O r d o I u r i s I n s t i t u t e f o r L e g a l C u l t u r e
O r d o I u r i s I n s t i t u t e f o r L e g a l C u l t u r e
Why Ordo Iuris? very day people are confronted with various radical ideologies that aggressively question the existing social order. Such ideologies are not Eaimed at improving or healing society, but instead seek to destroy its very foundation, including the foundation for Poland that is clearly confirmed and affirmed by the Polish Constitution. The words spoken by Marek Safjan, who warned of believing in the automatic driving force of mere statements from the Polish Constitution, turn out to be relevant today. Their application can often create an illusion of stability rather than a real guarantee of social order. We believe there is a pressing need for lawyers to become actively involved in the defense of the constitution. For this reason, we have been guided by the idea of the legal order ordo iuris. Law is too complex a subject to be presented as a mere set of rules or invoking only the authority of natural law. Lawyer involvement in the law has to take into consideration the context created by extralegal regulatory systems, the practice of law and, more broadly, the whole culture. This is why Ordo Iuris is the Institute for Legal Culture. Prof. Aleksander Stępkowski President of the Board aleksander.stepkowski@ordoiuris.pl Taking into account the complexity of the legal system, we want Ordo Iuris to combine harmoniously different types of actions to promote order in social life and in legal transactions. This is why we combine academic and expert activity with participation in litigation as well as the education of young lawyers. We also believe that it is equally important to present society with genuine and credible information about changes occurring in the contemporary legal culture. Although this requires the use of different communication channels, we always strive for superior quality in all of our endeavors and are convinced that our efforts are worthwhile.
Jerzy Kwaśniewski Attorney Vice President of the Board jerzy.kwasniewski@ordoiuris.pl Ordo Iuris Strategic Litigation Program The Litigation Program of the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture was created in order to influence the case law of common and administrative courts in an active and professional way. This influence has been steered towards cases concerning the defense of families and the freedoms of conscience and speech with respect to people whose system of values, founded on the Polish Constitution, leads to their exclusion from society. Attorneys, legal advisors, and legal interns from all over Poland who cooperate with the Ordo Iuris Institute represent beneficiaries of the Litigation Program in civil, criminal, family, misdemeanor, labor, and administrative cases. Lawyers from the Litigation Program are also very active in matters where the autonomy of family life has to be defended against the unfounded interference of the state. Thanks to our efforts, children taken away from their parents due to poverty or malicious notifications from others can return to their families. We help physicians, pharmacists, nurses and midwives who encounter difficulties trying to practice their profession in accordance with their own conscience exercised in the light of current medical knowledge. We act as advocates of the freedom of speech and the freedom of assembly, in particular defending pro-life activists. We take part in proceedings before the Constitutional Tribunal in order to promote the compliance of binding law with the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland. The Litigation Program allows volunteers, young students and lawyers to gain experience by working directly with the people who need our support. This Program also helps them develop their personal character. In this way, we participate in the shaping of proper court practice in the most important matters affecting society. Bartosz Lewandowski Attorney Litigation Program Coordinator bartosz.lewandowski@ordoiuris.pl
Tymoteusz Zych, Ph.D. Member of the Board tymoteusz.zych@ordoiuris.pl Ordo Iuris Legal Analysis Program Experts of the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture permanently monitor drafted legislation at all stages of the lawmaking process. We pay special attention to legislative proposals dealing with the legal protection of human life at every stage of its development, marriage and family, the freedom of conscience and the right of parents to educate their children, and other legal issues that impact civil liberties. When analyzing draft regulations, we take into account not only their constitutionality and systemic functionality, but also their economic and social effects by verifying estimates presented in the impact assessment. We participate in every stage of the lawmaking process, i.e., in public consultations organized by ministries, as well as in the works of parliamentary committees. We also prepare and organize constitutional reviews. The analyses that we prepare are then sent to civil servants, members of parliament, and NGOs. Abstracts of our analysis are also provided to journalists and the media. Our analytical work also includes the preparation of our own draft legislation aimed at increasing the standards of legal protection of human life and the definition of marriage, and optimizing conditions for families to grow. We prepare reports and studies showing the desired course of legislation, especially regarding family policy.
Joanna Banasiuk, Ph.D. Vice President of the Board joanna.banasiuk@ordoiuris.pl Ordo Iuris International Involvement of Ordo Iuris Changes in the contemporary legal culture are often determined by concepts created abroad, some of which violate the Polish Constitution. This is why the fight to protect the Polish legal order has to include activity at the level of international and transnational institutions. We are actively engaged with representatives of the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and the UN. We attach great importance to our involvement at the level of the European Union especially in the European Parliament. In order to intensify our actions, we opened an office in Brussels in 2016, which enables us to meet the huge demand for our analyses from a growing number of MEPs from different countries. Thanks to our studies, MEPs are provided with substantiated arguments that allow them to promote solutions strengthening the defense of inherent human dignity and respecting the subsidiarity principle. Thus, we oppose the processes that weaken the cohesion of the Polish constitutional order. The preparation of legal analyses, opinions and informational materials on European law, as well as expert presentations by the Institute's lawyers in the EU, has become one of the most significant aspects of Ordo Iuris' activity. In 2017 we were granted special consultant status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council. This has allowed us to participate extensively in the works of UN agencies, where we are becoming well known. * The Ordo Iuris Institute is listed under number 206499215012-94 in the Transparency Register of the European Parliament.
