Pożegnanie uczonego i wychowawcy młodzieży (mowa pogrzebowa)

On the 13th of February 2006 there took place in Cracow the ceremony of burying Professor Stanisław Płaza, an outstanding historian of Polish law, professor of the Jagiellonian University, responsible for educating many generations of lawyers. Professor Płaza was born on the 8th of November 1927 in the peasant family in Jarosławice, in the eastern marches. Upon the outbreak of World War II he and his family were deported to Siberia by the Soviet authorities. He returned to Poland in 1945 and in 1949 he passed his high school finals in the Jan Sobieski Memorial Secondary School in Cracow. In 1954 he graduated from the Law Faculty of the Jagiellonian University. Later, for some time he was employed in the State Archive, which was a significant  experience in his career. Since 1957 he was permanently bound with the University. Among his rich scholarly achievements there is detectable the research concerned with the peasant law. In this area he published valuable court record books. He laid a considerable emphasis on the research relating to the constitutional system of the 16th and 17th century Poland. He investigated inter alia the legal issues of interregna and nobiliary Seymiks. Since he was a determined advocate of comparative research he compiled a multivolumed synthesis of Polish legal history as set against the background of European developments. He was famous for his research of source-book and bibliography type. He did his teaching with enormous energy and sympathy. He supervised a considerable number of LLM and LLD alumni. He was professionally active until the end of his days. He will stay in our hearts as an individual distinguished by his enormous knowledge, great heart, kindness and sympathy.