Poland: PiS's judicial reform overturned

Poland's Supreme Court has ruled that the newly created Disciplinary Chamber, which is tasked with evaluating judges and prosecutors and if necessary dismissing them, is unlawful. Its members are appointed by the National Council of the Judiciary, which is in turn elected by Parliament. As a result, the body is not sufficiently independent from the government, according to the ruling. What are the consequences?

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Gazeta Wyborcza (PL) /

Outrageous ignorance

For Gazeta Wyborcza the ruling reveals how undemocratic the country has become:

“After the Supreme Court ruling on Thursday, the Disciplinary Chamber continued to act as if nothing had happened. Even in the National Council of the Judiciary, the verdict failed to impress anyone. Chairman Leszek Mazur stated that the Supreme Court ruling would have no consequences for the functioning of the Council and the Disciplinary Chamber. That's not true. If the National Council and the Disciplinary Chamber ignore the verdict, it will put its seal of approval on the anarchy and legal chaos into which the ruling PiS party has plunged the judiciary. ... And if the government refuses to cede and recognise the verdict, the matter becomes clear: the PiS is taking us out of the EU.”

Rzeczpospolita (PL) /

Don't overact!

The problems of the Polish judiciary still haven't been solved, but the next steps should not be too drastic, Rzeczpospolita advises:

“The ruling of the Supreme Court on Thursday does not end the case - although it does give a powerful weapon to judges protesting against the changes pushed through by those in power. In the legal system, the decisions of bodies whose authority has been drastically called into question recently still remain in force. ... This raises legal questions that should only be discussed in legal proceedings if we want to act within the framework of a democratic state. The Gordian knot must be loosened, but not cut.”

Süddeutsche Zeitung (DE) /

Chaos now unavoidable

The ruling will trigger a legal and political earthquake, predicts Florian Hassel, Warsaw correspondent of the Süddeutsche Zeitung:

“Legal, because now every judgment passed by more than 550 partly unqualified judges appointed by the PiS government can be overturned. The resulting legal chaos - of which critics of the 'judicial reform' have been warning for years - will prevail in Poland for years to come. Political, because neither the government nor PiS boss Jarosław Kaczyński are prepared to cede ground. ... How things unfold after the Polish judges' ruling will also be a test case for the EU Commission, which of late has adopted an inappropriately lax attitude towards Warsaw and other lawbreakers in the European Union.”