Final act: The repression of the judiciary in Poland. By Marta Bucholc & Maciej Komornik

By Dilip -
As the situation of the judiciary in Poland develops, what was already a conundrum threatens to become completely incomprehensible. Nevertheless, it is crucial that the conflict between the European Union and the Polish government over the ongoing justice reforms is not seen as a mere technicality. On the contrary, it is a major arena in the broader conflict of values in the Union, and for that reason needs to be understood.

Until the beginning of May this year, the situation seemed positive for those hopeful of mobilizing the force of international commitments against the disassembly of the rule of law in Poland. The EU, or more specifically the Commission and the Parliament, was insisting on the prevalence of European law, particularly standards of judicial independence, over non-compliant actions of a member state. This culminated in the ruling of 8 April 2020, concerning the controversial reform of the Supreme Court of Poland. At the request of the European Commission, the ECJ granted a provisional suspension of national provisions. Although the case is still pending, the wording of the ruling could only be interpreted as a signal that the Court’s assessment of the situation in Polish Supreme Court and in the Polish judiciary in general is far from positive.

The ruling of the German Constitutional Court on 5 May 2020 may well complicate this simple picture. In its ruling on the European Central Bank’s Public Sector Purchase Programme, the German Constitutional Court questioned the exclusive competence of the ECJ in matters of European law. This was effectively to declare the matter within the German court’s jurisdiction, despite an unprecedented statement by the ECJ to the contrary. The predictable response from the Polish government to this highly controversial decision was not long in coming. In a letter to Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, the Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki praised the German ruling, as ‘one of the most important judgments in the history of the European Union’. It set clear limitations to the powers of the EU bodies, he argued, and upheld the authority of national constitutions.

The German judgment could not have come at worse time...
https://www.eurozine.com/final-act/

see also
The Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals: Written by Benedetto Croce (1925)
Robert Fisk: In the cases of two separate holocausts, Israel and Poland find it difficult to acknowledge the facts of history / On the Polish Holocaust law debate

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