MAIN POINTS
1
Last month, the Polish Sejm elected 15 members of the National Council of the Judiciary (NCJ) from among judges. The National Council of the Judiciary, which counts 25 members in total, was convened for the first time with its newly elected judge members on June 11. Among those judges were candidates nominated by all parliamentary political groups.
2
Meanwhile, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, whose rulings Donald Tusk’s government stopped publishing as early as April, 2024, had issued an interim order prohibiting the Sejm from electing members of the National Council of the Judiciary by a simple majority vote. However, since Law and Justice (PiS) MPs did not take part in the vote, the election of 15 judges to the National Council of the Judiciary was held by a three-fifths majority and therefore did not violate the Constitutional Tribunal’s order.
3
Despite certain doubts, which will still be examined by the Constitutional Tribunal, it appears that the election should thus be considered valid.
4
At the same time, this election by the current Sejm invalidates the entire narrative of the current ruling camp, previously supported by the European Commission, according to which the Sejm’s election of NCJ members from among judges is unconstitutional and thus impermissible.
AOn May 15, 2026, the Sejm, with the votes of 235 deputies of the current coalition in power, elected 15 new members of the National Council of the Judiciary (NCJ) from among judges for a four-year term. The Sejm fulfilled this obligation, which we also reminded them of, by considering the candidates proposed by all parliamentary political groups that were present at the beginning of the Sejm’s term, pursuant to Article 11d(4) of the Act on the National Council of the Judiciary.
The Sejm elected 13 judges to the National Council of the Judiciary who were proposed by the parties of the current ruling coalition, and 2 who were proposed by two opposition parties (Law and Justice and Confederation).
Despite the validity of this selection (just as the selections made in 2018 and 2022 were valid, even though the current rulers—then in opposition—claimed otherwise and enjoyed the support of the European Commission in the then-ongoing rule-of-law disputes between Brussels and Warsaw), it cannot be said that the selection took place without controversy.
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Source of cover photo: Ordo Iuris
