“The precedence for me will be to reconstruct the regulation of law,” declared Waldemar Żurek just after the Minister of Justice took over the portfolio in late July. He besides announced that he and his experts were working intensively on the most crucial task he had defined as the alleged regulation of law.
A sito for neojudges
We are talking about provisions to regulate the position of alleged neo-judges, i.e. judges appointed after 2018, whose position is contested due to the participation in the nomination procedure of the current National Judicial Council. The codification committee worked on these provisions first, and then for months the ministry of justice.
However, the task was not completed due to the fact that the erstwhile MS chief Adam Bodnar sent it to measure the Venice Commission. Shortly after the nomination, Minister Żurek withdrew these provisions from there to finish the task as shortly as possible, as he said.
A fewer days ago, the minister reported that the work on these provisions was already in the final stages and did not regulation out that the task would be presented in the coming days. As we agreed, Waldemar Żurek will keep his word and will present a ready draft of the alleged regulation of law at a press conference on Thursday morning.
The information provided by the “Rzeczpospolita” by 1 of the co-authors of these provisions shows that most of the basic assumptions of this task are in line with the provisions prepared by the Codification Commission of the Judiciary and Public Prosecutor's Office, on which Adam Bodnar was working.
– The basic core of the bill remains unchanged. The neo-KRS resolutions on judicial appointments will be declared null and void by law and the neo-Judges will be divided into 3 groups indicated in erstwhile projects," says our informant who worked on these regulations.
Colour groups
According to the proposals presented by Minister Adam Bodnar from the category in which the alleged neo-judges will be ranked, their destiny will depend on them. The green category includes alleged young judges whose position is to be healed by resolutions of the future KRS.
The yellow group are judges who were promoted after being assessed by the current KRS. They are to be relegated to their erstwhile positions, but they would have held their current functions for 2 more years per delegation. Then, if they do not resign, they will participate in re-jury competitions.
The Red Group included those judges who, before being appointed in the procedure before the present KRS, exercised a different legal profession. They will lose the position of judges. They will be able to claim a return to their erstwhile profession or to stay in a given court as referendars.
Minister Żurek's task in rule leaves the judgments of the alleged neo-judges in force. However, it allows for the reopening of judicial proceedings in circumstantial situations. The condition is that the organization should first challenge the position of judge. Importantly, this regulation will not apply to judgments given by the alleged neo-judges of the ultimate Court and the ultimate Administrative Court.
As we hear, the organization will not gotta show that, in the course of judicial proceedings, it has applied for an impartiality test or for the exclusion of a judge.
According to our findings, the task envisages the elimination of the contested Chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Rights of the SN, but leaves the Chamber of Professional work in the structure of this court. After the changes, the judges in this home will be drawn to identify a peculiar case from among all ultimate Court judges.
The government is besides intended to abolish an exceptional complaint, an extraordinary appeal, which is intended to let for the annulment of grossly unjust or unlawful decisions. any experts have long advocated the abolition of an emergency complaint, indicating that it interferes with the stableness of judgments and can be utilized for political pressure. Importantly, the task does not supply for an instrument to replace this complaint.
What about the judges' status?
The information about the planned presentation of the draft alleged regulation of law law was confirmed by spokesperson MS Karolina Vasilewska. As he says, Minister Waldemar Żurek will present the task at a press conference at 11 a.m. on Thursday.
There is no uncertainty that Minister Żurek has made a crucial acceleration in the work on solving the problem of alleged neo-Judges. The bill of the regulation of law is ready after just over 2 months after its establishment. However, this is only the beginning of the legislative way of these provisions, which the government will be working on, followed by 2 chambers of parliament.
However, it is highly likely that the improvement will be blocked at the end of this path. president Karol Nawrocki is powerfully opposed to questioning the right to justice the alleged neo-judges, as 1 of his last statements may prove. "Segregation of judges is simply a panic of lawlessness under the slogan of restoring the regulation of law," said the President. It besides appears that Minister Żurek is presently on a collision course with Karol Nawrocki, who laid down a regulation issued by the Minister on the allocation of cases to judges with an "ostentatious act of lawlessness".
It may besides be that the president is preparing his own solutions to heal Polish judiciary. In fresh days, he has announced the establishment of a Council for the Repair of the State's strategy to reconstruct assurance in justice.
In this context, even Minister Żurek's fresh declarations of readiness to cooperate full with the president do not give optimism and do not foretell a certain future to the regulation of law.
Przemysław Rosati
President of the ultimate Bar Council
It is very good that the task will yet be presented due to the fact that it has been referred to for 2 years and we are inactive waiting for circumstantial provisions. If the “Rzeczpospolita” reports on the project’s assumptions are confirmed, the solutions envisaged are not a large surprise. The regulation on the position of judges appointed after 2018 by law was already mentioned, as was the division of these judges into groups. I believe that this solution will not be accepted by president Karol Nawrocki, and it is up to him to decide whether the bill will come into force. I don't see a chance.
I besides do not realize the thought of leaving the Chamber of Professional work in the ultimate Court. The disciplinary work of the legal professions should be dealt with by the Criminal Chamber. The creation of a peculiar disciplinary chamber in the SN was the essence of the policy of Minister Zbigniew Ziobro. It's worth it. I welcome the proposal to resume cases concluded by the ultimate Court and the ultimate Administrative Court on grounds of the appointment of a justice without prior examination of its power.
These are the courts of the highest instance and, given the request to guarantee the standard of access of the citizen to the independent court established by the Act, this solution is desirable. However, I fishy that the law will besides lose to politics, and the bill we are talking about will not be signed by the President.
