Constitutional Tribunal. Constitutional scholar Monika Haczkowska on the “troublesome situation”

Constitutional Tribunal announced on Monday that Julia Przyłębska “he is the judge in charge of the work of the Tribunal”, not the president. Gazeta Wyborcza wrote last Friday that Przyłębska, whose 9-year term as a Constitutional Tribunal judge ends on December 9, has resigned from the position of President of the Tribunal.

READ MORE: “Judge in charge of the tribunal's work.” Information about Przyłębska and a huge severance package

Constitutional scholar Dr. Monika Haczkowska said on Tuesday on TVN24 that Przyłębska directs the work of the Tribunal “in order to select candidates for the president and vice-president of the Constitutional Tribunal, who could then be presented to the president.”

She explained that this is how the procedure works, but added that “you may wonder why it happened at this moment, because if there was such an intention to actually select candidates for president and vice-president, these steps could have been taken a little earlier.” “.

The constitutionalist was asked from which group the new president would be chosen.

She recalled that two judges were retiring today. – This is judge (Piotr) Pszczółkowski and the understudy judge, Mr. (Mariusz) Muszyński. So from tomorrow we have practically 13 judges. Judge Julia Przyłębska will soon end her term of office, so there will be 12 judges – she explained.

– But we take into account the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and in fact we still have two judges who were elected to the seats already occupied (understudies – editor). So we can say that in a moment there will be 10 people in the Tribunal, Haczkowska noted.

– From the point of view of selecting and presenting candidates, in my opinion the situation is complicated, it raises my doubts and I am very curious how the president will approach it – she said. She emphasized that “the rule is, and this results from the constitution, that there are 15 judges of the Constitutional Tribunal.” She added that “if the General Assembly of Judges of the Constitutional Tribunal is convened to select candidates for president and vice-president, it should be a constitutional composition.”

The constitutionalist noted that if on December 6, Friday, during the convened assembly, “there will de facto be only 13 judges, then we have an incomplete panel.”

– As we know, the president has repeatedly (…) referred laws to the Constitutional Tribunal due to the fact that the Sejm did not deliberate with 460 deputies due to the lack of two deputies (Maciej) Wąsik and Mariusz) Kamiński – said Haczkowska.

She added that, in a sense, we have a similar situation in the Constitutional Tribunal. – There will be no shortage of judges due to absence, illness or any unforeseeable circumstances. They just don't exist because they haven't been indicated. No elections were held in the Sejm. In my opinion, this is a problematic situation, she noted.

– As we hear from media reports, the ruling party has not indicated (candidates for judges – ed.) because it would actually have no one to indicate, as there are no candidates willing to run for the office of judge of the Constitutional Tribunal at the moment. And, in turn, those who could perhaps be nominated by the opposition parties will not obtain the absolute majority that is necessary for the election of judges of the Constitutional Tribunal by the Sejm. So the situation is really stalemate. This is the first time we are dealing with such a situation, said the constitutionalist.

– So far it's been going rather smoothly. It was even alleged that there was an overproduction of judges at the time when five judges were elected by the Sejm of the eighth term, she noted.

March 6 this year The Sejm adopted a resolution on eliminating the effects of the constitutional crisis of 2015-2023 and stated that “taking into account in the activities of a public authority the decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal issued in violation of the law may be considered a violation of the principle of legalism by these bodies.” The resolution also stated, among other things, that due to the Sejm resolutions regarding the election of Constitutional Tribunal judges, which were adopted in flagrant violation of the law, Mariusz Muszyński, Jarosław Wyrembak and Justyn Piskorski are not judges of the Constitutional Tribunal (they are referred to as “understudy judges” ).

Since the adoption of this resolution by the Sejm, the Constitutional Tribunal's judgments have not been published in the Journal of Laws. At the end of May, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that this resolution of the Sejm was inconsistent with the constitution.