Poland’s constitutional tribunal ruled, on Thursday
(11 August), that a government-sponsored bill, aiming to reform the court in
question, is partly unconstitutional.
"Not even a democratically
elected parliament has the right to pass regulations conflicting with basic
law,” judge-rapporteur Andrzej Wrobel announced when presenting the verdict. He
added that the Polish constitution of 1997 determines the division of powers in
the country and must be respected.
The judges rejected
provisions that the court should examine bills in a chronological order rather
than by way of importance; that four judges can decide to postpone important
verdicts by six months; that the general prosecutor - that is, the minister of
justice, after the parliament recently voted to link these two functions - must
be present at certain proceedings or the case cannot be heard.
The court also rejected
an attempt to stack the court with three judges loyal to the government. These
so called ’doubles’ were appointed, by the ruling Law and Justice party, to
seats reserved for three judges nominated by the previous parliament - who
haven’t been able to take up positions, as president Andrzej Duda did not
invite them to swear the oath.
Anti-government
activists from the Committee
for the Defence of Democracy cheered outside the court building for every provision
deemed unconstitutional.
But judges also
dismissed a number of complaints raised by the Polish opposition, which argued
that the bill was unconstitutional because of the way it was adopted. Law and
Justice had rushed it through the parliament - forcing MPs to work day and
night - ahead of the NATO summit in Warsaw in early July.
Judges say they will
rule on the bill, without the struck down provisions, from 16 August.
But Jaroslaw Kaczynski,
leader of the Law and Justice party, dismissed their verdict as political
already in the eve of its rendering and said that the government wouldn’t
respect it.
Law and Justice vowed the bill would solve the ongoing constitutional
crisis, under which the government won't recognise the constitutional
tribunal's rulings. As lower courts have sided with the constitutional tribunal,
there are risks of parallel legal systems in Poland.
It wasn’t the first time that the court outlawed Law and Justice efforts to
reform the court. A similar scenario unfolded in March, when the court outlawed
legislation amending a regulation that is currently in force. The government
has so far refused to respect that ruling.
The Law and Justice affiliated speaker of the Senate, Stanislaw Karczewski,
announced on Wednesday the need for yet another bill regulating the court - and
maybe even constitutional change.
Opposition parties Civic Platform and Modern will furthermore submit
another complaint regarding the unconstitutionality of the bill on Friday (12
August).
The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, a democracy watchdog, fears it
will create legal uncertainties if the bill was applied even in its cut-down
form from 16 August.
"As practically all transitional provisions were deemed
unconstitutional, there may be problems with the application of the bill in the
future," the foundation wrote in a statement.
EU recommendations
The European Commission, recently presented recommendations to the Polish government, saying any reform of the law on the
constitutional tribunal should respect the judgements of the same court.
Poland was given until 27 October to address the threats to the rule of
law, as identified by the commission. Would it fail to do so, it could face
sanctions such as losing its Council voting rights.
Both Law and Justice and the EU executive insist that any solutions must
stem from Warsaw.
Respect for the rule of law is enshrined in article 2 of the treaty on the
EU.
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