The Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union has challenged the legitimacy of “mixed” judicial panels in Poland, stating that improper appointments undermine the requirements of an independent court. <\/p>\n
Advocate General Tamara \u0106apeta has proposed that the Court should decline to rule on the composition of the Polish Supreme Court in a specific case. However, she added that if the Court chooses to proceed, it should determine that a “mixed” panel, which includes judges appointed through flawed processes, does not constitute an independent court.<\/p>\n
\u0106apeta issued this opinion following prejudicial questions regarding irregularities in Supreme Court appointments linked to the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) as constituted after 2018.<\/p>\n
The case began in 2018 when Waldemar \u017burek, then a judge at the Krakow Regional Court and currently the Minister of Justice, challenged his involuntary transfer to another department. After his appeal to the KRS was dismissed, he sought redress in the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
The case reached the Civil Chamber after requests to exclude judges from the Chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs. Amidst several changes in the panel composition, the first president of the Supreme Court appointed a new seven-member panel, leading the reporting judge to refer the matter to the ECJ regarding the legality of these appointments under EU law.<\/p>\n
\u0106apeta noted that the case has become moot due to the judge\u2019s resignation. However, she maintained that if the Court were to rule, it should find that EU law prohibits the participation of judges appointed in violation of national rules. In her view, a panel comprising both correctly and incorrectly appointed judges lacks the independence and impartiality required by EU law.<\/p>\n
She also addressed internal court organization, noting that decisions on panel composition may be ineffective if made by someone whose own appointment violated EU law. However, she cautioned that the invalidity of a panel’s appointment does not automatically void its legal rulings.<\/p>\n
In separate judgments, the ECJ ruled that the procedure for appointing judges is critical to the legitimacy of the judiciary. If irregularities occur that raise reasonable doubts about a judge\u2019s neutrality or susceptibility to external pressure, particularly from the executive branch, those appointments can be challenged.<\/p>\n
The Court further clarified that it is unlawful to allow a panel containing at least one judge appointed under questionable circumstances to preside over a case evaluating the independence of other judges. Such a process would not satisfy the requirements of an impartial tribunal under European law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union has challenged the legitimacy of “mixed” judicial panels in Poland, stating that improper appointments undermine the requirements of an independent court. Opinion of the ECJ Advocate General Advocate General Tamara \u0106apeta has proposed that the Court should decline to rule on the composition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}