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Recognition of Foreign Judgments

The rules of recognizing judgments of foreign courts are regulated by many legal cats, both international (mostly the Hague conventions, the 1965 Washington one and the 1980 European one), and Polish (the constitution, the codes).

The problem of judgments of foreign courts, though, started to increase after Poland joined EU, which lead to mass migrations and rapid development of international trade. In 2012 the rules regulating validity of judgments across European Union were revised. Thanks to that, judgments relating to the civil law also apply outside the country where they were decreed.

For a judgment to have legal force, it has to be recognized. Therefore a judgment decreed by a court of a European Union member state is regulated by the EU directives. When it comes to courts outside EU, the regulations of the code of civil procedure apply.

The standardizations created are there to provide a faster flow of judgments between countries. It also means that documents issued are not subject to substantive evaluation and only have to be recognized. A judgment’s legal power also has to be declared and its feasibility has to be declared.

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Judgments don’t get recognized in few specific cases

Recognition of a judgment is against the order of law applicable in the particular country.

The judgment hasn’t reached the defendant soon enough to allow them to get their defense prepared.

Legal judgments decreed between the same parties in individual countries are incompatible.

If there’s already been a judgment decreed on the same topic in another country.

Recognizing a Judgment

Recognizing a Judgment

A recognized judgment applies in every country. In order to refer to a judgment decreed in another country, its copy has to be provided together with an attestation of a parent court in regard to its feasibility.

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The process of recognizing a judgment itself requires the following documents:

– an official copy of the judgment,

– a document confirming validity of the judgment,

– the above documents translated to Polish.

Everyone having their benefit in it is entitled to submit a request for recognizing the judgment together with the required documents. When it comes to an intent of stating invalidity, the procedures are analogous.