It cannot be that, as a result of politicians’ games, citizens will now be left out in the cold – said Professor Ryszard Piotrowski in “Fakty po Faktach” when asked how the justice system should be repaired in Poland after eight years of rule by Law and Justice. He noted that in this matter “there are two negative scenarios”. In the opinion of lawyer Michał Wawrykiewicz, “the two most important issues are the Constitutional Tribunal and the National Council of the Judiciary.”
The guests of “Fakty po Faktach” – a constitutionalist from the University of Warsaw, Professor Ryszard Piotrowski, and a lawyer from the “Free Courts” initiative, Michał Wawrykiewicz – were asked how the current opposition, when it manages to build a new government, should approach the issue of repairing the justice system.
Professor Piotrowski: there are two negative scenarios
Professor Piotrowski referred to the need to reform the National Council of the Judiciary. – The National Council of the Judiciary in its current composition is not a body established in the constitution. It does not have the properties that the constitution attaches to the National Council of the Judiciary, because this body, which is supposed to safeguard the independence of courts and judges, includes judges appointed by politicians, he said.
– This means that the requests of this body addressed to the president regarding the appointment of judges do not come from a properly authorized body. Therefore, those judges who are thus appointed are not judges. But that doesn’t mean that the verdicts they gave aren’t verdicts. They passed judgments on behalf of the state. And this does not mean that they, acting on behalf of the state, were acting on their own behalf, he said.
He emphasized that “citizens must not suffer” with the changes. – It cannot be that it turns out that as a result of the politicians’ games, citizens will now be left in the lurch and barely escape the trap of lawyers, judges, attorneys and prosecutors. It turns out that they have to come there again because the sentence they received is not there. This is absolutely unacceptable, he said.
– That is why we must be careful not to ruin the right to a court even more than it is ruined now. By introducing additional legal chaos and acting here on the principle: “let the world perish, so long as justice is served” – he noted, quoting Saint in Latin. Augustine (“pereat mundus, fiat iustitia”). – No, citizens cannot die in all this. They are fed up with these courts, fed up with these reforms. They are fed up with everything they have had to deal with, he added.
In the professor’s opinion, in the case of repairing the justice system, “there are two negative scenarios.” – The first is that to restore the law, we will act illegally. The second negative is that we will say: “nothing happened.” Judges were fired from their jobs, various repressions were used against people who defended the constitution, and now we would say that nothing happened and it doesn’t matter at all, he said.
– These two negative scenarios are the basis for formulating some solutions. (…) You cannot give up this attachment to the constitution, which was demonstrated by many people. We have no other fortress to defend our freedoms than the constitution, no other fortress to defend our sovereignty, he emphasized.
Wawrykiewicz on “the most important two issues”
Michał Wawrykiewicz was also asked about the case and, together with other members of the “Free Courts” initiative, met the ambassador on Friday. USA in Poland, Marek Brzezinski. “The rule of law is crucial for every democracy and is a fundamental, shared value of the USA and Poland,” Brzezinski wrote on the X website (formerly Twitter).
The lawyer assessed that “the two most important issues are the Constitutional Tribunal and the National Council of the Judiciary, because the neo-National Council of the Judiciary, the new National Council of the Judiciary, has been pumping thousands of so-called neo-judges into the justice system since 2018 and is doing it all the time.”
He reminded that After the elections, the president handed out appointment letters to 72 judges. – Currently, the neo-National Council of the Judiciary is conducting further, so-called competitions, to also appoint people to the Supreme Court, to this illegally operating Chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs – he said.
– This must be addressed first, because the Polish justice system must finally be a justice system, a judiciary in which every citizen who comes to this court can count on the guarantee of an independent, impartial court, established on the basis of law, not on a verdict. a neo-judge who can be questioned, he added.
Main photo source: TVN24