Religious Freedom At the beginning of 2016, the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture inaugurated the activity of the Religious Freedom and Freedom of Conscience Observatory the first in Poland. Its mission is to collect and report information on any attack on values that are fundamental for a free civil society, i.e., religious freedom and freedom of conscience. The lawyers working for the Ordo Iuris Institute are always ready to defend people whose religious freedom or freedom of conscience is violated. The Ordo Iuris Institute is also a member of the European Platform on Religious Tolerance and Freedom of Conscience, a network of non-governmental organizations, researchers, intellectuals and experts who share the goal of raising awareness of the problem of intolerance and discrimination against Christians in Europe. Marriage and Family We defend the natural definition of marriage as a permanent union of a woman and a man open to having and raising children. By defending the definition of marriage from attempts to question or undermine it legally, we are defending the Polish constitutional order under which the protection of the institution of marriage is one of the systemic principles of the Republic of Poland. In this way we are defending the right of children to be educated in the most favorable conditions, i.e., in a loving family based on a permanent marriage between one man and one woman. The concern for the protection of marriage and family also means the protection of the autonomy of family life, which is increasingly threatened by the arrogance of civil servants. Our analytical activity also strives to cover the economic autonomy of families by examining the instruments of family policy and by protecting families from discriminatory tendencies present in contemporary legislation.
Protection of Life Innocent human life should always enjoy the highest level of protection. This basic truth is not always reflected in the law or in its application. The Ordo Iuris Institute does not hesitate to demand the protection of human life. By protecting people who, due to their limited autonomy, are often marginalized, and sometimes even physically eliminated, we are determined to defend the defenseless. We counter the practices aimed at limiting constitutional and international guarantees protecting every human life. The protection of the weakest from exclusion and extermination is expressed not only in our involvement in legal and legislative procedures, but also in the defense of pro-life activists from attacks from groups that want to remove current legal protection and who treat the weakest human beings as objects. Freedom of Conscience Since the very beginning of its existence, the Institute has been defending healthcare workers, including physicians, pharmacists, nurses and midwives, who wish to practice their profession in accordance with their genuine medical knowledge and their own conscience. We believe that by defending the right of conscience of healthcare professionals all Poles will be free from the state's interference in this area of human life, which is fundamental for our identity. Ordo Iuris lawyers have been involved in the most famous cases in Poland where the freedom of conscience has been at stake. Our international actions regarding this issue have also been gaining importance since we vocally support and participate in many initiatives in favor of religious freedom and freedom of conscience within the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the UN.
Women's Rights Since the very beginning of its activity, the Institute has acted to achieve real affirmation of femininity and women's rights in public life. It is no coincidence that the majority of the Institute's staff are women. We identify the areas where the discrimination of women is tolerated, not uncommonly by feminists. There is a growing stigmatization of those women who want to shape their life by affirming, through their choice, motherhood and family life as their main activities. We want to contribute to the discussion on women's rights by raising issues and women's preferences that are often stigmatized and threatened by social exclusion. Analysis of the public debate and the lawmaking process leads to the conclusion that the issue of women's rights is dominated by content that belittles free choices of millions of women who are under pressure to act against their will. Our goal is to support women who do not want to conform to models imposed by feminist ideology. Civil Liberties The Ordo Iuris Institute was created with a strong conviction that its activity is essential to Polish society. This is why the protection and the development of civil liberties are crucial to us, particularly at a time when citizens are increasingly exposed to ideologically motivated social engineering, which violates citizens' freedom and the autonomy of family life in exchange for a promise of obscure benefits. The protection of civil liberties is reinforced by monitoring legislative and law enforcement actions, in connection with which we are constantly looking for opportunities to present arguments affirming basic freedoms and respect for the autonomy of natural communities. We often defend the freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly and economic freedom without which empowerment and political freedom remain illusory.
Economic Freedom and Freedom of Contract One important area of the Institute's involvement in promoting civil liberties is the protection of economic freedom and freedom of contract, which are the basis of the Polish economic system and the existence of hundreds of thousands of Polish families. Unfortunately, nowadays these fundamental freedoms are increasingly challenged and limited in different ways for reasons motivated by political correctness. This in turn undermines the foundations of civil law and leads to excessive curtailment of different civil liberties. The limitation of economic freedom is increasingly accompanied by limitations on the freedom of speech and even by restrictions on the freedom of conscience. In all of these complex situations, Ordo Iuris helps people who suffer illegal pressure and our involvement brings about tangible results. Thus, the Institute's actions are appreciated by associations of entrepreneurs, especially those that represent small and medium-sized family firms.
