Judicial Independence in Poland

Abstract

Following 20 years of transformation, Poland has an independent judiciary, in both the constitutional and practical sense. Guarantees of Polish law, although perhaps not perfect with respect to certain issues, provide a general guarantee of independence which is additionally reinforced by guardians of this principle, in particular the National Council of the Judiciary. The Polish judiciary has so-called institutional memory. In 1989 there was no radical clearing out of the justice system of judges who collaborated with the previous system. Thanks to this it was possible to stabilize a legal system immediately after the start of transformation and to make a natural shift in generations of judges and build the principle of independence on a long term basis.

The authors would like to thank Katarzyna Gonera, judge of the Supreme Court, and Eva Katinka Schmidt, Rule of Law Officer of OSCE ODIHR, for their invaluable comments on earlier drafts.