Uwagi o zgodności z konstytucją znowelizowanego prawa o ustroju sądów powszechnych

The Act of 2001 – Law on the System of Common Courts was amended in 2011, introducing a number of significant changes in the rules of the system. It introduces changes in the model of administrative supervision over the administrative work of courts, introduces new regulations for the organisation of courts, court authorities, corporations of judges, the status of a judge and appointment for the office of a judge. New regulations also relate to regular evaluation of the performance of judges and their disciplinary responsibility and change the provisions concerning law clerks and judge’s assistants. As a result of amendments, only about 1/3 of the original text from 2001 has remained in its current text. In this situation, a new law should have been enacted, as its lack infringes the principle of proper legislation derived from the principle of the democratic state ruled by law established in Article 2 of the Constitution. In the author’s view, supervision of the courts by the Minister of Justice, which steps into the realm of judicial independence and interferes in the process of judicial adjudication, is unconstitutional, so is the monitoring carried out on the basis of vague legal provisions. The same applies to the new system of job evaluation and career planning of judges. Moreover, new provisions granting judges’ corporations only consultative powers are also unconstitutional.