Politics And Constitutionality: The Case Of Poland

At the European Union level, the situation in Poland has raised concerns about the violation of the rule of law. In particular, the European Union has appreciated that the violation of the rule of law was achieved through the lack of an independent and legitimate constitutional review and the adoption by the Polish Parliament of new legislation relating to the Polish judiciary which raises grave concerns as regards judicial independence and increases significantly the systemic threat to the rule of law in Poland: the law on the Supreme Court; approved by the Senate on 15 December 2017, the law amending the law on the Ordinary Courts Organization, published in the Polish Official Journal on 28 July 2017 and in force since 12 August 2017, the law amending the law on the National Council for the Judiciary and certain other laws approved by the Senate on 15 December 2017, the law amending the law on the National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecution, the law on Ordinary Courts Organization and certain other laws, published in the Polish Official Journal on 13 June 2017 and in force since 20 June 2017. In this paper we propose to follow only the evolution of the legislative framework that concerns the constitutional court in Poland, as well as the interpretation of these changes by the institutions of the European Union. The issues we are raising concern the constitutional and legislative changes in Poland, the deviations from the rule of law and the legislative and organizational reforms in the Polish constitutional context.