Hanna Waśkiewicz jako historyk filozofii prawa

Abstract

Hanna Waśkiewicz (19.04.1912 - 22. 08.1993) was a historian of the philosophy of law, doing her research on law of nature. She was also a great supporter of the human rights idea. She was analyzing the evolution of the law of nature, starting from religious grounds to the moment when first system of the philosophy of law has emerged. She was doing research on the analysis of basic philosophical and legal notions, such as the nature of law and problem of binding force of law. Her studies on the law of nature were very deep. She was looking for the evidence that law of nature exists, finding its roots in the ethnological research. She tried to describe the core of the law of nature and the content of this law. Her view was that the law of nature has a direct influence on human relations. According to her, everybody has a capacity to discover norms of the law of nature. She presented a view on supremacy of the law of nature over statutory law. She was trying to find out who and how is able to derogate norms of statutory law, which do not comply with the law of nature. Are judges entitled to do it, or legislator, or any human being? Hanna Waśkiewicz had a great gift to raise important problems in her research. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to answer all raised questions.