Set-off versus arbitration agreements under the Polish law : some issues examined from the substantive and procedural civil law perspective

Streszcz. w j. ang. s. 91.

The subject matter of this article consists in relations between arbitration agreement and set-offs. Due to the controversies surrounding both institutions, the issue in question raises many doubts which are of theoretical and practical importance. The article adopts position that set-offs must be perceived both as the off-court vehicle for mutual settlement of reciprocal claims and liabilities governed mainly by the substantive civil law and a defense in the judicial proceedings before state courts subject to the law on the civil procedure. Therefore the analysis of interconnections between set-offs and arbitration agreement involves the insight from the perspective of this two – highly distinctive but at the same time closely intertwined - branches of law. The article focuses on the legal consequences of entering a valid arbitration agreement and the party’s capacity to settle one’s debt unrelated to this arbitration agreement by setting it off against its reciprocal claim covered by the arbitration agreement. The author performs a critical analysis of the current state of law including the examination of the jurisprudence stances in this regard developed by some scholars and judicial decisions of the Polish Supreme Court concerning relevant legal matters. The author proposes his final conclusions regarding the issue in question, based on theoretical assumptions adopted, explained and justified in this article. Finally, the article touches upon the possibility and purposefulness of adopting alternative regulations on the issue at hand.