Tomasz Gizbert-Studnicki

Tomasz Gizbert-Studnicki (born 1948) is a Polish jurist and professor of legal sciences specializing in legal theory, Head of the Department of Legal Theory at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University, legal counsel, co-founder and senior partner in the SPCG law firm, who was also an activist of the democratic opposition in the Polish People's Republic. Chairman of the Jagiellonian Center for Law, Language and Philosophy.

Biography He was born as the son of a lawyer and professor of the Jagiellonian University, Franciszek Studnicki.

In 1970 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University. There, in 1974, he obtained a doctoral degree upon a dissertation written under the supervision of Kazimierz Opałek. In 1989 he obtained the title of professor of legal sciences.

In 1978 he was a scholarship holder of Max Planck Gesellschaft in Hamburg, and in 1985−1987 he held a scholarship of Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung in Göttingen.

From 1988, he is the head of the Department of Legal Theory at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University.

On 14 December 1981, the day after the martial law was introduced in Poland, Studnicki together with Krzysztof Płeszka and Tomasz Strzelczyk published a legal opinion in which they declared that the martial law had been introduced illegally. They signed themselves as "Lawyers from the Law Faculty of the Jagiellonian University", without specifying names. The three pointed out that, according to the then-Constitution of the Polish People's Republic, the Council of State could issue decrees only during intervals between the sessions of Sejm. In December 1981 the session of the Sejm lasted, therefore the Council of State did not have the right to issue a decree on the imposition of the martial law. Shortly after the publication, the opinion has been distributed by the Polish section of Radio Free Europe.

As a result of publishing an opinion about the martial law, Gizbert-Studnicki was "one of the people traced particularly in detail by the Security Service" in the 1980s .

He published a number of articles on analytical theory of law, including the theory of interpretation and legal argumentation, the theory of legal language and the analysis of legal concepts.

He is a member of the Legal Commission of the Polish Academy of Learning. In the years 1995−1999 he was a member of the executive committee of the International Association of Legal and Social Philosophy. He was also a reviewer of several doctoral dissertations, a reviewer in several habilitation lectures and lines for the title of professor. Gizbert-Studnicki, as a counselor, specializes in company law and in transactions to acquire and merge companies, as well as in financing such transactions. He represented the SPCG's clients in several dozen transactions in this area, and as a Polish advisor he participated in several global M&A transactions.

Awards In the ranking of law firms of the Rzeczpospolita daily published in 2010, the law firm partnership T. Studnicki, K. Płeszka, Z. Ćwiąkalski and J. Górski was ranked ninth in Poland.

In 2018, Gizbert-Studnicki was among thirty-nine lawyers and lawyers awarded the title of "Lawyer of the Thirty Years" by the Polish Union of Legal Employers and the Rzeczpospolita daily.