This book was originally published in Polish (Ksie?garnia Akademicka, Krako´w
2009) under the title Prawnicze poje?cie obowia?zywania prawa stanowionego.
Krytyka niepozytywistycznej koncepcji prawa. I decided to introduce minor changes
and additions to the Polish text in order to make the content comprehensible for a
non-Polish readership. Additionally, I removed those parts that were addressed
exclusively to Polish readers.
I would like to thank S?awomira Wronkowska, Robert Alexy, Tomasz Gizbert-
Studnicki, Ulfrid Neumann, Lech Morawski and Marek Zirk-Sadowski for their
support and assistance in obtaining the finance for the translation of this book into
English and for its subsequent publication by Springer-Verlag.
I express my gratitude to Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung for a scholarship—
which made it possible for me to analyse German nonpositivism—as well as for the
financial support given for the publication of the English version of the book. I also
thank the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research (KBN) for a research grant
connected with developing the postpositivist concept of the validity of statutory law
and the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP), which granted a subsidy to cover the
costs of translating the book.
Last but not least, I greatly appreciate the help and accurate editorial guidance
provided by Anke Seyfried, who supervised the publication of this book by
Springer-Verlag.