President picks new chief justice of Poland’s disputed constitutional court
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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, has chosen a new chief justice of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK).
He picked Bogdan Święczkowski, a figure who served as a senior prosecutor under the former PiS government and is seen as a close ally of then justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro.
The current government, however, regards the TK as illegitimate due to unlawful judicial appointments made when PiS was in power from 2015 to 2023. It is therefore likely to continue ignoring the TK and its rulings, as it has up to now.
The head of Poland’s constitutional court has stepped down from her position and will oversee the selection of a new chief justice.
However, the government does not recognise the legitimacy of her or her court and is likely to continue to ignore them https://t.co/c3AawHz2UT
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 2, 2024
Last week, the TK confirmed that Julia Przyłębska – a close associate of PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński who has served as the chief justice since 2016 – had stepped down from her position shortly before her nine-year term on the court came to an end.
That prompted a vote on Friday among all serving TK judges to choose at least two candidates to lead the court. They were then presented to Duda, who could choose one as the new chief justice.
On Monday afternoon, in a ceremony at the presidential palace, Duda swore in Święczkowski for a six-year term as head of the court. He was chosen instead of the second candidate, Bartłomiej Sochański, a former PiS politician.
Święczkowski is the least experienced judge at the TK, having only been appointed there in February 2022 after serving for six years as national prosecutor under the PiS government. Before that he was a deputy justice minister in the PiS government and an elected PiS politician.
During his time as national prosecutor, Święczkowski was regarded as the right-hand man of Ziobro, who as well as justice minister also served as public prosecutor general.
During that period, Ziobro, PiS and Duda oversaw a radical overhaul of the judicial system that is widely seen by international institutions, many Polish and European courts, and the Polish public as having violated the rule of law and politicised the courts and prosecutorial service.
Those actions also targeted the TK itself. The new government, which replaced PiS in office one year ago, notes that PiS and Duda improperly appointed three judges to the court in place of candidates who had been nominated before PiS took power.
The Supreme Court has found that rulings made by the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) involving judges illegitimately appointed under the former PiS government are invalid.
One such ruling was the near-total abortion ban introduced by the TK in 2020 https://t.co/0tDuHNMQ2p
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 3, 2024
They also say that Przyłębska was appointed as chief justice in 2016 in violation of proper procedures and that she has been unlawfully acting as chief justice for the last two years because her term expired in December 2022.
As a result, the ruling coalition regards the TK in its current form as illegitimate and has consistently ignored its rulings, which have regularly gone against government policies. It wants to overhaul the tribunal, but cannot do so while Duda remains in office until the middle of next year.
PiS and Duda argue that it is in fact the current government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, that is responsible for violating the constitution and the rule of law.
“In [these] times of political upheavals and ongoing battles, where the rule of law – compliance with the constitution – is of fundamental importance…this position requires a person who is not afraid to make decisions [and] has great experience,” said Duda today, explaining his decision to pick Święczkowski.
President Duda has refused to sign two bills passed by the governing coalition that would overhaul and depoliticise the Constitutional Tribunal (TK).
Instead, he has sent them to the TK itself for assessment, saying he believes them to be unconstitutional https://t.co/6AuQsUdzYt
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 8, 2024
However, Piotr Uziębło, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Gdańsk, called both Święczkowski and Sochański “among the least suitable” candidates to lead the TK. He told broadcaster TVN that “there are many doubts about the legality of [Święczkowski’s] actions” when he was national prosecutor.
Andrzej Jackiewicz, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Białystok, noted that, if the unlawfully appointed TK judges were involved in selecting the new chief justice, then the process is legally flawed.
Meanwhile, ahead of today’s announcement by Duda, deputy justice minister Arkadiusz Myrcha told the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna that the TK in its current form has lost all credibility and “its rulings have zero significance”.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Image credits: Marek Borowski/KPRP
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
