We, the undersigned, have learnt that Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Poland Professor Małgorzata Gersdorf has had her constitutionally guaranteed term of office of six years prematurely terminated by a new statute on the Supreme Court rushed through the Polish Parliament and signed by President Andrzej Duda on 26 July 2018.

We also understand that the Chief Justice vigorously protests this unconstitutional act of forcing her into retirement half-way through her constitutionally defined 6-year term of office.

Such a politically motivated action is not only contrary to an express provision of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (Article 183 (3)) but also constitutes a blatant violation of European standards on judicial independence which Polish authorities are under an obligation to respect.

We firmly hold the view that Professor Małgorzata Gersdorf is the only lawful and legitimate incumbent of the office of Chief Justice until 30 April 2020, i.e. until the end of her constitutionally designated term of office.

The letter was signed:

WOJCIECH SADURSKI, Challis Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Sydney and Professor in the Centre for Europe, University of Warsaw.

LAURENT PECH, Professor of European Law, Jean Monnet Chair of European Public Law (2014-17) and Head of the Law and Politics Department at Middlesex University London

BRUCE ACKERMAN, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University

ALBERTO ALEMANNO, Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law, HEC Paris and Global Professor of Law, NYU School of Law in Paris

PETRA BÁRD, Visiting Professor, Central European University

LASZLO BRUSZT, Professor of Political Sciences, Central European University

TOM GERALD DALY, MLS Fellow, Melbourne Law School and Associate Director, Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law

GRÁINNE DE BÚRCA, Florence Ellinwood Allen Professor of Law, NYU Law School

GÁBOR HALMAI, Professor and Chair of Comparative Constitutional Law, European University Institute, Florence

R. DANIEL KELEMEN, Professor of Political Science and Law, Rutgers University

DIMITRY KOCHENOV, Professor of EU Constitutional Law at the Department of European and Economic Law, University of Groningen

TOMASZ TADEUSZ KONCEWICZ, Professor of European and Comparative Law, Director of the Department of European and Comparative Law, University of Gdansk

MARTIN KRYGIER, Gordon Samuels Professor of Law and Social Theory, University of New South Wales; Recurrent visiting Professor, School of Social Sciences, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Science

MARCIN MATCZAK, Professor of theory and philosophy of law at the University of Warsaw, Faculty of Law and Administration

STEVE PEERS, Professor of EU Law & Human Rights Law, University of Essex

VLAD PERJU, Professor of Law, Boston College Law School and Director of the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy, Boston College

KIM LANE SCHEPPELE, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Princeton University and President, Law and Society Association 2017-2019

JUSTINE N. STEFANELLI, Maurice Wohl Senior Research Fellow in European Law, Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law

MAXIMILIAN STEINBEIS, Founder and Editor of Verfassungsblog

NEIL WALKER, Regius Professor of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations, The University of Edinburgh

The text was first published on the site: Open Letter, VerfBlog, 2018/8/07, https://verfassungsblog.de/open-letter/.