The Jurisdiction of Administrative Courts and Common Courts in the Industrial Property Cases from a Historical Perspective

Abstract

The origins of the administrative court system go back to the period of building of the system of government in the Second Republic after Poland’s partitions and are associated with the establishment of the Supreme Administrative Tribunal (SAT) in 1922. Significant changes were made to the administrative court system by the Polish Constitution of April 2, 1997, which, in Article 175(1), stipulates that administrative courts – in addition to common courts and military courts – administer justice. Administrative courts are therefore a separate part of the judiciary based on a two-instance adjudication system. In this paper, the author presents the origins of the administrative court system, including the Supreme Administrative Tribunal, the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC). The author indicates the models of the administrative court system, its essence, and the role it plays in the justice system. Then she analyzes the jurisdiction of administrative courts in industrial property cases from a historical perspective An interesting issue in this context is the existing dualism of the consideration of industrial property cases by administrative courts and by common courts. An important change that came into effect on July 1, 2020 pursuant to the Act of February 13, 2020 on amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) was the introduction of separate proceedings in the intellectual property cases and the establishment of the so-called IP courts (intellectual property courts), and the impact of these changes on the development of relations in terms of the jurisdiction of administrative courts and common courts.