On January 16, 2020, the Council of Europe's Venice Commission for Democracy Through Law and the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe published an "Urgent Joint Opinion on the amendments to the Law on organisation on the Common Courts, the Law on the Supreme Court and other Laws." Like the OSCE opinion published earlier this week, the Venice Commission expressed concern over the laws and their negative impact on the independence of the Polish judiciary. A similar sentiment was expressed by the Venice Commission in a 2017 opinion on similar legislative "reforms" emanating from Poland. In its recent opinion, the Venice Commission states that, though the 2019 legislation attempts to remedy some of the problems of the 2017 legislative reforms, the 2019 draft legislation "may be seen as further undermining the independence of the judiciary," in particular by limiting judges' freedom of speech and association. The Venice Commission further concludes that the 2019 legislation "diminish[es] judicial independence and put[s] Polish judges into the impossible situation of having to face disciplinary proceedings for decisions required by the [European Convention on Human Rights], the law of the European Union, and other international instruments." The Venice Commission therefore recommends that the 2019 draft legislation not be adopted.