LEGAL DISPUTE OVER THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF POLISH REGULATIONS AND THEIR EFFECTS AFTER THE AMENDMENT OF THE PROVISIONS ON REACHING THE RETIREMENT AGE BY THE JUDGES OF THE POLISH SUPREME COURT
Main Article Content
Abstract
The Constitution of the Republic of Poland clearly states in article 180 (1) that “Judges are irremovable”. Irremovability, next to independence, is a guarantee of impartiality of courts, defined in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland as “a separate authority, independent of other authorities” (Article 173). The previous Act on the Supreme Court of 23 November 2002 also established the rule of retirement of a judge after reaching 70 years of age. On 4 July 2018, the Act of 8 December 2017 on the Supreme Court came into force. It lowers by five years the age at which judges of the Supreme Court retire (leave service) (Article 37 § 1). The age after reaching which there occurs an automatic - at the will of the legislature - change in the status of the judge from active status to the state of non-performance of duties may be legitimately called a “retirement age”. The executive and political power again obtained legally accepted influence on the selection of judges. This scenario is again being implemented by the currently ruling political party and state authorities, legislative and executive.
Article Details
Copyright and originality of the offered manuscript
1. It is assumed that the manuscript offered has not been previously published. It is expected that the authors will inform the editorial board of TLQ if the entire manuscript, its parts or some relevant results have been previously published in a different publication at the level of an article in a reviewed scientific magazine or monograph. Should the editorial board of TLQ conclude that this condition was not fulfilled the review process may be terminated.
2. It is assumed that the submitted manuscript is an original academic work. If that is not the case the author needs to provide information regarding all circumstances that could raise doubts whether the manuscript is the outcome of original research.
3. By submitting the manuscript the author acknowledges that after the publication in The Lawyer Quarterly her/his work will be made available online to the Internet users and also kept by the Library of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Author's rights to further use the work remain unabridged.