The first president of the Supreme Court, Małgorzata Manowska, introduced changes in one of Thursday’s orders regarding the unrecognized Disciplinary Chamber. According to the spokesman of the Supreme Court, Aleksander Stępkowski, legislative errors had crept in one of the issued orders, which – as he assured – had already been detected and corrected. After the amendments, the ordinances do not apply to prosecutors’ immunity proceedings.
In mid-July, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the system of disciplinary liability of judges in Poland is inconsistent with EU law. The day before, the CJEU obliged Poland to suspend the application of provisions concerning, in particular, the powers of the unrecognized Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, also in cases of lifting judicial immunities.
On Thursday, the website of the Supreme Court published two ordinances of Małgorzata Manowska – in them, the work of the Disciplinary Chamber was partially frozen. This applies to matters that will affect it. With cases pending, Manowska will consider asking the judges assigned to these cases to consider refraining from adjudicating.
Uniform text of the ordinance. Legislative errors have been detected
Legislative errors appeared in one of the ordinances, which, according to the spokesman of the Supreme Court, Aleksander Stępkowski, were detected and corrected.
Małgorzata ManowskaTVN24
“In the first paragraph of ordinance No. 91/2021 there were legislative errors with reference to the text of the Act on the Supreme Court. They were discovered and corrected by ordinance No. 92/2021. These errors, although of a technical and legislative nature, inadvertently entailed certain material consequences, including mistakenly applied to the ruling of the first president to immunity proceedings of prosecutors and assessors. Currently, a unified text of the ordinance, including relevant amendments, is available on the Supreme Court’s website, “the spokesman of the Supreme Court told PAP when asked about the changes to the ordinance.
The ordinances come into force upon signing
The ordinances come into force upon signing. In the case of disciplinary cases, the provisions are to be applied “until the introduction into the Polish legal system of legislative solutions enabling the effective functioning of the professional liability system of judges in the Republic of Poland”, but not longer than until November 15 this year.
An analogous date was given in the case of immunity cases. The provisions may cease to apply earlier when the CJEU issues a judgment concluding the proceedings under which the Vice-President of the CJEU issued an interim order on July 14, or when changes are introduced into the Polish legal system, resulting in the ineffectiveness of this provision.
CJEUShutterstock
On July 14, the CJEU obliged Poland to suspend the application of provisions concerning, in particular, the powers of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, which started operating under the amendments to the 2017 Act on the Supreme Court. member states to apply interim measures on the judiciary is unconstitutional.
Interview with the First President of the Supreme Court for tvn24.pl: Małgorzata Manowska: The EU has different standards for different countries, and completely specific for Poland
Last Friday, the first president of the Supreme Court sent letters to the president, prime minister and marshals of the Sejm and Senate with an appeal for the head of state to use a legislative initiative that would allow for the “effective and not objectionable” functioning of the system of disciplinary liability in Poland and for undertaking legislative work in this case.
Main photo source: TVN24