Polish Private International Law Act of 4th of February, 2011 permitted in article 64 paragraph 1 the choice of law for the matters concerning the succession. According to this article the testator in the testament or in other disposition in contemplation of death is able to choose for the matters of succession the national law or the law of the state in which the place of residence is situated or the law of the state in which the place of ordinary stay (habitual residence) is situated in the moment when the legal act is performed or in the moment of the death. When the testator has the citizenship of two or more states he is able to choose one of the national law. The same solution should be applied to the situation of the multiple place of residence or the multiple place of ordinary stay (habitual residence). The testator can name the law that he chooses (for example he can define that he chooses the law of Switzerland) but he can also only determine the criterion that will be decisive for the law that will govern (for example he can define that he chooses the law of the state in which the place of his ordinary stay is situated in the moment when the choice of law is made). If the testator named the law that he chooses, the effectiveness of his choice of law depends on the fulfilment of the requirements provided in article 64 paragraph 1. The choice of national law from the moment when the choice of law was made is effective also when the testator in the moment death was not the citizen of the state. There is no need to consider separately the issue of the form of the choice of law because of the fact that the choice law can be made only in the testament or in other disposition in contemplation of death. It is sufficient to fulfil the requirements for the form of the testament or for other disposition in contemplation of death in which the choice of law clause was placed. The applicable law for the form of the testament determines the Hague Convention of 1961 (the article 66 of the Act of 2011 reminds that). According to article 66 paragraph 2 of Act of 2011 the Hague Convention of 1961 should be applied also during the determining the applicable law for the dispositions in contemplation of death other than the testament. According to polish law there is lack of special protection for the entitlements of réserve héreditaire or legitim.The choice of other law than the national law of the moment of the death, which would be applicable in the situation of no choice of law according to article 64 paragraph 2 of the Act of 2011, can decrease or annihilate the abovementioned entitlements.

Surety, one of the methods of securing a claim, is employed in international trade, however it is regulated differently in various legal systems. Therefore, it is important to establish the proper law for this legal relationship and the contract through which it is created. In the Polish legal system this is done on the basis of the Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I). If a claim is secured by surety, one may distinguish three legal relationships, namely: 1) between the creditor and the debtor, 2) between the creditor and the surety 3) between the debtor and the surety. The proper law must be found separately for each of these relationships. The proper law for the surety relationship between the creditor and the surety may be chosen by the parties of the surety contract. In the case of a lack of such choice, the law of the country of habitual residence of the surety will generally be the proper law. This law is applicable to the interpretation of the surety contract, the performance of obligations arising from that contract, the termination of these obligations, the effects of partial or full fulfillment of the contract, prescription of claims, effects of contract invalidity. The mentioned law also determines the types of claims that may be secured by surety, the scope of the surety and its duration. Outside the scope of the above mentioned proper law is the form of the surety contract and the capacity to contract. The law applicable to the evaluation of the effects of a cession of the claim secured by surety on the surety relationship must also be determined separately.

The Rome I Regulation lays dawn in Article 14 some clarifications which were not included in the 1980 Rome Convention. To avoid problems of characterisation Article 14 expressly clarifies its application to voluntary assignment and contractual subrogation. Furthermore, the concept of assignment in this Article includes not only outright transfers of claims, but also transfers of claims by way of security and pledges or other security rights over claims. Therefore, it is applicable to assignments by way of collateral as well. The concept of relationship between assignor and assignee should in principle include not only the rights and obligations arising from the contract which function as a title of the assignment but also the dead of the assignment (transfer the rights over the claim itself). To such effect, the applicable law chosen by the parties to their contractual obligations will also govern the validity and the effectiveness of the transfer of assignments in relation between them. Furthermore, Article 14 confirms the common principle of the protection of the legitimate interests of the debtor. According to this an assignment can be only invoked against the debtor under the condition of law applicable to his obligations. However, many questions seem to be not absolutely clear under the text of the Article 14. What is more, it does not contain a clear conflict-of-law-rule dealing with the effectiveness of an assignment against third parties. Under many possible solutions in this matter the law-of-the-assignee-residence approach seems to be the appropriate and adequate way of ensuring the legal certainty for all the interested parties.

The article of Dr. Justyna Balcarczyk entitled Law applicable to claims arising from infringement of the rights of personality in the Regulation on law applicable to non‑contractual obligations describes and carefully analyzes the reasons of exclusion of the conflict of laws provision as to law applicable to claims resulting from defamation and other rights of personality from the scope of Rome II Regulation. It introduces and investigates the entire legislative proceedings and points out the reasons for such a final outcome. It also presents a comparative study on the situation in the 27 Member States as regards the law applicable to non‑contractual obligations arising out of violations of privacy and rights relating to personality rights that was provided with reference to art. 30 of Rome II Regulation. It concludes with introducing the proposals that are laid down by different representatives of the private international law doctrine as to filling in the existing gap as well as it stresses the results of the current status quo.

The polish definition of the trademark is based on the fundamental function which trademarks have to fit. According to the general notion, the constitutive condition of a trademark is not an individual or imaginative feature which is important in the copyright law, but only the capability to distinguish the goods and services on account of origin. Firstly, it is important to analyse if a mark fulfills following conditions: it has to be perceivable by human sense, be uniform and self‑dependent against other goods, further it has to be capable to represent graphically. The article presents the graphical capability, which refers to presentation of the mark in the graphical way. That prerequisite was entered into Polish system pursuant to the First Council Directive 89/104/EEC of 21 December 1988 to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trademarks and Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94 of 20 December 1993 on the Community trade mark. That expression is not obvious, particularly because of the interpretation of registration of the marks perceiving in different way than by means of visual, auditory and tactile modality. According to that fact in this paper were presented the notions of the European Court of Justice and the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market concerning the so called new forms of trademarks. There are shown two different points of interpretation: the traditional and liberal one.

In cases where the provisions of the Rome I Regulation apply to reinsurance contracts there should be no doubt that the parties are free to choose the law applicable. However, in the absence of the choice of law the question arises whether the law applicable should be the law of the habitual residence of the reinsured or the law of the habitual residence of the reinsurer (Art. 4). Preference should be given to the latter solution. The justification for this is that the characteristic performance is effected by the insurer. The arguments raised in favour of the law of the habitual residence of the reinsured fail to recognize the structure of the Art. 4. They may only be considered under the escape clause of Art. 4 (3).

The text contains a translation into Polish of the new Chinese Private International Law with a brief description of the most important developments. References are made to the new rules on voluntary choice of law, as well as to the concept of characteristic performance and the obligation of the courts to establish the closest connection of a given case with a particular legal system. The statute contains also new choice of law rules on family relations and succession. It is stressed that China has introduced a relatively modern instrument on Private International Law. However, it remains to be seen whether it will contribute to the enhancement of legal certainty in commercial relations with China.