The Supreme Court Judgments and Decisions of Appellate Courts
An arbitration agreement encompasses not only the disputes explicitly mentioned in its substantive scope but also cases relating to these disputes (Appellate Court of Katowice (Sąd Apelacyjny w Katowicach) 1st Civil Division, Case No. V ACz 510/14 of June, 2 2014)While examining the motion to set aside the arbitral award, the state court cannot control the evidential issues of the case; particular, detailed provisions of the Polish Public Procurement Law do not form public policy; if one party does not want to resolve the dispute through the Dispute Adjudication Board, the other party can direct is claim to the arbitral tribunal (Appellate Court of Gdańsk (Sąd Apelacyjny w Gdańsku) 1st Civil Division, Case No. I ACa 550/13 of November, 28, 2013)The professional legal counsel representing a party in international arbitration is expected and required to know the legal culture and customs of the place of arbitration and any omissions caused by the lack of this knowledge cannot be cured by the invocation of the public policy clause. (Appellate Court in Gdańsk (Sąd Apelacyjny w Gdańsku) First Civil Division, Case No. I ACz 1475/13 of February, 11 2014)The Polish public policy includes not only the principles of freedom of contract and pact sunt servanda but also rules that limit the freedom of contract – such as principles of contract fairness. In practice, courts more often set aside arbitral awards due to their contradiction with the rules of public policy that limit the principle of freedom of contract than due to the violation of this very principle or the principle of pacta sunt servanda (Supreme Court (Sąd Najwyższy) Civil Chamber Decision, Case No. V CSK 45/13 of February, 13 2014)