08 January 2024
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. Continue reading >>
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13 May 2022
Drifting Case-law on Judicial Independence
In a preliminary ruling of 29 March 2022, in case C-132/20 Getin Noble Bank, the CJEU answered questions on judicial independence of judges appointed under an undemocratic regime and of judges appointed before 2018 in an allegedly flawed process. Taking a highly formalistic approach, the Court seeks to preserve judicial dialogue between itself and the national judges – at the expense of the rule of law and judicial independence. Continue reading >>
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