The “Hector” Project is aimed to provide a proper venue for academic discussion on a wide range of topics on legal heritage: from transforming fundamental / universal values into norms, through the consolidation of the latter ones into artifacts, to their presence in the present as well as their role in the future.

The main goal of the research platform – the discussion – makes “Hector” flexible, open and inclusive. The Coordination Committee that had initiated the Platform will only create a framework for further actions. “Hector” is therefore a communication platform that will facilitate the formation of new research teams and projects. Referring to the Latin neologism, the Project’s intention is to establish a surcularium, wherein the ideas of new projects will be incubated, while those projects already initiated will be a subject matter of further discussion and constructive criticism. On the basis of the relationship between ideas, norms and artifacts, as indicated by the aforementioned features of the proposed surcularium, an initial framework of seminars and workshops has been drafted. The proposal is partially determined by already established international cooperation partnerships and by the emerging research teams. While the topics that are to be found there will be successfully dealt with on the Platform, the dynamics of participants’ interest may result in giving priority to other issues. That flexibility and openness of the Platform is one of its most important features.

The main themes of the Platform will be to find answers to following queries : how legal and social norms existed in the past, how these were applied and passed on in the past cultures and societies, how values were transformed into norms, how the latter ones have been or might be turned into heritage relevant for today. Another critical issue will be the question how the heritage as such could or should be protected by the present norms. The core area of the “Hector” Project’s interest is Central and Eastern Europe, its legal heritage (understood both as an immanent and emergent phenomenon), both seen, however, against a broad historical and cultural background. The main areas of interest (the list of which should not be treated as final) are as follows:

1. The Fundamentals: significant notions and ideas (eg. justice, liberty) comprehended as abstract terms filled with historical content, which are available for research through various academic disciplines; the overall discussion among the latter ones' representatives contribute to better understanding of the Fundamentals' meaning; the modes of expression of those Fundamentals (including art, literature, legal and political discourses, etc.); the historically changing attitudes towards them; also such questions as which of the past understandings of those Fundamentals are of special importance for the present, and how they should be preserved.

2. The Continuity/Discontinuity of Normative Orders: crucial research area not only for social and legal history, but also for the study of identities of people and of societies of Central and Eastern Europe (and of similar regions). The research on these topics should include the questions of emergence, inflow, circulation and disappearance of legal traditions, as well as thoughtless transfers and prudent adaptations of organizational standards, and how particular societies were attempting to overcome or reduce the impact of historical processes or catastrophes (political disintegration, totalitarianism, etc.).

3. The Artifacts: the means and media which serve(d) to transfer norms and values in the past, and between the past and the present, including manuscripts, monuments, works of art, which need to be inventoried, classified, studied, protected, and promoted.

4. The Institutions: as specific incarnations of conglomerated norms and values, institutions of constitutional (eg. state, kingship), legal (eg. court, contract), or social (eg. family, village) character constitute a fundamental element of social order of every epoch. The Platform will focus on the heritage of institutions of Central and Eastern Europe, especially the universities, and the Jagiellonian University in particular.

The underlying idea of the Platform is the phronetic attitude towards heritage of norms, and their incarnations in culture(s), where heritage is understood both as an immanent bulk of ideas, historical facts and artifacts, as well as set of emergent narratives which serve to interpret the past for the sake of its present or future use. Such an attitude not only aims at providing us with so called “true” theory (which positivism treated as final rationale of scholarly activity), but also tends to “judge” the elements of inherited cultural property in order to obtain practical wisdom (Aristotle: phronesis, Cicero: prudence), so that, as proposed by Frederic Maitland, social practice (present and future) could benefit from this judgment. That is why the ultimate objective of the Platform is to revive and moderate debate on issues of universal importance, including difficult questions, eg.:

How to protect heritage of legal culture(s) from political appropriation?
Should the rule of law be preferred over the justice?
Is it necessary for the rule of law to degenerate into bureaucratic formalism?
Should the acquisition of property in the artifacts that had been part of plundered cultural heritage be ruled out?
These questions result in answers that are directly applicable in practice or that enhance better understanding of past, present and future.

The “Hector” is, in principle, not only interdisciplinary but also transdisciplinary in nature, as it has been founded around concepts that go beyond the boundaries of disciplines and even fields of science, the optimal examination of which is possible only with the use of various domain methodologies (eg. historical, sociological, political, jurisprudential, philosophical).

Its international character is embedded in its essence, with an emphasis on deepening first of all ties with the circle that is close to us historically, geographically and culturally (Central and Eastern Europe plus Germany). The collaborators affiliated in several states of the region will participate: from Poland, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Austria and Slovakia. Other countries are also represented by single scholars: Belgium, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, USA.

The innovativeness of the platform consists in: 1) planning it as an open project incubator, 2) broad consideration of the issues of digital humanities, 3) open nature of the undertaking.

The Coordination Committee intends to achieve the integration goal of the Jagiellonian University's mission by involving students and Ph.D. students, as well as secondary school pupils as recipients of at least some of the content. Depending on the particular themes of seminars and workshops, also other educational and cultural entities such as secondary schools and museums the Platform might be invited.