Remarks by Dr Adam Bodnar, Polish Commissioner for Human Rights, on Human Rights and Solidarity at the University of Connecticut (4 April 2019)

The Disciplinary Chamber is populated entirely by justices selected since Law and Justice came to power. In a resolution of 10 April, they declared that the process by which they were appointed was entirely proper. The new members of the Supreme Court are rushing to “legalise themselves” in order to head off the “older” judges, who believe their new counterparts should not be allowed to rule. They were appointed in a faulty process and with the participation of a politicised KRS.

Polish judges are again showing the government and the small number of collaborator judges that they will not be broken or be intimidated by disciplinary proceedings.

Polish authorities demand that the European Commission withdraw its complaint since the contested provisions are no longer in force.

The European Commission has launched a reflection process on the rule of law in the EU and setting out possible avenues for future action. It outlined three pillars which could contribute to further the effective enforcement of the rule of law in the Union: better promotion, early prevention and tailored reposnse

Through a reorganization of existing courts and the establishment of new ones, the Ministry of Justice will achieve total control over the entirety of the justice system. The reorganization will put all judges under a microscope and facilitate a far-ranging purge of the courts. There may not be enough places for independent-minded judges in the “new” courts, or perhaps they will be exiled someplace far away from their present posts.

The rule of law reigns in Poland, but does not necessarily govern. And reigning without governing means powerlessness – writes Ewa Łętowska.

An outline of legal and constitututional developments in Poland under the rule of the Law and Justice Party, which include the threat of EU sanctions over reforms to the judiciary and the recently announced and highly controversial Holocaust bill

Report of the Stefan Batory Foundation Legal Expert Group on the impact of the judiciary reform in Poland in 2015-2018

“The two years that passed since November 2015 have brought the highest number of challenges and threats to human rights and freedoms in the entire post-1989 period”, reads today’s statement of the Helsinki Committee in Poland.