Human rights and freedoms do not exist without judicial control that is independent, fair and free form political pressure. After suppressing the Constitutional Tribunal in Poland some months ago, the Government decided to eliminate the High Court of Poland and paralyze entire judicial system with the use of laws that brutally violate Polish Constitution. Thanks to unprecedented, spontaneous protests of Poles taking place all over the country, as well as pressure coming from abroad, this attempt has been now partly stopped. But the crucial question of human rights guarantees remain open.

In their blog entry on the current situation in Poland, Wojciech Przybylski and Anna Wójcik explain the essence of this crisis.

Wojciech Przybylski is editor-in-chief of Visegrad Insight, analysis and opinion journal led by editors from Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. He is expert on EU and Visegrad affairs and comments for Foreign Policy, The Financial Times, and Politico Europe, among others.

Anna Wójcik is a lawyer and sociologist, a PhD researcher at the Polish Academy of Sciences in the Memory Laws in European and Comparative Perspective (MELA) research project, and editor of Visegrad Insight.

The power of civil protest

A week after the US president Donald Trump’s visit to Warsaw, the governing populist Law and Justice party hastily pushed through parliament three bills aimed at undermining independence of the judiciary and tripartite division of powers. After the wave of spectacular street protests that swept Polish cities, President Andrzej Duda promised to veto two out of three controversial laws that would considerably increase political influence over appointments to the Supreme Court and National Council of Judiciary. However, Duda will still sign the third controversial law on functioning of common courts, which had been criticized by constitutional organs including the Supreme Court and the Polish Ombudsman, national and local councils of judges and barristers, and usually restrained academic community. (more…)