China and Hong Kong: The One Country, Two Systems Principle and Its Practical Implications for Polish Civil Courts

This article seeks to examine the landmark decision of the Supreme Court of Poland of 11 October 2013 (ref. no. I CSK 451/12), which is the first ruling of Poland’s highest civil court on the applicability of treaties between Poland and China to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The article focuses on that part of the Court’s reasoning which discusses the principles and rules of international law. It is argued that despite some flaws in the Court’s reasoning, its overall conclusion was correct: the 1987 Sino-Polish Agreement on legal assistance in civil and criminal cases does not apply to Hong Kong.