Poland and the European Commission, Part III: Requiem for the Rule of Law
Last week, Poland stuck its thumb in the eye of the European Commission, again. Responding to the complementary Rule of Law Recommendation that the Commission had issued two months earlier, the Polish...
View ArticleAn Eye for an Eye: Law as an Instrument of Revenge in Poland
In contemporary societies, the law may serve different functions: a channel for public discourse, a tool for co-ordination, or indeed an instrument of coercion. In contemporary Poland, constitutional...
View ArticleSententia non existens – the future of jurisprudence of the Polish...
One of the latest topics in the debate on the future of constitutional control in Poland concerns the possibility and the need of common court judges to directly apply the Constitution. This...
View ArticleThe Polish Judiciary Reform: Problematic under European standards and a...
The latest efforts of the Polish government to reform the judiciary have met with fierce criticism both nationally and internationally. A new legislation concerning the National Council for the...
View ArticleWhy the Announced Constitutional Referendum in Poland is not a Constitutional...
The President of Poland has announced that a constitutional referendum will be held in 2018. This is surprising for at least two reasons. First, according to the Polish Constitution, a constitutional...
View ArticleHow to Demolish an Independent Judiciary with the Help of a Constitutional Court
On 20 June, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, with three anti-judges among its members, decided that certain provisions of the Act on the National Council of the Judiciary of Poland were...
View ArticleStatement by the former presidents of the Constitutional Tribunal: Andrzej...
Last November, the former presidents of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal issued a joint statement to protest against the subjugation of the Tribunal. Now, as the PiS government is about to...
View ArticleDie aktuellste Justizreform in Polen: ist dies das endgültige Ende der...
Während der Streit um den Verfassungsgerichtshof aus polnischer Sicht als mittlerweile beendet gilt, versucht die Europäische Union eine passende Lösung zu finden, die in der Empfehlung der Kommission...
View ArticleFor Central Europe’s Illiberal Democracies, the Worst is yet to Come
Next week the Polish parliament will most likely pass a bill sponsored by the ruling Law and Justice party, introducing a total overhaul of the country’s judicial system. The tenures of all judges...
View ArticleFarewell to the Separation of Powers – On the Judicial Purge and the Capture...
Having regard for the existence and future of our Homeland, Which recovered, in 1989, the possibility of a sovereign and democratic determination of its fate, We, the Polish Nation - all citizens of...
View ArticleWho’s next? On the Future of the Rule of Law in Poland, and why President...
With the latest draft laws about the judiciary, the Law and Justice party (PiS) has crossed yet another line. President Duda’s announcement of a veto appears on first sight to present an obstacle to...
View ArticleArt. 7 EUV im Quadrat? Zur Möglichkeit von Rechtsstaats-Verfahren gegen...
Die Europäische Union ist nicht nur eine Rechts-, sondern auch eine Wertegemeinschaft. Art. 2 EUV führt ausdrücklich auf, dass sich die Union auf die Achtung der Menschenwürde, der Freiheit, der...
View ArticleIs Poland’s President Duda on the Road to Damascus?
Polish President Duda’s veto of the government’s bills on the judiciary caught both the governing party and the opposition by surprise, and can indeed be seen as something of a miracle. The President’s...
View ArticleDefenceless Formalists: on Abuse of Law and the Weakness of the Polish Judiciary
Abuse of the law occurs when the law is used to pursue objectives other than those for which it was created, and when an illegal effect is achieved by lawful means. The first abuse was committed by the...
View ArticleOne Law, Two Justices
Poland’s prolonged rule of law crisis goes beyond the political and legal to the psychological. Those who believe in the value of respect for the law, the inviolability of the constitution and the...
View ArticleMind the Gap! Schwierigkeiten der Rechtsstaatlichkeit in der EU
Über Gesundheit und Mehrdeutigkeit Nach Paul Craig, dem britischen Rechtsprofessor, soll gegenüber jedem, der das Betreten der „Welt der Rechtsstaatlichkeit“ riskiert, eine Gesundheitswarnung...
View ArticleUnderstanding the Politics of Resentment
“Stop for a second in a rushing crowd. There is the Other next to you. Meeting Him is the greatest experience of all. Talking to the Other, feeling him out while at the same time knowing that he sees...
View ArticlePresident Duda is Destroying the Rule of Law instead of Fixing it
Were the president of any country to propose acts of law that remove almost half of the members of its supreme court, interrupt the constitutional term of office of the chairperson of such court, give...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Defamation of Justice – Propositions on how to evaluate public attacks...
Public debate is an essential element of a democratic society. While this debate should not spare the judiciary, public attacks against the judiciary of a critical intensity can be observed in several...
View ArticleA Constitution of Fear
When electoral mandates and constitutional/legal change are used in the service of an illiberal agenda, I call this phenomenon „autocratic legalism” K. L. Scheppele, Autocratic legalism, University of...
View Article