Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure
In substantive criminal law start with the structure of the offence: the statutory features (znamię), unlawfulness, guilt, and the general defences (necessary defence, necessity, error, minority). Know the limits of necessary defence - a proportionate reaction to a direct, unlawful attack - and the difference between it and the so-called excess. Learn the penalties (fine, restriction of liberty, imprisonment, and the means of probation), the statutory limits (e.g. the 15-year maximum for ordinary imprisonment, 25 years for aggravated), and the rules on attempt, complicity and concurrence of offences.
In criminal procedure, master the three-phase structure (preparatory proceedings, judicial proceedings, executive proceedings), the roles of the prosecutor and the Police in preparatory proceedings, and the catalogue of coercive measures (zatrzymanie, tymczasowe aresztowanie, dozór, poręczenie). Know the 48-hour detention rule: a detained person must be brought before a court within 48 hours, and the court decides on pre-trial detention within 24 hours of receiving the request. Learn the rights of the suspect: to be informed, to a defence lawyer, to remain silent, to interpretation.
Traps: confusing the 48-hour and 24-hour deadlines; treating detention by police as equivalent to pre-trial detention ordered by a court; assuming a prosecutor may impose pre-trial detention (only a court may). Rule of thumb: in any question about deprivation of liberty, ask who ordered it and for how long - the answer almost always turns on the judge's monopoly.