Our Senior Research Fellow Andras Sajo co-authored the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights report on the judicial independence in Poland.
The report, entitled Urgent Interim Opinion on the Bill Amending the Act on the Supreme Court and Certain Other Acts of Poland, benefited from contributions made by Marta Achler (European University Institute), Yves Doutriaux (French Council of State), Tamara Otiashvili (Senior Legal Expert) and Professor Sajo.
“While the Bill introduces mechanisms to address some of the existing issues in the justice system, the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed solution, as it is, remains doubtful. It offers no safeguards that would preclude disciplinary decisions of the SAC issued by panels composed of judges appointed by the reformed NCJ being questioned in the same way as the decisions of the newly established Supreme Court’s Chambers. More importantly, the proposed amendments do not address the root causes by leaving unchanged the fundamental systemic deficiencies of the legislation undermining the independence of the judiciary and of individual judges, as established by the CJEU and the ECtHR,” the report concludes.
Download the full Urgent Interim Opinion here.