Educational and Cultural Issues in the Legal Practice of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Poland in 1919-1939

The aim of this article is to present the most important activities of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Poland in matters of education and culture, one of the many examples of the legal practice of the state organ of centralised legal representation of the material and public interests of the Polish state in the period of the Second Polish Republic. The legal practice of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office included issuing legal opinions at the request of public authorities or other authorised entities, legal representation before private law or public law courts and in proceedings conducted by administration authorities, and cooperation in executing agreements in material matters of the state or of entities entrusted to the legal care of the Office. In cases concerning education and culture, the National Public Prosecutor’s Office undertook all types of official activities. This study, based on an analysis of the annual reports of the President of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office, jurisprudence and court rulings issued on the initiative of the Office, aims to show that the activity of the Office contributed to the thorough subjugation of the education system in Poland, which was reborn after the period of partitions and to the protection of cultural heritage. The study also intends to show that the Office’s position in the system of the Polish state as well as the competences and reliability of the Office’s attorneys contributed to the achievement of its effects (which were very much beneficial for the Polish state).