10 Years of Application of the Polish Act on Private International Law of 2011

Abstract

The article presents the Polish courts’ application of the national Private International Law Act 2011 (PIL 2011) during the 10 years it has been in force. The analysis of jurisprudence is supplemented with observations on recent developments in Polish doctrine. The authors discuss correct and erroneous solutions adopted by courts, which are illustrated by provided examples of judgments regarding diverse legal issues. The article deals with mistakes consisting in ignoring the need to search for the applicable law. It also concerns, on the one hand, faulty perceptions and applications of newly introduced instruments (such as the so-called informative provisions or new conflict rules concerning issues that have not been regulated before in the conflictof- laws sphere) or of instruments shaped differently than in the past (such as renvoi). On the other hand, it considers problems that emerged in relation to mechanisms that are well known to Polish judges (such as the public policy exception). Challenges relating to delimiting PIL 2011 from other sources of PIL are also discussed.