The article presents the profile and scholarly achievements of Prof. Tomasz Pajor (1948-2012), an eminent specialist in civil law, private international law, European and consumer law. Throughout his career, he was affiliated with the University of Łódź , where he served as the Head of the Department of Civil Law. His works, including his habilitation thesis on tort liability , were pivotal for Polish legal doctrine. He was a member of prestigious international legal associations and a respected academic.

The European Commission presented a proposal of the Regulation on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions and authentic instruments in matters of succession and the creation of a European Certificate of Succession (COM 2009/154). Article 1 paragraph 3 letter j) of the proposed Regulation states that the nature of rights in rem relating to property and publicising these rights is excluded from the scope of the Regulation. Additionaly recital 10 of the proposed Regulation states that the Regulation should cover the method of acquiring a right in rem in respect of tangible or intangible property as provided for in the law governing the succession, the exhaustive list (“numerus clausus” ) of rights in rem which may exist under the national law of the Member States, which is, in principle, governed by the lex rei sitae, should be included in the national rules governing conflict of laws. However the publication of these rights and effects of entry or failure to make an entry into the register should be governed by the law of the Mamber State where the subject of property is located. This provision tries to make a distinction between the scope of application of the laws governing the rights in rem and the succession. The proposed Regulation is based on the assumtion that the law governing the succession would be applicable also to the acquisition of the rights in rem. The problem aries if the law of the Mamber State where this right should be enter into the register does not know such right in rem. The Belgien Presidency proposed that in such a case the Member State should not be obliged to recognise such right in rem but this right might be transformed into another, adequate right in rem that is known to the national law of this Member State. The proposal is analysed in the article. The author gives some examples which show that mentioned transformation of the right in rem into another one is not always easy and possible. Other question is that the proposed Regulation shell regulate which law is decisive if the effect of entry into the register is different in the law of the Member State which governs the succession and the law of the Member State where the subject of property is located. The European Parliament proposed to solve this problem by adding a new Article 20a into the proposed Regulation. According to Article 20a the law of the Member State where the subject of property is located should be decisive if the entry into the register is constitutive. This proposal might not be however sufficient in order to solve mentioned problem.

A guarantee (particularly a bank guarantee) is commonly utilized in international trade as a personal security for a claim. Many practical matters connected with its use have been regulated in the Uniform Rules for Demand Guarantees (last version is from 2010) prepared by the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. These rules are frequently applied in professional, commercial trade and they also indirectly indicate the proper law for matters, which they do not regulate. In other cases it is necessary to establish the law proper for guarantees. Currently this is most often done on the basis of the Rome I Regulation. In Poland, the proper law concerning the capability of parties to conclude a guarantee agreement is determined by the Private International Law Act 2011. According to the Rome I Regulation it is possible to choose a proper law for guarantee agreements. If no choice was made, it is generally the law of the country of guarantor’s habitual residence. If, however, the guarantee is more closely connected with the law of a different country, that law is to be applied. Regardless of the proper law for the guarantee it is also necessary to determine the proper law for other legal issues which appear in the background of the guarantee, e.g. confirmation of guarantee, counter -guarantee, indirect guarantee. The proper law for the guarantee determines the admissibility, content and legal nature of the agreement. It also determines the admissibility of assigning the rights derived from such an agreement and the expiry of the legal relation created by the guarantee agreement.

The text deals with the highly controversial problem of the interface between state proceedings and the more party autonomy — oriented field of arbitration. First, the current legislative situation is presented, especially the relationship between uniform acts such as Brussels I and the New York Convention on Arbitration of 1958. Specifically, the author deals with the extent of the exclusion of arbitration laid down in art. 1 S. 2 d) of Brussels I Regulation. The question is being raised whether a state court is competent under the Regulation to assess the validity of an arbitration agreement, and, the clause being declared null and void, to judge on the merits within the Regulation framework. A discussion follows on problems arising as to the influence state courts are entitled to exercise on other proceedings in order to “protect” arbitration taking place in their own country, e.g. in the form of anti - suit injunctions. Finally, there follows a discussion of possible solutions on EU level to deal with the presented problems, especially, whether amendments should be made to Brussels I to make the system work more effectively without hampering the development of arbitration on our continent.

