Stanisław Waltoś

Stanisław Marian Waltoś (born 9 February 1932) is a Polish legal scholar and academic specializing in criminal law and legal history, professor of legal sciences, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Learning, professor of the Jagiellonian University, who was Head of the Department of Criminal Proceedings at the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University from 1974, as well as the director of the Jagiellonian University Museum between 1977 and 2011.

In the 1990s he was an expert of the Council of Europe and the government of the Republic of Latvia. In 1987–1995 he was a member of the Commission for the Reform of Criminal Law in Poland. He participated in the work on Polish criminal codifications of 1997. He was the initiator of the introduction of anonymous witness and a turn state's evidence to the Polish criminal procedure. In 2000–2002 he was a member of the Legislative Council by the Prime Minister of Poland.

He authored about 400 academic papers and other works, including the regularly updated and re-issued academic textbook Proces karny: zarys systemu (Criminal Trial: The System Outline). Between 1985 and 2002 he was the editor-in-chief of the journals Archivum Iuridicum Cracoviense and Opuscula Muzealia (he took the position of editor-in-chief of the latter back in 2006). In 2006 he was elected the chairman of the Scientific Council of the Ossolineum National Institute.

Life and work Family and education He was born in 1932 in Stanisławów, the son of Elma Cecylia née Buszyńska and Tadeusz Waltoś. His younger brother Jacek Waltoś was born in 1938.

Stanisław Waltoś attended the elementary school in Jasło until sixth grade. From 1946, he attended the Władysław Jagiełło High School in Dębica, where in 1950 he passed the matriculation examination with distinction. He mentioned Adam Vetulani, and Władysław Wolter as his “great masters”, In 1974, he was appointed the Head of the Department of Criminal Proceedings at the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University. He obtained the title of associate professor in 1979, and full professor in 1987.

In the years 1985–2002 he was the editor-in-chief of the journal Archivum Iuridicum Cracoviense, as well as the editor-in-chief of Opuscula Muzealia. He took the position of editor-in-chief of the latter back in 2006.

Social and public activities From 1977 to 2011, he was the director of the Jagiellonian University Museum Collegium Maius. In this position he replaced the creator of the Museum, Karol Estreicher junior. He became the vice-chairman of the presidium of the Polish National Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). Between 2004 and 2014 he was the chairman of the Permanent Conference of Directors of Kraków Museums. He became a member of the Presidium of the Social Committee for the Restoration of Historic Monuments in Kraków. In 2006 he was chosen the chairman of the Scientific Council of the Ossolineum National Institute.

In the 1980s, he participated in the work of the Center for Civic Legislative Initiatives of the Solidarity, which was a collaborating body with the democratic opposition. As he recalled, in 1990 he was offered to join the Poland's Supreme Court and become the president of the Supreme Court's Criminal Chamber. He refused, recommending his student Zbigniew Doda, who subsequently became a judge at the Supreme Court and the president of its Criminal Chamber.

In 1994–1997 Stanisław Waltoś was the chairman of the Foundation for the Jagiellonian University Council.

He criticized the judicial reforms introduced in Poland since 2015 by Law and Justice, above all the reform of the penal code. In an interview in 2017, he stated that as a lawyer he would have wished “the independent and fairly functioning Constitutional Court restored (...), the authentic independence of judges a fact (...). The executive authority seeks to ensure its influence over the judiciary by selection of judges. (...) Thirdly, I wish the independence of prosecutors. I agree with those who say that the prosecutor should be obliged to follow orders. However, he should not be afraid of the consequences of taking his own position. And at the moment he has reason to be afraid.”

Books Co-author with Stanisław Salmonowicz and Janusz Szwaja. 5 editions until 2010.

Co-author with Kazimierz Buchała.

Co-author with Kazimierz Buchała. 3 editions until 2000. 10 editions until 2009.

Co-author with Andrzej Marek. 4 editions until 2008.

Editor.

Awards and honors Distinctions Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2011) Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1998) Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1980) from the mayor of Kraków (2005) Honoris causa degree of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (2007) “Merentibus” Medal awarded by the Senate of the Jagiellonian University (2001) Edwarda J. Wende Award awarded by the Foundation for Poland (Fundacja dla Polski) “for special achievements in the field of promoting and raising legal culture and implementation of the idea of the rule of law” (2010) Jagiellonian University Medal “Plus ratio quam vis” (2007) Gold Medal of the National Museum in Kraków (2007) Gold Medal of the University of Wrocław (2010)