Spanish Judges on Strike
“Save the rule of Law in Spain”, read a banner held by a number of unidentified judges who were demonstrating before the premises of the Spanish Supreme Court, a couple of days ago in Madrid. But save it – from whom? The demonstrators would no doubt reply: from Pedro Sánchez and his government, which has undertaken the first serious reform of the Spanish judiciary since the transition to democracy. But the reform is not the only reason why the Spanish judges have been on strike.
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One-sidedly Staffed Courts
In Poland, the new parliamentary majority elected on October 15 is confronted not only with a president brought into office by the PiS party but also with a constitutional court made up exclusively of judges elected under the aegis of PiS. Any effort to restore the rule of law in the Polish judiciary is likely to meet resistance from these veto players. The difficulties to be expected for the new majority in dealing with the rule of law deficiencies that have piled up in the Polish justice system, and especially in the Polish Constitutional Tribunal since 2010 (on these difficulties here, pp. 227 ff., and here) draw attention to an underlying problem to be witnessed not only in Poland, and not only in other countries where democracy and the rule of law have deteriorated or never existed: the problem of courts, and in particular constitutional courts, with a blatant lack of political balance in their composition.
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