How to Rebuild Poland’s Rule of Law
Ahead of the next parliamentary elections, a core question is whether and if so how we can restore Poland’s rule of law. While the current effort is understandably focused on resurrecting the...
View ArticlePoland’s Extended Disciplinary System
The judgement of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on June 5, 2023 (C-204/21) has added a new chapter to the rule of law crisis in Poland. The outcome was largely expected given the well-established...
View ArticleWhy Europe Must Never Forget about the Polish Constitutional Court
In 2023, we should have been celebrating the 41st anniversary of the establishment of Polish Constitutional Court. “Should” is used advisedly here because as is well known Poland no longer has a...
View ArticleContesting the Ultimate Leverage to Enforce EU Law
By now it has become clear that Poland is not willing to discharge the definitive judicial penalties of over EUR 600 million which the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ordered it to pay for failing...
View ArticleDirect Democracy and Indirect Electoral Campaign
In a last-minute attempt to grow voter presence at the booths on the 15th of October, Poland’s ruling party announced it would be combining the upcoming parliamentary elections with a referendum vote...
View ArticlePoland’s Elections: Free, perhaps, but not Fair
Poland’s upcoming parliamentary elections will be the country’s most important vote since the historic elections of 1989. These had ushered in the first non-Communist government in Central and Eastern...
View ArticleMigrant Instrumentalisation: Facts and Fictions
Recent years have seen an increase in the violation of asylum-seeker rights in the EU, including through so-called pushbacks. These practices have typically not been authorised by domestic legislation...
View ArticleEurope’s Sick Success Child
Poland has a rule of law problem. Long-time readers of Verfassungsblog know that all too well, as dozens of excellent articles have been published here and elsewhere detailing the amount of damage to...
View ArticlePoland’s Sham ‘Migration’ Referendum
On 15 June 2023 Jarosław Kaczyński – the leader of the ruling PiS party – announced that a referendum on the relocation of migrants would take place together with the upcoming general elections. It was...
View ArticleThe Election’s Aftermath
The pivotal parliamentary election that will take place in Poland this Sunday may not mark the end of the country’s authoritarian chapter. In the coming days and weeks, several legal and constitutional...
View ArticleJudicial Transitology
The rule of law crisis in Poland consists of several elements – undermining the independence of courts, politicization of disciplinary proceedings against judges, and lack of legal certainty. None of...
View ArticleTo Void or Not To Void
One of the most critical challenges in the process of restoring the rule of law in Poland after the period of ‘Law and Justice’ rule will be regulating the situation in the Constitutional Tribunal....
View ArticleReviving a Corpse
On a cold night of 25 November 2015, several activists and lawyers spontaneously gathered in front of the Polish Parliament to protest against the ongoing dismantling of the independence of the nearby...
View ArticleThe Distorted Body
Ensuring the integrity of elections is a foundational concern for any democratic state. Yet, it faces a grave challenge in Poland, emanating from the Chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs...
View ArticleThe Great Yes or the Great No
The effect of Van Gend en Loos was to take Community law out of the hands of politicians and bureaucrats and to give it to the people. Of all the Court’s democratising achievements none can rank so...
View ArticleMarket Power, Democracy and (Un)Fair Elections
In the last eight years Poland experienced an illiberal shift. Key elements of constitutional democracy were undermined. The story is well-known to public law scholars, particularly with respect to...
View ArticleDegrees of (In)Dependence
From a systemic point of view, the Polish Public Prosecutor’s Office is very peculiar. This is especially true if one considers the changes accompanying its functioning over the past two decades. The...
View ArticlePost-populist Populism
Democracy’s victory over populism? Good news for democracy from Poland? It appears that in the recent general elections, the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS), won most seats but not...
View ArticleRestoring Poland’s Media Freedom
Over the last ten years, PiS has not only systematically dismantled Poland’s rule of law, but also strategically corroded the country’s media freedom. Thus, it has successfully politicized Poland’s...
View ArticleRegulating Political Advertising
The issue of financing political campaigns has been a topic of discussion for a while, especially against the background of the ongoing deliberations within the EU surrounding the adoption of the draft...
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