A brief history of the Faculty

The Faculty originated as the Faculty of Law and Economic Sciences in May 1919 with a small team of four professors headed by Professor Antoni Peretiatkowicz. Soon, however, the number of academic staff increased and already in 1921 the Faculty employed 17 professors and 12 assistants. Within the first 20 years (between 1919 and 1939) the Faculty accepted about 10,000 students of whom about 2,000 had successfully completed degree courses offered in legal or economic studies. Enrolment was free, but tuition paid. In the first years economy students outnumbered those studying law, but from the very beginning the teaching programme put much emphasis on the humanities alongside legal and economic theory. The Faculty departments were scattered across the city, but lectures were given in Collegium Maius. Since 1934 the Faculty occupied part of the building that is today known as Collegium Iuridicum, the main seat of the Faculty of Law and Administration. The research that commenced at the Faculty in those years eventually devel-oped into a strong and acknowledged centre of legal and economic thought laid on the foundations of the academic work and achievements of its first members: Antoni Peretiatkowicz, the founder, in 1921 of Ruch Prawniczy Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny (The Legal, Economic and Sociological Review), who specialised in western constitutional law; Edward Taylor (editor of Poznańskie Prace Ekonomiczne - Poznań Papers on the Economy) specialising in financial law, Czesław Znamierowski (theory of law) or Zygmunt Wojciechowski and Jan Rutkowski (history of the system and economic history). The Faculty established academic links with research centres in France, Belgium, Italy and Spain, while its staff members performed various important functions, either as Vice-Chancellors or deputy Vice-Chancellors of the University, members of the Polish Parliament (the Seym or the Senate), or as judges of Polish and international courts and tribunals.
During the Second World War the Nazis closed the University and conse-quently the activity of the Faculty was also stopped. Teaching, however, continued, carried out in secret, within underground structures - so called underground universities.
In 1945, immediately after the war, work was resumed under the leadership of Dean Zygmunt Wojciechowski, and the Faculty employed 16 professors, 6 deputy professors and 19 assistants. Classes and seminars were again taught at different locations around the city, before the Faculty was allowed to re-turn to its former premises in Collegium Iuridicum. Despite those difficulties, two new periodicals were founded: Przegląd Zachodni (The Western Review) and Czasopismo Prawno-Historyczne (Law and History Review), and research continued.
However, during the period between 1951 and 1956 the autonomy of the Faculty was suppressed and the academic research as well as the teaching could not develop freely. The situation improved slightly towards the end of the fifties, but many limitations and restraints persisted. The Faculty could no longer offer a Master's course in economy and became the Faculty of Law and Administration.
The survival and continuation of the Faculty in the next thirty years was possible mainly because of its high academic standing and the enthusiasm of its teaching staff and students. It was then when a system of extramural, postgraduate and correspondent courses was developed and implemented. At the same time the Faculty's teaching staff lectured in newly created law faculties at the universities in Toruń, Gdańsk, Szczecin and Katowice. Recently, the Faculty has engaged in the organisation of the cross-border Polish-German legal studies in co-operation between Adam Mickiewicz University and European University Viadrina in Frankfurt Oder. In the nineties the political climate and overall situation in Poland changed and the Faculty was immediately willing to accept the new challenges and reorganise its structures to accommodate the needs and expectations of the new environment, externally and internally.
And so in 1991 two new departments were created: that of Management and Marketing, being a response to the new economic reality, and International Political, Economic and Cultural Relations (European Studies). Both offer Master courses in a 5-year day programme. In 1992 the Faculty introduced a system of open and unlimited enrolment for extramural paying students wishing to study law or administration. Six years ago ECTS was introduced. Currently, four daytime programmes (law, administration, management and marketing, and european studies), plus three extramural courses (law, administration and management and marketing) are attended by about 6,000 day and evening students.
The Faculty collaborates on an academic and research level with universities and institutes in most European countries, and many universities worldwide. Members of the Faculty as well as students have an opportunity of participating in exchange programmes, study visits, international joint projects, research programmes or conferences. They also work actively in national and international students' organisations and the Erasmus Socrates Programme. Faculty of Law and Administration is a member of European Law Faculties Association (ELFA). Many of the Faculty graduates have performed or perform various important public functions. Among others, the Faculty has produced a prime minister, several ministers and other members of the central government, and judges of the Supreme Courts and tribunals. Others serve as members of numerous advisory bodies and committees, government commissions and in self-governing local authorities, engage in business or are successful lawyers.