Czy ten, kto zwyciężył B, zwycięża tego, kogo B zwyciężył? Jedno z pytań o algorytmizację prawa w świetle europejskiej tradycji prawnej

The title refers to the Latin maxim si vinco vincentem te, vinco te ipsum which was introduced into legal reasoning by late medieval jurists and applied widely in legal debate till the 18th century. Calling competitors mentioned in the maxim by the letters A, B, C, we do obtain the following series: A > B, B > C, hence A > C. However, in legal debate the application of the maxim has been detected in a perplexed case which represents the series A > B > C but C > A. The discussion of ius commune jurists concerning the application of the maxime has some features similar to the debate in natural science. A leader in such a style of legal reason- ing was Leibniz. Consequently, this debate is perceived and presented as a test of the possibility of the algorithmization of legal reasoning in specific issues of the conflict of rights. The paper concludes with a recommendation of how this legal experience can inspire the designing of expert programs that can support legal documents in electronic format.