ABSTRACT
The chapter deals with the issue of compensation for wrongful conviction in Poland. First, historical origins of the compensation model and current sources of law are explained. Then, legal grounds for compensation and exemptions from the state’s liability are described. In Poland compensation is awarded as a civil claim heard in criminal proceedings. The compensation covers pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage resulting from a wrongfully served penalty. Although Polish law does not contain any specific rules regarding the calculation of the compensation, the authors enlist some factors commonly invoked by the courts in practice and present the results of empirical studies regarding the amounts of compensation which are actually awarded. The biggest controversies in Polish legal writing – also highlighted by the authors – concern the hybrid nature of the procedure which is generally regulated by the Code of Criminal Procedure but also allows the application of the Code of Civil Procedure to unregulated matters. This leads to heterogenous practice in various detailed aspects of compensation proceedings. Nevertheless, the authors support the current model of awarding compensation by the criminal court due to its general effectiveness and symbolic significance.
