First President of the Supreme Court Zbigniew Kapi\u0144ski has called on the Senate to select lay judges with greater rigor, aiming to restore public trust and ensure the functional continuity of the judiciary.<\/p>\n
First President of the Supreme Court Zbigniew Kapi\u0144ski wrote to Senate Marshal Ma\u0142gorzata Kidawa-B\u0142o\u0144ska, emphasizing the necessity of selecting future lay judges with awareness of their critical role in the justice system. Kapi\u0144ski noted that the selection process is vital for rebuilding institutional trust.<\/p>\n
The Senate recently began the procedure to elect 30 lay judges for a four-year term, scheduled to run from January 1, 2027, through December 31, 2030. Kapi\u0144ski cautioned against recurring issues seen during the 2023\u20132025 period, where a majority of lay judges refused to perform their adjudicatory duties.<\/p>\n
The current impasse stems from the previous election cycle in 2022, when 26 of the 30 elected lay judges were nominated by the Committee for the Defense of Democracy. These individuals have consistently refused to sit on panels alongside judges appointed after 2017 through the National Council of the Judiciary.<\/p>\n
Kapi\u0144ski highlighted that these refusals are not isolated incidents but a persistent obstruction. Previous formal requests to dismiss non-participating lay judges were submitted to the Senate but were ultimately disregarded.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court president stressed that the Senate\u2019s verification process directly impacts the court\u2019s ability to function in disciplinary proceedings and extraordinary complaints. He urged lawmakers to ensure that candidates are not tied to specific political agendas or organizations.<\/p>\n
Kapi\u0144ski reiterated that public service is not a matter of personal preference or political ideology. He offered his full assistance in resolving these conflicts, which he argues have severely undermined the authority of the judiciary and negatively affected citizens awaiting legal resolutions.<\/p>\n
The controversy is compounded by an ongoing dispute regarding Kapi\u0144ski\u2019s own appointment, which the Supreme Court\u2019s Lay Judge Council has declared illegitimate. Lay judges were introduced to the Supreme Court in 2018 under legislation passed during the PiS administration to participate in specific sensitive proceedings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First President of the Supreme Court Zbigniew Kapi\u0144ski has called on the Senate to select lay judges with greater rigor, aiming to restore public trust and ensure the functional continuity of the judiciary. Addressing the Crisis of Judicial Performance First President of the Supreme Court Zbigniew Kapi\u0144ski wrote to Senate Marshal Ma\u0142gorzata Kidawa-B\u0142o\u0144ska, emphasizing the […]<\/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-8556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8556","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=8556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}