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The politicized NCJ must cease to exist, otherwise we will face more and more chaos

After today's CJEU's  judgment (C-487/19): The politicized NCJ must cease to exist, otherwise we will face more and more chaos

 10/06/2021

 In today's judgment, the CJEU answered the question referred for a preliminary ruling by the Supreme Court, which asked the Court of Justice to find out whether gross violations of the law in the appointment of judges to new Supreme Court's chambers exclude persons so appointed from the adjudicating.  Specifically, it was about recognizing one of the slip-up cases in the course of the trial by Aleksander Stępkowski, who was appointed by the politicized National Council of the Judiciary.  The president handed him over the nomination, disregarding the fact that the resolution of the National Council of the Judiciary had been challenged and the Supreme Administrative Court suspended its execution.
 "All the accusations that we, as Iustitia, made against this political procedure have been confirmed," comments the president of the Polish Judges' Association "Iustitia", prof.  Krystian Markiewicz.  "Thanks to our campaign, the so-called "kamikaze judges" we showed that the NCJ was not about selecting the best candidates, but about pushing in with their knees those whose politicians wanted to have in the Supreme Court."
 "The politiicized NCJ is now infecting all courts in the country with nominations that will soon share the fate of Mr. Stępkowski," points out Bartłomiej Przymusiński, spokesman for Iustitia.  “If politicians do not take a step back in the case of the National Council of the Judiciary, in a moment citizens whose trials turn out to be invalid will have the full right to demand compensation for damages from politicians who could have adapted the law to European standards.  No postulates to improve the work of the courts have been met, it is getting worse, and the caste of ministerial favorites, which sat in the National Council of the Judiciary, focuses mainly on increasing their per diem and their promotions. "
 In the judgment CJEU indicated that at the present the Supreme Court has to take into account that gross defects in the procedure are not “healed” by the act of appointment to the office of judge by the President.  The case of the ruling issued by Aleksander Stępkowski will now return from Luxembourg to the panel of the SC judges that asked the question.
 “We have to watch very carefully whether the political nominees in the Supreme Court will try to take the case away from the group that was supposed to decide it or add the wrongly appointed people who would then rule on their own case.  I am afraid that is why, at such a rapid pace, Ms Manowska (the newly appointed First President of the Supreme Court) pushed to elect a new President of the Civil Chamber.  Such action, however, would be unprecedented and would amount to criminal liability.  I think an experienced judge will not take such a risk. "  - concludes Krystian Markiewicz.


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