Poland is a country that can boast a rich history and culture, and in the world we stand out above all for two works of art that are considered to be museum objects of the “zero” class. The first is the Gothic Veit Stoss Altar in the St. Mary’s Church in Kraków, and the second is the Renaissance portrait of Leonardo da Vinci “Lady with an Ermine”. These works, although created at a similar time, constitute two different faces of art – sacred and secular – and at the same time symbols of Polish cultural heritage. My presentation today will be devoted to the exceptional Czartoryski collection which this painting is a part of. I would like to draw particular attention to the specific legal situation of this art collection, which for decades has stirred controversy both in Poland and abroad.
Civil law is a set of norms concerning private law relationships that permeate the economic life of every society. Civil law consists of, on the one hand, absolutely binding norms that apply regardless of the situation, which means that there is no possibility of legally circumventing them, and on the other hand, relatively binding norms, the application of which can be excluded by means of an appropriate contractual clause or provision of a model contract. In addition, there are certain general principles of civil law that give meaning to individual norms.
What happens when these principles conflict? Resolving such a case requires a complex analysis. Recently, such an analysis was carried out by our lawyers’ team in the context of the cap-on liability clause known to Common Law legal systems, which limits ex contractu liability for damages to the amount accepted by the parties to the contract. Is it possible to translate it into a Polish law contract? How does it relate to the principle of freedom of contract and the principles of liability for damages? What does contractual liability look like in Polish law and how far can the parties to the contract go in modifying it? In this entry, we share with you our answer to this question based on the provisions of the Act of 23 April 1964, the Civil Code (Journal of Laws of 2024, item 1061, as amended; hereinafter referred to as the Civil Code or CC) and other legal acts.
The Polish legal system has recently undergone a number of significant changes, the most recent of which concern the Code of Civil Procedure. A few years ago, conducting an online hearing was impossible. Although the regulations allowed videoconferencing, it was limited to connections between courts, mainly used for questioning witnesses. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected these regulations, leading to the introduction of the possibility of remote participation in hearings. Thanks to the amendment of the regulations in March 2020, remote hearings have become a reality, initially as a temporary solution, aimed at counteracting the effects of the pandemic.
Seeing the effectiveness and convenience of remote hearings, the legislator decided to permanently introduce this form to the Code of Civil Procedure. On March 14, 2024, an amendment came into force, which not only consolidates remote hearings as a standard procedure, but also introduces a number of other innovations. The aim of these changes is to streamline and accelerate civil proceedings, so that the justice system is more effective and accessible to citizens and entrepreneurs.
Artificial intelligence is an invention that is definitely changing the world. One of the most interesting areas of its use is the medical industry. Soon, all pharmaceuticals discovered and produced using AI will be available in pharmacies. This industry is also associated with the use of artificial intelligence for medical products. On the one hand, it is about using it for clinical trials on a specific product, i.e. taking advantage of the AI program to introduce this product to the market faster. On the other hand, it is about authorizing a specific medical product whose operation will be based on the use of AI.
The government’s draft law on artificial intelligence systems “serves to apply Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 on the establishment of harmonised rules on artificial intelligence [1]“, also known as the AI Act . This document defines the principles of supervision of the market of artificial intelligence systems and the AI model and covers the organisation of supervision, the conditions for accreditation of conformity assessment bodies, incident reporting and the imposition of administrative penalties for the use of prohibited practices under Article 5 of the European Regulation on artificial intelligence. Moreover, this draft is to be applied, among others, to persons located in the EU affected by AI, importers and distributors of AI systems, entities using AI systems that are established or located in the Union, and suppliers introducing AI systems to the market or putting them into service [2]. Additionally, the act provides for the creation of the Office of the Commission for the Development and Security of Artificial Intelligence, which is a state legal person [3].
What is the Artificial Intelligence Development and Security Commission?
