Disciplinary proceedings have been initiated against Małgorzata Gersdorf, the former chief justice of Poland’s Supreme Court. Gersdorf, who led the court from 2014 to 2020, has been a prominent critic of the Law and Justice (PiS) government’s overhaul of the judiciary.
The proceedings against her have been initiated by Piotr Schab, who is the top disciplinary officer for judges and seen as a close ally of justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro.
According to media reports, the case against Gersdorf is related to a Supreme Court ruling in January 2020 that declared all judges appointed after the government’s overhaul of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) – the body responsible for nominating judges – to be illegitimate.
Schab confirmed to the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that proceedings against Gersdorf have been initiated, but declined to provide details of the case.
“Regarding the content of the charges, I am not authorised to communicate it publicly before Professor Małgorzata Gersdorf has familiarised herself with them,” he told PAP.
The case will be heard by the Supreme Court’s chamber of professional responsibility, which was created earlier this year to replace the controversial disciplinary chamber previously set up by the government. Gersdorf – who is no longer a sitting judge – could face a financial penalty.
Była I Prezes Sądu Najwyższego prof. #Małgorzata #Gersdorf z zarzutem dyscyplinarnym#PAPinformacje https://t.co/70aedT08We
— PAP (@PAPinformacje) December 7, 2022
At the end of October, Schab called on Gersdorf to explain the 2020 ruling, in which 61 Supreme Court justices found that a court bench is “unlawful” if it includes a judge nominated by the reformed KRS.
Previously, the KRS’s members were mostly chosen by the judiciary, but after PiS’s reforms they are now picked largely by politicians. Various rulings by Polish and European courts have found the new KRS to be illegitimate.
According to investigative news service OKO.press, in the charges against Gersdorf, dating from 29 November, Schab accuses her of misconduct under Article 72 Section 1 of the Supreme Court Act.
This provision stipulates that a judge is disciplinarily liable if they call into question the effectiveness of another judge’s appointment. The law was adopted in 2017 by the PiS majority in parliament.
Speaking on behalf of Gersdorf, Piotr Prusinowski, a Supreme Court judge, confirmed in an interview with news service Onet that Gersdorf had received the charges, but added that he had not yet had the opportunity to read them and therefore did not wish to comment on them in detail.
“My first instinct is to ask myself why this is being done to a person who has withdrawn from judicial life and is trying to make a quiet life for herself after difficult years as the president of the Supreme Court,” Prusinowski told Onet, adding that it seems “someone is trying to harass” Gersdorf.
The charges against Gersorf are the latest development in a long-running conflict over the rule of law in Poland under the PiS government, which has been accused by various Polish and international bodies of undermining judicial independence.
The issue has led the European to withhold billions of euros in pandemic recovery and cohesion funds from Poland, while it has also created confusion within the Polish legal system. Polling shows that a majority of the Polish public are opposed to the government’s reforms.
PiS, however, argues that its reforms have been carried out legally and that they have been necessary to make the justice system more accountable and effective.
In a ruling issued yesterday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered the Polish authorities to suspend a decision by Schab to forcibly reassign three judges who refused to sit alongside judges appointed by the new KRS.
In another landmark ruling issued this week, Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court found that the Constitutional Tribunal has lost the ability to adjudicate lawfully because it contains improperly appointed judges who “infect it with unlawfulness”.
Main image credit: Dawid Zuchowicz / Agencja Gazeta
Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.
