| In Principle

Special acts introduced in isolation from existing solutions distort good law. This can be seen in how the public procurement market in Poland has been affected by successive amendments to the Covid Special Act. Today a special act is unnecessary, and force majeure provisions will suffice. Instead, it would be useful to amend the provision governing claims for a change in the amount or method of payment for public contracts.

Some 70–80 extradition requests are filed every year with the Polish authorities, to turn over persons to stand trial before a foreign court or serve a punishment abroad.

The Russian Federation has not remained passive in the face of sanctions imposed on it for its invasion of Ukraine. In retaliation, Russia has imposed its own sanctions on Western countries and has announced the nationalisation of property of companies ceasing or suspending their activities in Russia. However, this has not exhausted its arsenal yet, and it may not be long before there are further actions by the Russian Federation in the international arena challenging the legality of the measures hitting the Russian economy.

After Russia threatened to expropriate foreign investors withdrawing from that country because of the war with Ukraine started by Russia and Belarus, we have seen an avalanche of commentaries encouraging wronged enterprises to prepare lawsuits against Russia in investment arbitration proceedings.

“Pharmacies for Pharmacists”: this slogan stands for a landmark amendment to the Pharmaceutical Law which has stirred heated debate. Will recent Supreme Administrative Court rulings cut through the controversy surrounding application of the amendment?

Sometimes, in financing transactions, for various reasons related to the structure of the particular transaction and the commercial arrangements of the parties, atypical assets are offered as collateral for receivables of the financing party. In such situations, the parties need to think about how to select legal instruments to implement commercial collateral arrangements. Investment participation units in a fund are an interesting asset due to the specific statutory regulations.

The purpose for stating the projected execution costs in the rules for a contest is for contestants to be aware of the contracting authority’s financial capabilities. Contestants should take this value into account when preparing their entries, or their entry will not be considered by the contest jury, the National Appeal Chamber held in its ruling of 10 January 2022 (KIO 3624/21).

The effectiveness of pursuing claims for damages for a tort (a wrongful act) often depends on whether the injured party brings an action against a sufficiently wide range of defendants who can be held jointly and severally liable for damages. This range includes those who can be found to have knowingly assisted in causing injury.

In its judgment of 10 February 2021 (case no. I CSKP 33/21), the Supreme Court of Poland considered a cassation appeal by a claimant seeking to prove that it was wronged as a creditor in a fraudulent transfer claim against a third party (governed by Art. 527 and following of the Civil Code). The Supreme Court raised important issues in this debatable decision from the point of view of the safety of participants in commerce, including creditors. Among other things, the court pointed out that the assessment of whether a creditor was harmed within the meaning of Art. 527 §2 is affected by whether the consideration obtained by the debtor was used to satisfy other creditors.

This time Mirella Lechna-Marchewka heading the firm’s Infrastructure and Public Procurement practices, discusses war as force majeure in the context of Russian aggression on Ukraine.

The special Act on Aid to Ukrainian citizens has just entered into force. We have prepared a guide explaining comprehensively the most up-to-date rules of entry, stay and work in Poland for citizens of Ukraine and other countries. Available in Polish, Ukrainian and English.
 

What rights do patients—including patients from Ukraine—have in Poland? What should healthcare facilities do when receiving patients from Ukraine? What about filling their prescriptions? And how are the charges for their healthcare services settled?