Architect Design Contract Under the Polish Law

An architect design contract is one of the most important contracts in the course of the construction process. Despite this, a design contract under the Polish law is an innominate contract, governed by provisions of the work contract. Due to specificity of architects obligation to design there is sometimes formulated under the Polish doctrine a suggestion, that an architect design contract requires specific normative regulation as nominate contract or a specific kind of work contract, at least. The aim of this paper was to analyse the legal nature of an architect design contract and its linkage to the construction contract, identify provisions applicable to a design contract and some non-normative guidelines for contracting parties, as well as particular issues of architect's obligation including designer liability, and finally find out arguments for or against implementing into the Polish civil code provisions devoted to a design contract. The paper presents the legal status of an architect design contract and some other architect services under the Polish law. The Author undertook an in-depth analysis of the typological qualification of the design contract and its relation to contract on architect's supervision, as well as to the construction contract. The paper presents normative and non-normative sources of the scope and substance of the design contract, including provisions of the private and public law, standard contract terms (provided by the Chamber of Architects of Poland, as well as FIDIC patterns), as well as professional standards of architects. Finally the paper portrays the issue of architect's liability for defective performance or non-performance of the design, inappropriate instructions given in the course of supervision, as well as problems relating to overlapping liability of an architect and constructor