EU Court of Justice Finds Poland's Court Reforms in Violation of EU Law [1]
On June 5th, 2023, The Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) ruled [3] (at the time of writing, the judgment was not available in English) that the Polish Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Chamber violated EU laws on “effective judicial protection, judicial independence, and the rule of law.” The Court of Justice found that specific provisions of Poland’s court reform law, including the creation of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, infringed upon the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and did not satisfy “the requirement of independence and impartiality.” Furthermore, the Extraordinary Review and Public Affairs Chamber of the Supreme Court was criticized for having “monopolistic control” and being liable to weaken the “fundamental right to effective judicial protection enshrined in EU law.” The ruling also highlighted violations related to data privacy, as judges were required to declare their memberships in political parties and associations, an action which the Court believed may “expose judges to risks of undue stigmatization.” As noted by JURIST [4], this clash between Poland and the EU Commission is not the first regarding rule of law issues, as the Commission had previously referred Poland to the EU Court of Justice in February over rulings by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal that were deemed to violate EU rule of law policies.