MAIN POINTS
1
The dispute over the composition of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal is ongoing, fueled by government pressure aimed at admitting to adjudication 4 persons who have not taken the oath of office before the President of the Republic of Poland.
2
This pressure also involves two judges who, having been elected to the Constitutional Tribunal by the current Sejm and having duly taken the oath before the President, subsequently retook it unlawfully before the Speaker of the Sejm. These two judges filed a report with the Prosecutor’s Office alleging that the President of the Constitutional Tribunal may have committed a criminal offense by failing to admit the 4 persons who have not taken the oath to adjudicate. In response, the President of the Constitutional Tribunal reported to the Prosecutor’s Office that the two judges may have filed a false criminal report.
3
On May 5, 2026, the European Court of Human Rights issued an interim measure ordering that the 4 persons not be prevented from discharging their duties as Constitutional Tribunal judges. However, this measure was issued defectively – without fulfilling the relevant requirements – and in a case that falls outside the ECtHR’s jurisdiction. Furthermore, interim measures of this type, as they are not provided for in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, are not legally binding in Polish law.
4
On May 22 of this year, all 6 persons elected to the Constitutional Tribunal by the current Sejm demanded, with the backing of Minister of Justice Waldemar Żurek, that the President of the Tribunal convene the Constitutional Tribunal’s General Assembly in order to admit the 4 who had not taken the oath before the President of the Republic of Poland to adjudicate. However, the provisions of the Act on proceedings before the Constitutional Tribunal state clearly that the General Assembly is composed exclusively of sitting judges of the Tribunal who have taken the oath before the President of the Republic of Poland.
On March 13, 2026, the Sejm elected 6 persons as judges of the Constitutional Tribunal. Due to certain doubts regarding the election, as well as proceedings before the Constitutional Tribunal concerning the constitutionality of the procedure for electing these judges, the President of the Republic of Poland administered the oath of office to only 2 of the 6 persons, temporarily refraining from receiving it from the remaining 4. Against this backdrop, all 6 persons – including the 2 who had already taken the oath before the President of the Republic of Poland – on April 9 took an oath de facto before the Speaker of the Sejm, in a manner unknown to Polish law. Following this, the government and organizations aligned with it began exerting pressure on the President of the Constitutional Tribunal to admit the remaining 4 to discharge their duties as Constitutional Tribunal judges, even though, pursuant to Articles 4 and 5 of the Act on the Status of Constitutional Tribunal Judges, the service relationship of a Constitutional Tribunal judge is established upon the taking of the oath before the President of the Republic of Poland.
(…)
Source of cover photo: Ordo Iuris