Although the institution of registered partnership is unknown to the Polish family law, nevertheless regarding the increasing mobility of population it must be taken into account that the situation of registered partners may depend on the judgement issued by a Polish court or on the proper proceeding of Polish notary, advocate, chamber counsel or bank worker. Therefore it is justified to essay to find in Polish private international law the conflict rule indicating the law applicable to patrimonial issues related to registered partnership. The main difficulty associated with this task results from the fact that there is no explicit regulation concerning this subject among conflict of law provisions operative in Poland. Thus the following ways to find the law applicable to the patrimonial relations between registered partners deserve consideration: a) extension — on the ground of private international law — of the notion of marriage to registered partnership b) repartition of different types of registered partnership between two categories known to Polish private international law, in particular: ‘marriage’ and ‘contractual obligation’, according as a given model of registered partnership is characterized by the domination of institutional either contractual element c) application of the conflict rules concerning marriage and spouses by means of analogy d) equation — on the ground of private international law — of the registered partner with concubinage. However, the well -founded reasons prevail to reject these solutions and to apply the article 67 of the Act of 4 February 2011 — Private International Law, whereupon the conflict rule determining the law applicable to registered partnership (including patrimonial relations between partners) drawn from the content of the said provision should operate with the criterion leading to the state, in name of which acted the authority who proceeded the registration of union. Nevertheless certain patrimonial issues, in particular the succession cases and the questions of alimentation between partners should be considered according to the law indicated by the conflict rules concerning these matters.

The article says about the limitation of actions arising out of carriage under the regulation of the Convention on the contract for international carriage of goods by Road (CMR) [further called CMR or Convention]. The rules of CMR have a direct application in every of the 55 countries — parts of the Convention and a civil character. The Convention has been signed in two authentic languages — English and French, but there are official translations to the languages of parts of the Convention. As the author points out, there are different rules of interpretation of the international legal rules and the national legal rules. The Convention should be interpreted accordingly to the interpretation rules specified in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Hence, the interpretation should be made in a good faith, accordingly to a typical meaning of words and with the consideration of the context and the purpose of an interpreted legal act. The Convention should be applied homogeneously in every country. The limitation of an action causes the negative effect to the individuals and legal entities, who has not used their rights for a specific period of time. Although the limitation of an action is known in most of the legal systems, it is not an identical legal institution. In most legal systems it is an institution of a substantive law, but in some systems, it is regulated under the laws of procedure. There are three different types of the effect caused by the limitation of an action, that are: an expiration of the right and the action, only an expiration of the action and the right to exercise a plea of limitation of the right of action. It is prohibited to use national legal rules to the aspects regulated under the Convention. The institution of limitation of an action is regulated in art. 32 CMR, but it is not an exhaustive rule. The suspension and the break of the period of limitation of actions are regulated by the law at the seat of the litigation. Other aspects of the limitation of actions, which are not specified in CMR, are regulated by the national legal rules. The catalogue of the situations when the Convention can be applied is not closed. Author notices that the Convention is applied to the wide range of cases, even slightly connected with the international carriage of goods by road and it is possible that the conflict of law occurs. The period of limitation of actions arising out of carriage under the Convention shall be one year, but in case of willful misconduct the period of limitation shall be three years. There are three different moments from which this period shall begin to run, depending on what has happened. The day on which the period of limitation begins to run shall not be included in the period. Sundays and national holidays are included instead. Other aspects are regulated by national rules. A written claim is voluntary and shall suspend the period of limitation until such date as the carrier rejects the claim by notification in writing and returns the documents attached thereto. There is a problem of understanding the meaning of “written form”, because there is no uniform meaning of it. Author suggests that the Convention includes an autonomic meaning of the written form. Further problem is to setting of the moment of the receipt of the claim. There’s no uniform practice. Because of that, there is a need to use an appropriate, applicable national rules. Author points out that the Convention has a different content in English and French. The meaning of the art. 32 point 4 CMR in French leads to conclusion that the right of an action expires. But the same article in English says that the right of an action, which has become barred by lapse of time, may not be exercised by the way of counterclaim or set -off. The conclusion from English version it that the limitation of an action cannot be used as a mean of defense but there are no barriers to the actions for limited pretensions in other legal proceedings. The interpretation of art. 32 point 4 CMR under the rules of an international interpretation leads to the conclusion that the time -barred claims cannot be forcibly claimed.

