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Dear Colleagues Lawyers!For the last couple of years in Poland the government and the legislature have systematically attempted to limit the independence of courts and the independence of judges. They also did much to expand their influence on functioning of the judiciary. December 2019 has brought a quite new set of challenges for judges in Poland. They can be called the most difficult in the entire history of the judiciary so far after 1989. Those are: the intense activity of the Disciplinary...

"Poland has approved a controversial law which makes it easier to dismiss judges critical of the governing party's judicial reforms. The legislation passed by 233 votes to 205 in the lower house of parliament in Warsaw on Friday. It came just hours after the European Commission urged Poland to reconsider the proposed changes. Demonstrators rallied in their thousands across Poland earlier this month to protest against the law. On Wednesday, the country's Supreme Court warned that Poland ...

"WARSAW—Poland’s parliament passed a law giving a judicial disciplinary panel the power to fine and dismiss judges for political activities, overriding complaints from European Union officials and protesters who have called the law authoritarian. The law also empowers the panel, known as the Disciplinary Chamber at the Supreme Court, to mete out penalties for judges that question the panel’s political independence. Already, 100 judges have been proposed for such penalties, according ...

On the night of December 12-13, 2019, the Sejm (first chamber of the Polish Parliament) a group of MPs from Law and Justice political party presented a draft of the so-called act on judges disciplinary. However, the real purpose of this project is to ultimately subordinate the judiciary to political power. The proposed regulation deprives judges of independence, under the threat of expulsion, prohibits them from enforcing the November 19, 2019 judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Uni...