Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-24T08:55:40.190Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Constitutional Court and Politics

The Polish Crisis

from Part II - Democratic Effectiveness of Judicial Power

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2019

Get access

Summary

This article presents the crisis around the Polish Constitutional Court in 2015–2017. It was launched immediately after the 2015 parliamentary elections in which the Law and Justice Party had gained control over all political branches of government. The new majority took several attempts, first to neutralize the Court and later to pack it with new judges and to control it politically. The Court was able to resist until the end of 2016, but – finally – could not avoid the process of gradual absorption into the new political reality. The Polish example delivers an interesting illustration for a process of an [un]constitutional change which was effectuated without any formal constitutional amendment. This process could not have been achieved without neutralization of the Constitutional Court. The Court was able to delay the process (in particular, as regards the overall “reform” of the judicial branch which was effectuated only in 2017/18). But, at the same time, the Polish crisis demonstrated the limits of judicial review when confronted with actions of political branches of government.
Type
Chapter
Information
Judicial Power
How Constitutional Courts Affect Political Transformations
, pp. 141 - 162
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×