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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK) has rejected two government bills seeking to overhaul the tribunal itself, with the aim of reversing the politicisation of the court that took place under the former Law and Justice (PiS) administration.
The bills would have invalidated rulings that were issued by TK judges illegitimately appointed under PiS and removed those judges from the court, while also reforming the rules for selecting new judges.
However, the TK – which remains filled with PiS-era appointees, including former politicians from the party – found the measures to be unconstitutional because they undermined the independence of the court and exceeded the legislature’s authority.
‼️ Miażdżąca ocena @TK_GOV_PL o ustawach dotyczących TK:
🔸rujnują podstawy konstytucyjnej konstrukcji Trybunału jako niezależnego organu władzy sądowniczej,
🔸są niedopuszczalną ingerencją władzy ustawodawczej we władzę sądowniczą.
Szczegóły ⬇️https://t.co/QmTg8GZN7S— Trybunał Konstytucyjny (@TK_GOV_PL) July 29, 2025
The legislation was part of a package of reforms unveiled by the government in March last year and intended to “heal” the TK after eight years of PiS rule, during which time the court had come to be seen as being under the influence of the former ruling party.
The bills were approved by the government’s majority in parliament in July last year. But President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, refused to sign them into law, instead referring the legislation to the TK itself for assessment.
Under one of the two bills, TK judges who were illegitimately appointed under PiS would have been removed from duty and all previous rulings made with their participation would be invalidated. There are almost 100 such rulings, including the one that introduced a near-total ban on abortion.
The legislation would also have barred anyone who was an active politician within the last four years – including even being a member of a political party – from being eligible to become a TK judge. That was intended to stop situations such as the one in 2019, when PiS appointed two of its recent MPs to the court.
In his justification for sending the bills to the TK for assessment in October last year, Duda argued that they “undermine the status of some judges of the Constitutional Tribunal” and that overturning some TK rulings would be an “unprecedented event” that could “lead to systemic chaos”.
Now, in a ruling that the TK itself described on social media as “crushing”, it has confirmed the president’s concerns and declared the two bills to be unconstitutional because they “violate the constitutional principles of separation, balance and cooperation of powers, as well as the principle of judicial independence”.
It also found that the proposed legislation constitutes an “unacceptable interference” in the “principle of finality and universal applicability of tribunal rulings” and “the principle of trust in the law”, and exceeds the competence of the legislative body.
Deputy chief justice Bartłomiej Sochański said that the provisions which invalidate TK rulings and remove TK judges from office “undermine the constitutional basis of the Constitutional Tribunal as an independent judicial authority”. He stressed that granting the legislature such power would end the TK’s independence.
Fifteen months since the change of government, Poland's rule-of-law crisis continues – indeed, many Poles think the situation has got worse.@J_Jaraczewski explains the roots of the crisis, what its impact has been, and how it might be resolved https://t.co/7KOCURV3dU
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 17, 2025
The government has not yet commented on the TK’s ruling. Its general policy is to ignore all the tribunal’s judgments as it regards the institution as illegitimate, a position that has been confirmed by multiple European and Polish court rulings.
However, in this case, the court’s decision means that the bills in question will not go into force, and the standoff over the TK will continue. The government had hoped for the election of a more friendly president to succeed Duda next month, thereby allowing judicial reform to proceed.
But June’s presidential election was won by PiS-aligned Karol Nawrocki, who is likely to continue blocking the government’s efforts to overhaul the TK. That led one of the ruling coalition’s leaders, Szymon Hołownia, to recently call for an end of its boycott of the TK.
During its eight years in power, PiS was seen by a variety of Polish and European courts, expert bodies, as well as the Polish public to have violated the rule of law and judicial independence. However, polling also shows that Poles believe the situation has worsened under the new government.
Speaker of parliament @szymon_holownia has called on the ruling coalition, of which he is part, to end its boycott of the constitutional court and begin appointing judges to fill the growing number of vacancies https://t.co/UGcDWs2lZu
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 3, 2025
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Lukas Plewnia/Flickr (under CC BY-SA 2.0)
Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. She is a member of the European Press Prize’s preparatory committee. She was 2022 Fellow at the Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program at City University of New York. In 2024, she graduated from the Advanced Leadership Programme for Top Talents at the Center for Leadership. She has previously contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy and Duży Format.
