Tag: National Council of the Judiciary

Zbigniew Ziobro’s schoolmate and simultaneously the head of the politicised NCJ, Dagmara Pawełczyk-Woicka, will not have to pay a fine. The decision was made in bizarre circumstances, with one of the judges reporting the suspicion of the court ruling having been illegally influenced.

Polish and international civil society organisations write to the President of the Commission and the commissioners responsible for the Rule of Law, requesting an infringement action as regards the National Council of the Judiciary

This means that Łukasz Piebiak has completely lost his influence in the new NCJ. There was always a fierce conflict between him and Pawełczyk-Woicka,’ one of the judges who wish to remain anonymous tells Onet. Others emphasise that the choice of the new head of the NCJ could result in the ‘handover’ of the Council to Zbigniew Ziobro in practice. ‘After all, Dagmara is not only his school friend, but also one of his closest collaborators,’ they point out.

Almost all judges – members of the old, legal National Council of Judiciary (Krajowa Rada Sądownictwa, KRS), which was dissolved by PiS, have signed an appeal to the authorities to implement the ECtHR and CJEU judgments. They are appealing to the authorities to appoint an NCJ which is consistent with the Constitution. They are also appealing to judges to boycott recruitment for the second term of office of the neo-NCJ.

Just like the Prime Minister’s motion and the Constitutional Tribunal’s judgment of 7 October, the prosecutor general’s motion in case K 7/21 contains criticism of the European Court of Human Rights acts, that are nowhere to be found in the courts’ case law.

‘The authorities will try to use the carrot-and-stick method: a stick for those judges who are fighting for the rule of law, and a carrot for those they try to persuade over to them,’ believes Judge Waldemar Żurek. We discuss scenarios of further changes in courts and judges’ reactions to them

Judge Agnieszka Niklas-Bibik from Słupsk is the first Polish judge suspended for asking preliminary questions to the CJEU. She was also repressed for enforcing judgments of the ECtHR and the CJEU. The judge was suspended by the president of the Słupsk court, appointed by Zbigniew Ziobro

A dozen or so judges from Kraków issued a statement that they would not adjudicate with neo-judges. For that, the court president, a nominee of Minister Ziobro quickly reported them to the disciplinary commissioner. But more judges from Warsaw and Rzeszów are contesting the legality of the neo-judges.

Disciplinary commissioner Piotr Schab suspended judge Piotr Gąciarek for a month for a declaration made a few days earlier in which Gąciarek refused to adjudicate in a bench with a judge promoted by the new, political National Council of the Judiciary. Gąciarek is the second judge recently suspended for refusing to adjudicate with a neo-judge in the performance of the July judgment of the CJEU and the ECtHR.

President Andrzej Duda has issued a regulation silencing the old judges of the Supreme Court and restricting their initiative.  In exchange, it strengthens the position of President Manowska and the new judges. It also sanctions the principle of non-disclosure of cases in the Supreme Court.