Artur Kozak’s Juriscentrist Concept of Law: a Central European Innovation in Legal Theory

Artur Kozak (1960–2009) was one of the most original and innovative philosophers of law to emerge from the so-called ‘middle generation’ of Polish post-War jurisprudence. Kozak’s principal achievement was to break away from the analytical paradigm of legal theory, dominant in the in Poland at the time, and engage legal theory in a fruitful dialogue with contemporary sociology and philosophy, including such currents as social constructionism or postmodernism. To name his original theoretical project, Kozak coined a new term – ‘juriscentrism’ (juryscentryzm), consciously evoking Richard Rorty’s concept of ethnocentrism. Juriscentrist legal theory was mainly focused on providing legitimacy for the newly gained power of the legal community in a post-socialist society, but its theoretical resonance is universal. Kozak’s premature death made it impossible to complete the theoretical project of juriscentrism, nonetheless he managed to elaborate its main tenets, including the concept of juristic discretional power and a juriscentrist concept of law. Kozak’s legacy in contemporary Polish legal theory is particularly visible in Wrocław, where not only the post-analytical paradigm in Poland is the strongest, but also the first Polish school of critical legal theory has recently emerged.