Judge critical of Polish government’s judicial reforms has suspension overturned

A judge critical of the Polish government’s judicial reforms – who has been suspended for the last 420 days after refusing to adjudicate alongside a colleague appointed under those reforms – has seen his suspension overturned, allowing him to return to work.

The decision was made by a new judicial chamber established by the government as part of its efforts to unlock frozen EU funds by rolling back its disciplinary system for judges.

Piotr Gąciarek, who sits at Warsaw’s district court, is a leading member of Iustitia, an association of judges that has regularly spoken out against the government’s judicial policies.

In September 2021, Gąciarek informed Piotr Schab, the then president of his court, that he refused to adjudicate on a case after being assigned to do so alongside a judge who had been nominated by the reformed National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), the body responsible for picking judges.

The KRS was overhauled by the government in 2017 to give politicians more influence over its composition. As a result of those changes, a number of Polish and European court rulings have deemed the KRS to no longer be a legitimate body and the judges nominated by it not to be legally appointed.

As a result of his decision, Gąciarek was brought before the disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court, a body also set up by the government as part of its judicial reforms. The chamber ruled in November 2021 that Gąciarek should be suspended indefinitely.

Last year, however, the government closed down the disciplinary chamber as part of efforts to unblock frozen European funds by meeting the EU’s rule-of-law demands (which also included allowing suspended judges to return to work). It was replaced by a new chamber of professional responsibility.

Today, that new chamber overturned Gąciarek’s suspension. It found the disciplinary chamber’s November 2021 decision to have been “defective on several levels”, reports the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

Justifying the ruling, judge Małgorzata Wąsek-Wiaderek noted that the disciplinary chamber had ruled on Gąciarek’s case despite a deadline to do so having passed.

But she added that, in any case, the disciplinary chamber was itself “not a court established by law in accordance with European standards”, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP). Wąsek-Wiaderek pointed to rulings to this effect by the European Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights.

Wąsek-Wiaderek also dismissed the idea that, by refusing to sit alongside a judge appointed by the new KRS, Gąciarek had jeopardised his court’s authority. To the contrary, “it was a manifestation of concern for the seriousness of the court”, she said.

Gąciarek told PAP that he was “glad to be returning to work, because it was clear from the outset that I had not done anything wrong”. He added that he would keeping “fighting for the rule of law” and that he “cannot image ruling alongside neo-judges” – a term referring to those nominated by the new KRS.

In November, another suspended judge critical of the government’s judicial policies, Igor Tuleya, was cleared of wrongdoing and allowed to return to work by the chamber of professional responsibility. Two others, Paweł Juszczyszyn and Beata Morawiec, have also seen their suspensions lifted.

Last week, however, three other judges launched legal action against Schab for refusing to comply with a European court order that he suspend a decision to transfer them to a different chamber after they refused to sit alongside colleagues nominated by the new KRS.

The chamber of professional responsibility may itself soon be stripped of the right to adjudicate on judges’ disciplinary cases. The ruling party has proposed a new law – purportedly agreed with the European Commission – to transfer that responsibility to a different court.

Main image credit: Maciek Jazwiecki / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.