Fuller – the deficiency of morality in the law itself and its legitimization.
Due to these phenomena the law is not respected. The law is infringed by people at all levels of the social hierarchy, but only those, whose infringements are detected, more or less by pure chance, are concerned with it. Following David Lyons, if the theory of law continues to disregard these facts, “it cannot reach its own moral and intellectual ideals”.
The challenges of the new century are also the reasons for the return to the nature and the sources of law. In the period of transition to a completely different, European and a global society, we are faced with a new world, and therefore there is a need to determine the place of morality and law in it. The XXI century must be the century of law, or it will be even more horrible than the one that is fortunately behind us.
When talking about the emergence of the European and the global society, we think not only of the free flow of capital, supranational companies and corporations, mass production and consumption, and the freedom, democracy and human rights associated with them– but we also think of the globalization of criminal circles and terrorism, large scale drugs, arms and people trafficking. The take-over of many state agencies by private institutions or local communities and the concurrent weakening of the state are the basis for fears about the successful creation of an open civic society. The threats to Western civilization originate both from within and from other civilizations.
It seems that the establishment of a magazine dealing with the most fundamental issues of law and justice and their place in the changing world will provide an opportunity to meet current expectations. This is evidenced by the fact that almost everybody that we requested for cooperation – responded positively to our invitation, often even enthusiastically.
The principles adopted at the moment of the creation the magazine were carried out in an excellent way. The two volumes published so far deal with the most important issues of legal and social thought. The ‘Ius et Lex’ Publishing House fills a gap in the significant social demand and stimulates discussion.
The excellent publishing form of ‘Ius et Lex’, very good editorial preparation and the original layout are also worth mentioning.
The magazine is a calling card of Polish science of law and a forum for contacts with the global science. | 
