MAIN POINTs
1
On July 28, 2026, the President of the Republic of Poland presented acts of appointment to 211 judicial assessors of the district courts and 18 assessors of the voivodeship administrative courts. The acts do not bear the countersignature of the Prime Minister – in accordance with the judgment of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal of June 25, 2026 (K 2/26), which found the requirement of such a countersignature to be unconstitutional. The Tribunal’s judgment is final.
2
That same day, the Ministry of Justice sent a letter to the presidents of the courts of appeal – according to which the persons appointed by the President are still “examined trainees of the National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecution (KSSiP),” and not assessors – calling for them not to be allowed to adjudicate.
3
On July 29, 2026, the National Council of the Judiciary (NCJ) – the body whose constitutional task is to safeguard the independence of the courts – adopted a resolution in which it endorsed the government’s narrative of an obligation of countersignature.
4
The Prime Minister, who now demands a countersignature, had previously refused for a very long time to grant one, contrary to the appeals of, among others, Poland’s Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman).
5
Court presidents who do not allow the assessors to adjudicate could face disciplinary and criminal liability, and the State Treasury could face compensation claims on the part of the assessors.
On July 28, 2026, a ceremony was held at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw at which acts of appointment to the position of judicial assessor – in Poland, a junior judge who performs the duties of a judge – were presented. Appointments went to 211 assessors of the district courts and 18 assessors of the voivodeship administrative courts – mostly graduates of Poland’s National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecution (KSSiP), of whom nearly 70% of this year’s graduates had, owing to protracted procedures, so far remained without work and without means of subsistence.
Unfortunately, instead of closing the matter, the ceremony became the opening of yet another installment of a constitutional dispute whose victims include not only the independence of the justice system but also the purely personal situation of the assessors. That very same day, the Ministry of Justice informed the presidents of the courts of appeal that the assessors appointed by the President are not assessors until the Prime Minister places his signature (the so-called countersignature) under their acts of appointment. A day later, the National Council of the Judiciary (NCJ) joined the ministry’s position. It is the body which, under Article 186(1) of the Polish Constitution, safeguards the independence of the courts and of judges, and its composition was renewed earlier this year by the current parliamentary majority.
(…)
Source of cover photo: Ordo Iuris