Błażej Kmieciak, Ph.D. Bioethics Centre Coordinator blazej.kmieciak@ordoiuris.pl Ordo Iuris Bioethics Centre of the Ordo Iuris Institute The very turbulent development of biotechnology, genetics, and other biomedical sciences that has taken place in recent years raises very difficult ethical questions for society and has led to intense growth in the field of bioethics, which requires superior knowledge of the most recent achievements in molecular biology and genetics, and is essential for the proper protection of individuals from growing threats to human dignity. Bioethical discourse should evolve parallel to the development of scientific achievements and should anticipate its practical application in medicine. The present bioethical debate is quite often conducted, on one hand, under the pressure of a materialistic outlook that constitutes an important threat to human dignity, and, on the other hand, on the basis of outdated and inadequate knowledge of biomedicine. To make the public debate and the lawmaking process on these issues more fruitful, it is necessary to make the most recent research in the field of biomedicine understandable and to show its ethical dimension. We believe that the genuine knowledge provided by the Bioethics Centre of the Ordo Iuris Institute will constitute the basis of good legislation serving Poland and all of Europe.
Agnieszka Szczutowska Office Director biuro@ordoiuris.pl Ordo Iuris Internship One of the key areas of the Institute's activity is the intellectual and ethical education of young lawyers. In our internship programs, students as well as law and other social sciences graduates hone their skills under the supervision of experienced lawyers who are both practitioners and professors. Due to the interdisciplinary character of tasks carried out during an internship and the necessity to take into account a broader perspective of comparative law, the cooperation between young lawyers and the Institute's employees at the level of proceedings and analysis is exceptional. Ordo Iuris interns have the possibility to participate in lectures and seminars organized only for them and delivered by foreign scholars as well as those of the International Ordo Iuris Academy, which includes eminent representatives of the legal profession and legal theoreticians. Upon completing the internship program, selected candidates have the possibility to apply for internships in the Institute's office in Brussels as well as the European Parliament or the Council of Europe. Some join our team permanently. We are proud of the fact that the Ordo Iuris internship program can shape the future careers of young lawyers.
Publishing and Conference Activity Aware of the cultural complexity of law and based on the Institute's experience, we decided to fill in a gap existing in the legal literature market. Publications prepared as part of the Ordo Iuris Collection are intended to present legal issues together with their cultural complexity and allow a better understanding of social phenomena. We believe that the topics covered by our publications should be interesting for practitioners and scholars, thus helping to integrate those two professions. The Ordo Iuris Institute also organizes scientific conferences to develop the legal doctrine. Our most important conferences are the annual international conferences dedicated to selected current issues connected with the defense of the social order as affirmed in the national constitutional order. Our conferences are very popular with lawyers and law professors and they significantly contribute to the doctrines of national and international law. National scientific conferences organized by the Institute touch upon current legal and bioethical issues by involving law and health practitioners in the Institute's activity, as well as academia.
Donors Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we can pursue our goals. With their support, we can help families threatened by civil servants with litigation; we can monitor the lawmaking process and defend the rights of the weakest in Poland by being involved in the EU, the Council of Europe and in the UN. Donors also allow us to provide reliable information on contemporary legal issues to the wider public. All of these actions are extremely dependent upon the generosity of our donors, who understand that our activity requires their regular support. Every monthly donation to Ordo Iuris, no matter how large, is invaluable to helping us achieve our goals. The generosity of our donors strengthens our conviction that our work is important and necessary. Without it, our engagement would be not only deprived of a material basis, but also a deeper ethical motivation, without which we would not be able to continue our activity. The support that we receive allows us to operate completely independently from changing political circumstances and to effectively monitor the activity of state authorities. With your support, together we can face every challenge! Prof. Maria Gintowt- Jankowicz, retired judge of the Constitutional Tribunal: The focus of the Institute's research and opinionforming activity is on the social order and on the rights that correspond with this order, and this is why this organization is so important and needed. Jan Pospieszalski, journalist: Everywhere where there is a battle between traditional values and contemporary dictates of the left, we find the lawyers from Ordo Iuris. Jarosław Lindenberg, ambassador: I thought to myself that it is wonderful to have such a group of enthusiasts who dedicate their knowledge, skills and experience to serving the community in order to fight for good, wise laws. Prof. Bogdan Chazan: It is a brave organization fighting for the rights of physicians exposed to a lack of respect for their right to conscientious objection. ACCOUNT NUMBERS: 32 1160 2202 0000 0002 4778 1296
Institute for Legal Culture ul. Górnośląska 20/6 00-484 Warszawa, Poland tel.: +48 22 404 38 50 fax: +48 22 127 91 25 biuro@ordoiuris.pl Square de Meeûs 38/40 1000 Brussels, Belgium tel. 32 2 401 61 87 brussels.office@ordoiuris.pl www.ordoiuris.pl www.facebook.com/ordoiuris twitter.com/ordoiuris We need your support please donate! Our bank account numbers: 32 1160 2202 0000 0002 4778 1296 USD: PL 92 1160 2202 0000 0002 5104 0774 EUR: PL 86 1160 2202 0000 0002 5104 0591 Bank Millennium S.A, BIC: BIGBPLPW (When making a transfer please specify that it is a donation for Ordo Iuris statutory purposes)
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