The Principle of necessitas frangit legem in the Activity and Thought of Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro

Abstract

The article presents the attitude of Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro – a key statesman and political writer in the 17^th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – toward the principle of necessitas frangit legem. At the beginning, the intellectual sources of his understanding of this principle are discussed. Two groups are referenced: one referring to the Christian legal view on necessitas and the other connected with the question of the reason of state. Then four aspects of Fredro’s thought and political activity are analyzed. Firstly, his reference to necessitas treated as the justification of the amendment of the old law. Secondly, various examples of his flexible attitude toward law. All of them express Fredro’s opinion on the key role of prudence in the process of applying law. Thirdly, the question of the infringement of law is discussed by referring to his concept of the exception from law and his reaction to Siciński’s veto. Fourthly, it is pointed how in the context of the political conflict during the 1660s Fredro adopted a much stricter attitude toward observing the law. In the end, the conclusions state that Fredro’s case is a good example of the dilemma of Polish political thought and practice of how to combine effective governance with the respect for constitutional forms.