24 March 2025
Restoring Polish Judicial Independence
Restoring the Polish rule of law without doing more damage to it is a vexing challenge. Building Back Better becomes even more complex when the current president – part of the autocratic Law and Justice (PiS) party, which lost the previous elections – refuses to sign off on any law. Yet few would have expected the Venice Commission (VC), of all institutions, to make things even more complicated. This contribution first tracks the state of play in Poland following the VC Opinions of October 2024 and December 2024. Given the central role of the VC’s thinking in Polish efforts to find a way out, it then goes on to critique the Opinions on legal and strategic grounds before proposing an alternative route. Continue reading >>
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03 January 2025
Can the Rule of Law Be Restored by Violating Its Principles?
This post concerns one of the crucial problems of transitional constitutionalism after a period of democratic and rule of law backsliding: how to restore the principle of the rule of law? Are there circumstances when, during this restoration, the principles of the rule of law are allowed to be violated? For instance, when the violation of the rule of law was an important tool to exercise arbitrary power, as was the case before the 1989-1990 East-Central European democratic transitions? Continue reading >>
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29 April 2024
Rebuilding the Rule of Law
The victory of the opposition in the parliamentary elections in Poland in 2023 followed by the formation of a coalition government paved the way for the rebuilding of the rule of law after a period of its systematic violation during the 8-year rule of PiS. The first four months of the new government have already shown that this process will not be easy. However, certain actions aimed at rebuilding the violated standards have already been taken. Three goals and values should be among the guiding principles in the process of rebuilding the rule of law in Poland: legalism, legal certainty, and building citizens' trust in public institutions. Continue reading >>
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13 October 2023
The Great Yes or the Great No
As we gear up for the most consequential elections in Poland since 1989, the situation on the ground after 8 years of the paranoid polarizing and no-holds-barred politics, forces all those concerned about the future, to ask where Poland is heading. On 14 October 2023, we must understand that POLEXIT is much more than a mere dispute over institutions, rule of law, judicial independence, etc. What is at stake now is incomparably greater. It is the defense of a certain way of life, values and belonging to a community of law and values, a civic Poland in Europe and Europe in civic Poland and finally of “Me and You” as part of Europe. Continue reading >>
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12 October 2023
The Election’s Aftermath
Reenergized by the former liberal prime minister and EUCO president Donald Tusk, Poland’s democratic forces are well positioned to deliver a stunning upset on Sunday. If this indeed materializes, we must resist the temptation to think of the critical post-election days and weeks as a regular democratic transfer of power. Instead, what will happen should be understood as an inherently perilous collapse of an authoritarian regime. Several legal and constitutional provisions are capable of being weaponized by the ruling PiS party to thwart the peaceful transfer of power. Continue reading >>
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20 September 2023
Poland’s Elections: Free, perhaps, but not Fair
Poland’s upcoming parliamentary elections will be the country’s most important vote since the historic elections of 1989. Indeed, the momentous character of the elections might be the only thing upon which the governing PiS (Law and Justice) party and the opposition might agree. If the elections in October were fair, PiS’ defeat might be plausible though by no means certain. Yet, the preceding sentence identifies a condition we already know will not occur. In this analysis, I map the multiple ways in which the system has been rigged in favour of the incumbents. While I will only describe the most striking aspects of this unfairness, they all form parts of a system and thus should not be looked at in isolation. Kaczyński is a shrewd politician. There’s a method to his (apparent) madness. For the opposition to win is thus a Herculean task. Herculeses do appear in politics – but not that often. Continue reading >>
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25 May 2023
Media Pluralism in KRRiT-ical Condition
In April 2023, the Polish National Broadcasting Council, the so-called KRRiT, imposed a high fine on an indipendent media outlet. It was not the first fine of this kind to independent media organisations. The growing number of KRRiT decisions targeting independent media in Poland is the result of the political nature of the procedure for appointing members of the KRRiT and the broad, unclear legal basis for imposing fines. Since 2005, the decisive voice in the composition of the KRRiT was that of the ruling political majority. This blogpost analyzes and criticizes the vague legal framework for KRRiT and the institution's apparent political capture in recent years. Continue reading >>11 November 2022
#DefendingTheDefenders – Episode 1: Poland
We Need to Talk About the Rule of Law is back for a second season that focuses on the impact of rule of law erosions on attorneys. In the first episode, we talk to MIKOŁAJ PIETRZAK. He is an attorney and the Dean of the Warsaw Bar Association, which is the oldest professional legal association in Poland and the administrative association of attorneys in Warsaw. Continue reading >>
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14 February 2022
VerfassungsPod: EU v. Polen
Der Konflikt zwischen der EU und Polen ist bereits viel weiter eskaliert, als man bis vor kurzem für vorstellbar gehalten hätte. Und immer noch ist kein Ende in Sicht. Aus dem innerpolnischen Verfassungskonflikt um Rechtsstaat und unabhängige Justiz ist ein europäischer Verfassungskonflikt um den Vorrang des EU-Rechts geworden. Wie konnte das passieren? Was für Kräfte sind da am Werk? Und wie kommen wir da wieder heraus? Continue reading >>28 May 2021
Borders
On Zittau, environmental impact and what we can get used to and what not Continue reading >>
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