Supreme Court. A surprising change in the project about the neo -seasons

The Ministry of Justice withdraws from the liquidation of the Vocational Liability Chamber in the Supreme Court. It is mostly neo -sessels in its composition. This is the chamber that in 2022 replaced the illegal Disciplinary Chamber. The Chamber of Professional Liability was appointed by President Andrzej Duda and he also indicated all 11 judges sitting in it.

Just three weeks ago the Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar He presented a bill regulating the status of judges selected after 2017. It is this act that is to heal Polish courts and decide on the future of judges appointed at the request of Neo-KRS.

The minister presented his project, based on two proposals submitted to him by the codification committee of the judicial system and the prosecutor's office, which included, among others Representatives of judicial and prosecutor's associations. Unexpectedly, however, on May 13 a new project appeared on the pages of the Ministry of Justice, which differs in several key issues from this widely presented less than three weeks earlier.

The main change is the withdrawal of the ministry from the liquidation of the Supreme Court's professional responsibility chamber created during the rule PISto consider disciplinary matters of judges. In the old, April proposal, in Article 55 point 1 we read: “In the Supreme Court, the Chamber of Extraordinary and Public Affairs and the Chamber of Vocational Liability is abolished” in the Supreme Court “

In the new version, two days ago, the record at this point is already different, shorter: “in the Supreme Court the Extraordinary and Public Affairs Chamber is abolished.” The provision of the liquidation of the Chamber of Professional Liability has disappeared and, moreover, all points related to its liquidation, posted in the project from three weeks ago, disappeared.

The movement of the Ministry of Justice is surprising

Why Ministry of Justice withdrawn from the liquidation of the criticized chamber? It is not known, because since yesterday we have not been able to get an answer in this matter.

The members of the Codification Committee who included its liquidation in their proposals are not surprised by the change and publication of the new project. As it turns out, they did not know about the change or even about the fact that a new project appeared. Representatives of the judiciary, with whom I managed to talk about this matter, hope that a sudden phrase on the controversial chamber is simply a mistake.

The ministry's movement is surprising, because the Chamber of Professional Responsibility is a creation in place of illegal – undermined by the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union – the Disciplinary Chamber. Its creation was proposed by the president Andrzej Duda. The Act on the amendment to his Supreme Court was adopted by a parliament, in which the majority of PiS had then, and when the president came into force, as the act provides, he personally indicated the judges sitting in it. Most of them are neo -sessels. The Chamber of Professional Liability from the beginning questioned the legal environment, and in February 2024 a ruling was issued in the Supreme Court, in which it was recognized that the Chamber was not a legal court and that it had a “systemic and structural defect”.

One of the allegations indicated that the judges were chosen by politicians – the president with the consent of the prime minister. That is why members of the Codification Commission postulated the liquidation of the Chamber in their projects. Its liquidation was also assumed by the draft law presented by the Ministry. The case, however, changed dramatically two days ago, although the ministry is still planning to eliminate another, also undermined – the Chamber of Extraordinary and Public Affairs, corresponding to, among others for determining the validity of the presidential election.

Which version of the project went to the Venetian committee?

Issues related to the Chamber of Vocational Responsibility are not the only ones that have changed in projects that divide three weeks. The latest version abandoned the institution of an extraordinary complaint, whose essence was challenged by ECtHR in the case of Wałęsa against Poland. This change was adopted by the judicial environment with satisfaction.

However, it is criticized to restore the test of independence of judges. The procedure was removed by the project of both the Codification Commission and the April. Unexpectedly, in this two days ago, the test of independence and impartiality suddenly returned. It is strange because since the act is assumed to remove neo -seasons, the test may prove to be a dead law.

There is one more question – the April project, in which the Professional Responsibility Chamber was liquidated, has already been sent – according to the assumptions – to the Venice Commission. It is not known if the commission received a corrected version.

Until the publication of this text, the Ministry of Justice did not answer our contact attempts and the questions we sent yesterday. We are still waiting for an answer.

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