Later in 2018 was major change to how judges are appointed. It used to be that new judges or promoted judges were elected by other judges. PiS changed that to election by parliament. These are so called neo-judges.
In addition to that, Supreme Court got disciplinary committee full of neo-judges. And questioning any of these reforms became disciplinary offence for judges.
In next phase PiS government started manipulating court departments and creating departments of criminal law fully constituted by neojudges. Judges from lowest tier courts (district court) were promoted to highest tier courts (court of appeal), often skipping the middle tier entirely.
Results? No one can agree on which judges are legit and should have legal power. Which verdicts of Supreme Court should be binding, because verdicts by neo-judges and by old judges sometimes contradict themselves. Any new judge or newly promoted judge has their career tainted. No way out of this.
I don't really see the relevance... that's a completely different issue, different system of law altogether. In Poland, reforms were just a cover for politicizing the judiciary along the lines the Law and Justice party wanted - like in Hungary, but there are not even tenuous comparisons to be made with the English law system. I agree with Andrew that making the law clearer and more transparent so that there is less room for subjective interpetation would be a good first step.
It’s very alluring to view the issue exclusively as „just cover for politisation” and „authoritarianism”, been there for many years, done that. And there is some merit to it, absolutely. But also it turns out that neojudges aren’t insane zealots (I’m lawyer going to courts) and 10 years in the worst thing about it is lack of perspectives to move past polarisation induced by the reforms. Now the current ruling party tries to undo the reforms and it doesn’t bring the trust back, because liberals are politicians too.
Poland is sad tale of how not reform judiciary system. In 2015 right wing party PiS (Law and Justice) paralysed constitutional court by fairly outrageous actions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Constitutional_Tribunal_crisis_(2015_–_ongoing) - effectively we don’t have constitutional court was 10 years now (…and that’s fine?)
Later in 2018 was major change to how judges are appointed. It used to be that new judges or promoted judges were elected by other judges. PiS changed that to election by parliament. These are so called neo-judges.
In addition to that, Supreme Court got disciplinary committee full of neo-judges. And questioning any of these reforms became disciplinary offence for judges.
In next phase PiS government started manipulating court departments and creating departments of criminal law fully constituted by neojudges. Judges from lowest tier courts (district court) were promoted to highest tier courts (court of appeal), often skipping the middle tier entirely.
Results? No one can agree on which judges are legit and should have legal power. Which verdicts of Supreme Court should be binding, because verdicts by neo-judges and by old judges sometimes contradict themselves. Any new judge or newly promoted judge has their career tainted. No way out of this.
I don't really see the relevance... that's a completely different issue, different system of law altogether. In Poland, reforms were just a cover for politicizing the judiciary along the lines the Law and Justice party wanted - like in Hungary, but there are not even tenuous comparisons to be made with the English law system. I agree with Andrew that making the law clearer and more transparent so that there is less room for subjective interpetation would be a good first step.
It’s very alluring to view the issue exclusively as „just cover for politisation” and „authoritarianism”, been there for many years, done that. And there is some merit to it, absolutely. But also it turns out that neojudges aren’t insane zealots (I’m lawyer going to courts) and 10 years in the worst thing about it is lack of perspectives to move past polarisation induced by the reforms. Now the current ruling party tries to undo the reforms and it doesn’t bring the trust back, because liberals are politicians too.