Compulsory Military Conscription as a Wartime Burden of Defence During the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794

The discussion related to the compulsory recruitment of recruits into the ranks of irregular formations of the insurgent army in 1794 have been analysed from the point of view of the history of substantive administrative law, and more specifically the formation of burdens and contributions for defence. The mobilisation system under study was of a dual nature, i.e. it was based both on a sanctioned obligation to participate in a levée en masse, i.e. to appear with arms at the request of the insurgent authorities in order to defend against the enemy, and in the subsequent stages of the uprising on the obligation to deliver recruits fulfilling certain characteristics by relevant bodies of the territorial insurgent administration. The article focuses on the insurrectionary legislation in the aforementioned scope, including the organisation of the system of compulsory recruitment and the practice of applying particular normative provisions against the background of the social and military situation in the country at that time.