What You Need to Know About Enforceability Clauses

Every arbitration award, before it reaches the bailiff, must be approved by a state court - in this case, the court of appeal. This is done in proceedings for granting an enforceability clause. Articles 1213 and subsequent of the Code of Civil Procedure state that proceedings in this matter are as simplified as possible.

What the Appellate Court Examines

The matter is handled by a single judge, resolved without a hearing, and essentially considers two things.

Firstly, whether the regulations allow the case to be heard in arbitration (some categories of cases - such as alimony - can only be handled by state courts).

Secondly, whether the arbitration award contains any gross errors that would make granting the enforceability clause contrary to the fundamental principles of the legal order in our country.

If neither of these circumstances occurs, the arbitration award is approved, and the creditor can submit the case to the bailiff.

Watch the Video Interview

If you have 7 minutes, watch the interview with Prof. Dr. Hab. Jacek Gołaczyński. Professor, who is also a judge at the Wrocław Court of Appeal, explains in accessible language the proceedings for granting enforceability clauses to arbitration awards.

Complaints Filed Sporadically

Professor expressed the view that both complaints and appeals for annulment of arbitration court judgments are filed extremely rarely.

How does this confront real data? Citing information obtained from the Ministry of Justice, in 2017 and 2018, 575 applications for granting enforceability clauses to arbitration court awards were submitted to the appellate courts. Denial decisions occurred in only 33 cases, which is less than 6% of all applications. There might have been even fewer, if not for the scandal with the fake arbitration court called "Binar" from Latvia.

Defective Award Back to Arbitration

The effectiveness of arbitration is therefore very high, and appellate courts question arbitration court judgments only sporadically. However, even if they issue a denial decision, according to regulations, the matter is returned to arbitration to rectify the inaccuracies and issue a correct judgment.