Interview with Marek Furtek

In Poland, an average of 200 commercial disputes a year are dealt with by the Court of Arbitration at the Polish Chamber of Commerce (CA PCC). Though arbitration enables time and money to be saved, common courts still handle more cases, which they are unable to resolve quickly because of the amount of motions filed. To increase the popularity of amicably resolving disputes, the CA PCC has for many years been carrying out projects addressed to young legal adepts. It plans to establish cooperation with the majority of academic centres.

“In terms of the number of cases and their value, the Court of Arbitration continues to maintain its leading position of about 200 cases a year, with a litigation value of between 500 million and 1 billion zlotys”, says Marek Furtek, president of the Court of Arbitration at the Polish Chamber of Commerce, in conversation with the Newseria Biznes agency.

The Court of Arbitration at the PCC is the biggest court of arbitration in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2015 a total of 300 cases were dealt with by the court, and the total value of the subjects of dispute of cases resolved doubled in comparison with 2014, exceeding PLN 500 million. The most cases – 30 to 40 per cent – were generated by the construction industry, but there were also many disputes concerning mergers and acquisitions.

“We would prefer companies to make use of the Court of Arbitration as often as possible, but we realise that this cannot be a major alternative to the general judicial system in a constitutional sense”, says Furtek. “It will always be an institution which merely supplements the judiciary, strictly speaking”.

It is estimated that a total of about 400 cases a year reach the two biggest courts of arbitration in Poland (at the PCC, and the Court of Arbitration at the Lewiatan Confederation). By way of comparison, in 2015 over 1.7 million economic cases were referred to common courts.

“We’d like to inspire the development of academic research on arbitration”, says Marek Furtek. “Taking part in the conferences we organise are the most outstanding Polish representatives of private law science. We want to popularise arbitration and urge young people to take an interest in it”.

The Court of Arbitration at the PCC has been conducting educational activities for many years. It organises the Young Arbitration Forum, which enables meetings to be held with authorities on arbitration and young adepts in law to acquire practical skills. In addition, scientific conferences have been held in academic cities since 2012.

“The cycle started with a conference organised with the University of Silesia in Katowice”, says the president of the Court of Arbitration at the Polish Chamber of Commerce. “In 2013, a conference was organised with the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. This was followed by a conference jointly organised with the University of Łódź. This year, on 18 November in Wrocław, a conference will be held which is jointly organised with the University of Wrocław.

Its subject will be ‘Arbitrators, their position and their responsibility’”. The president emphasises that invitations have been sent out not only to attorneys, academic institutes and students, but also to young people and all those wishing to acquaint themselves with alternative dispute resolution methods.

“We also want to cooperate with all university centres”, says Marek Furtek. “We will also be addressing such proposals to organise or jointly organise conferences to the University of Warsaw, the University of Poznań and the University of Lublin”.