A split from EU law would cause grave economic damage in Poland
). It complains that judges are self-serving, unelected elites who substitute their own preferences for those of voters. Since taking office in 2015has passed laws that give the government ever more control over the judiciary, violating the commitment to uphold the rule of law that Poland made when it joined the European Union.
This conflict is coming to a head. The European Commission and the European Court of Justice have declared several Polish reforms incompatible withlaw. One change would have forced a mass retirement of judges, and given the government and parliament control over appointing new ones. Another set up a disciplinary chamber that can punish judges for their decisions. Others put the justice minister in charge of appointing senior judges who decide which of their colleagues hear which cases.
The Polish government gives three reasons for its changes. First, it claims that Poland’s judiciary was never properly de-communised. This is bunk. The average judge was a teenager when Polish communism collapsed in 1989. Second, Poland’s courts are too slow. This is true, but the main problems are creakyand a lack of support staff, which the reforms ignore. Third, it says the new disciplinary chambers are needed to punish judges for such things as drink-driving.
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