Sąd Apelacyjny w Białymstoku w latach 1949-1950
Court of Appeal in Bialystok in the years 1949-1950

Summary/Abstract: The publication deals with a short episode of the Court of Appeal in Bialystok between 1949-1950. It is part of the author's research work on the problem of reconstruction and transformation of the common judiciary during the period of building the socialist system in Poland in the first decade after World War II. Moreover, the aim of the publication is to answer an important, immediately emerging question; why the Court of Appeal in Bialystok was established at all? This was closely related to the fundamental changes that were taking place in the common judiciary in the years 1944-1954, which led to the politicization of the justice system. However, the reforms were not limited to the systemic adaptation of the judiciary to the needs of the authorities. The changes went much further, towards carrying out staff purges and eliminating from the judiciary pre-war judges who did not want to submit to political pressure and ideological indoctrination. The establishment of the Court of Appeal in Bialystok was part of the planned reorganization of the common court system, which was supposed to simplify the staff exchange process. That is why the publication also widely concerns the general changes that took place in the judiciary during this period. This approach helps to show intentions of the authorities and true reasons of establishing the Court of Appeal in Bialystok. These are presented in the decisions taken at the meetings of the Collegium of the Ministry of Justice and fragments of the reports of the Judicial Supervision Department, as quoted in the publication.

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