SONATINA 10 Grant for WSB University. Legal Scholar Receives Prestigious Grant

Technical standards determine whether a product is safe and who will be held liable if damage occurs. These standards will be the subject of research conducted by Dr Jakub Błażej Zwierzchowski from the Department of Law and Administration at WSB University, who has been awarded a SONATINA 10 grant from the National Science Centre.

The project, entitled “The Position and Function of Technical Standards in the Private Law of China and Poland: A Comparative Analysis”, will be carried out at WSB University. The researcher will examine how Polish and Chinese courts refer to technical standards when assessing whether a product was defective, whether a manufacturer exercised due care and who should compensate for the damage.

Technical standards facilitate the exchange of goods and enable manufacturers to operate in many countries simultaneously. Their significance increasingly extends beyond technology and into court disputes. The issue is that the same standard may have a different meaning in different legal systems. In the European Union, it is generally voluntary in nature, although in practice it carries considerable weight in assessing a product’s compliance with the law. In China, following the reform of the standardisation system in 2018 and the entry into force of the Civil Code in 2020, technical standards were explicitly linked to private law, and courts commonly use them when determining the content of an obligation and liability.

The research will involve three stages: an analysis of Chinese legislation, case law and literature; subsequently, Polish and EU sources; and finally, a comparison of the two systems. An integral part of the project will be a research fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, one of the world’s leading centres for comparative private law. The results are to be published in international academic journals.

Dr Jakub Błażej Zwierzchowski is an Assistant Professor at WSB University and holds a PhD in legal sciences. He graduated in law and also completed an LL.M. in Comparative Law at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing. He has held scholarships from the Chinese Scholarship Council, the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange, DAAD and the Max Planck Society. His research focuses on comparative private law, Chinese civil law, and the intersection of private law and sustainable development, including the impact of ESG regulations on global value chains.