Poland’s constitutional court declares resolution calling for its overhaul unconstitutional

Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK) has found that a resolution calling for its overhaul passed by the government’s majority in parliament is unconstitutional.

The move marks the latest twist in the ongoing rule-of-law conflict between the ruling coalition that took office in December and the TK, which remains filled with judges appointed under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government.

In March, the new government announced a package of measures aimed at “healing” the TK following eight years of PiS rule. The first step in that process was the passing by parliament of a resolution calling on TK judges “to resign and thus to join the process of democratic change”.

This refers in particular to three so-called “doubler judges” who were nominated by PiS in 2015 and sworn in by President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, in the place of judges legitimately chosen by parliament before PiS took power.

A number of European and Polish court rulings – including one issued by the Supreme Court in January this year – have found those judges, and rulings issued with their involvement, to be illegitimate.

The resolution also said that TK chief justice Julia Przyłębska, a close personal associate of PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński, is “unauthorised” to hold the role because she was sworn in without the required resolution being issued and that her term should have expired already in any case.

In response to the resolution, a group of PiS MPs asked the TK to assess its constitutionality. They argued that it violates the “principle of the division and balance of powers” and undermines the independence of the judiciary. Yesterday, the TK agreed, finding that the resolution was unconstitutional.

“Neither the constitution, laws, rules of procedure of the Sejm nor any other legal act grant the Sejm competence to question, using a resolution, the competence of the judges of the TK [nor] to undermine the universally binding force of judgments of the TK,” wrote judge Stanisław Piotrowicz in a justification of the ruling.

“The inclusion of statutory matter in the Sejm’s resolution is a repetition of a reprehensible practice common during communism and the Soviet occupation of Poland”, he added, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Piotrowicz worked as a state prosecutor in communist Poland, including during the period of martial law in the 1980s. He later served as a PiS MP before being appointed as a TK judge.

In his comments, Piotrowicz warned that the incorporation of the Sejm’s resolution by public bodies could give rise to “appropriate liability – especially constitutional, criminal and disciplinary liability”.

The TK’s resolution was criticised by Paweł Śliz, an MP from the ruling coalition who attended the hearings but walked out in protest. He later described the TK as “a subordinate, submissive and dependent body whose judgements can be predicted in advance”.

Since PiS was removed from power, the TK has issued a number of decisions in opposition to the actions of the new government. However, the ruling coalition has in many cases ignored such rulings, arguing that they were issued unlawfully.

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Main image credit: Lukas Plewnia/Flickr (under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.