The Legal 500

In February 2010 the Sentencing Guidelines Council (the SGC) issued definitive guidelines to courts on imposing appropriate sentences for corporate manslaughter and health and safety offences causing death. The SGC states that fines imposed on companies found guilty of corporate manslaughter should not fall below £500,000, while fines in respect of health and safety offences that are a significant cause of death should be at least £100,000. Crucially, the SGC declined to provide for a fixed link between the imposed fine and the turnover or profitability of the offending company.


Dr Marek Jezewski (Partner in Kochanski Zieba Rapala & Partners) is the author of a commentary to the Common Commercial Policy of the European Union to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The collaborative study edited by professor Andrzej Wrobel has been published by prestigious publisher Wolters Kluwer Poland.

We are pleased to send you brief description of the main points of the bill of the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) Act, published by the Ministry of the Economy in December, 2011, and its comparison with the current RES support system.

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Legal Aspects of Exploration and Exploitation of Shale Gas and Tight Gas in Poland by A. Wiercinski

Poland is a civil law country. The Polish legal system follows the Continental, code-based tradition. The hierarchy of universally binding law includes the Constitution, treaties, statutes, and executive regulations. Judicial authority is exercised by courts and tribunals. Courts include the Supreme Court, the common courts, administrative courts and military courts.

One issue under discussion is whether Poland should become a party to the Washington (ISCID) Convention. Because Poland is a party to more than 60 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and has recently been a party to several high-profile investment arbitration proceedings, becoming a party to the ISCID Convention is discussed among practitioners, but faces strong opposition on the government side. Apart from that, another issue is whether Poland should continue to maintain BITs at all with other countries within the EU.

Agnieszka Galazka and Marek Lazewski of LDS Lazewski Depo & Partners give advice on obtaining a preliminary injunction in Poland

Currently a contentious court case is taking place in the United States of America, in which a famous producer of luxury footwear, Christian Louboutin, demands a ban on the sale of shoes with a red sole characteristic for the French fashion house – Ives Saint Laurent.

On 12 January 2012, the procedure of registration of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) has been launched. Check for the related chances and threats for your business.

With the Act from 16 September, 2011 on the change of act – Code of Civil Procedure and some of other acts, there has been introduced a number of changes in the civil procedure. One of the most significant and meaningful changes is the harmonization of procedures of claiming default in all civil cases, regardless whether the party is an entrepreneur or a person who does not conduct business activity.