The theme of articles is to determine the law applicable to the industrial cooperation agreement according to the Rome Convention and the Rome I Regulation in the absence of an agreed choice of law. This issue is of great importance in practice, because such agreements are often concluded in international trade. This article applies to industrial co -operation agreements and the most common in practice, its subtypes, such as agreement on cooperative production on orders, contracts for the supply of components for a prior provision of co -operative partner, product refining agreements, agreements on co -production agreements, co -operative company. In order to determine the applicable law, at the outset, made a brief characterization of each of these agreements. Was also studied the possibility of applying to each agreements the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Also analyzed, which contracts can be classified as a contract of sale by Regulation Rome I. For contracts mixed, connecting elements of typical and atypical contracts, to determine the applicable law, was used the collision absorption method or the concept of fragmentation of the contract in such way that its particular parties shall by governed by the other law. For each of the agreements was made an attempt to determine to separate the characteristic performance. If it was impossible to determine, used the closest connection principle.

The Poznań Court of Appeal on January 10, 2006 (I ACa 1063/05) deliberated on a debt assignment case. It was determined that the assignment of a specific claim is always governed by the law applicable to that claim. In a dispute concerning the sale of technical carbon black between the Polish company Konimpex sp. z o.o., the Russian OAO Techuglerod, and the Polish Chemical Worldwide Business sp. z o.o., the key issue was the effectiveness of the assignment. The 2003 sales contract included a clause prohibiting assignment without the other party's written consent. The Court ruled that Russian law was applicable, in accordance with the Agreement between Poland and the Russian Federation on Legal Assistance. Russian law requires the debtor's consent for assignment if stipulated in the contract. The defendant company did not provide written consent for the assignment. The Court of Appeal upheld that the plaintiff did not validly acquire the claim.

The gloss describes the question of effectiveness of the assignment against the debtor on the background of Polish private international law. Polish act on private international law of 1965 did not contained a conflict -of -law rule on voluntary assignment. The Court of Appeal in Poznań has included the question of effectiveness of the assignment to another issue, i.e. the transfer of claim, whereas art. 12 (2) of the Rome Convention,similar to art. 14 (2) Rome I Regulation’s rule, distinguishes one question from another. Article 12 (2) of Rome Convention provided: „the law governing the right to which the assignment relates shall determine its assignability, the relationship between the assignee and the debtor, conditions under which the assignment can be invoked against the debtor and any question whether the debtor’s obligations have been discharged”. In those situations it is obvious, that such the issue is not synonymous with the transfer of claim and the question of effectiveness of the assignment against the debtor could be governed by different law.

This article presents the Polish Private International Law of February 4, 2011, which governs the applicability of law to private legal relationships connected with more than one state. It outlines general provisions including the determination of applicable law for individuals with multiple nationalities or unknown nationality. The law also covers legal capacity, representation, contractual and non-contractual obligations, property law, intellectual property, family matters (marriage, parent-child relations, adoption, guardianship), and inheritance. Key principles include the closest connection rule and public policy exceptions. The text also details amendments to various existing Polish laws.