The Commissioner for Human Rights Adam Bodnar’s five-year term of office ends on 9 September. It is likely that PiS will treat the election of the new Commissioner as a show of hegemony and a symbolic retaliation against Bodnar as well as lawyers and civil society activists involved in the defence of the rule of law, which means there will be a ‘trench warfare’ between the Sejm and Senate in the autumn

Independence of the judiciary and the rule of law have been almost completely absent from the presidential campaign in Poland. But the result of the elections will fundamentally affect these areas. We discuss two scenarios: if the incumbent president Andrzej Duda wins, and if his challenger Rafał Trzaskowski wins.

The CJEU has ruled that the Disciplinary Chamber of the Polish Supreme Court may not conduct disciplinary proceedings against judges or refer them to courts which do not meet the criterion of independence under Union law. The ruling is in force until the CJEU renders final judgment on the European Commission’s complaint against the Polish government. The judgment will be handed down in the second half of 2020.

 At the beginning of April, the CJEU will consider the European Commission’s request to suspend the Polish Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Chamber. The Grand Chamber is aware of and concerned about the situation of judges subjected to harassment via disciplinary proceedings, as well as the threats of even harsher repressions in the “Muzzle Law.” In addition, the CJEU will respond to a number of preliminary questions submitted by Polish courts.

The unprecedented decision shows that a court in Germany does not trust that a process brought against a Polish citizen in Poland will be conducted with respect for the fundamental right to a fair trial. This is not an expression of distrust towards Polish judges, but rather towards the system built by the ruling majority. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the system of disciplinary liability and the Muzzle Law.

“I feel ashamed when I see that the First President of the Supreme Court can say such things about Poland. Ashamed that someone like that was ever appointed to that office. Thankfully, this will soon change.” This is how Polish President Andrzej Duda referred on government-controlled TVP to the First President of the Supreme Court, professor Małgorzata Gersdorf

“I hope that nobody will dare to further strike at the justice system,” said Andrzej Duda. Who did he have in mind? The judges of the Supreme Court. He accused them of links with the communist regime, corruption and deliberately misleading the EU Court of Justice. “They were masters of life and death,” shouted the president. No PiS politician had the chutzpah to react like that to the CJEU ruling.

The Disciplinary Chamber of Poland’s Supreme Court has convicted Judge Alina Czubieniak for a verdict she issued. This represents the beginning of a new phase in repressions against judges in Poland. The National Council of the Judiciary has elected new judges to two chambers of the Supreme Court.

First President of the Supreme Court, Małgorzata Gersdorf, issued a statement imploring the Polish government and parliament to intervene in order to avoid an eruption of legal chaos in the wake of the 19 November judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU, issued in response to questions referred by the Labour Law and Social Security Chamber of the Supreme Court.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled for a second time that a cornerstone of the PiS-led judicial “reforms” is incompatible with EU law. In its verdict of 5 November, the CJEU stated that the provisions of the Common Courts Act adopted in 2017, including those making the retirement ages for men and women different, infringed the prohibition on discrimination and violated the principle of effective judicial protection.