European Court of Justice Blocks Implementation of Polish Law on Judges' Retirement (December 17, 2018) [1]
On December 17, 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled [3] in Commission v. Poland that Poland must immediately suspend implementation of the domestic legislation that lowers the retirement age for Supreme Court Justices to 65 and gives the Polish president discretion in extending the judges’ service, which would have resulted in the removal of nearly one-third of the Court’s judges. As noted in the press release [4], on October 2, 2018, the European Commission filed suit against Poland for infringing on EU law through the law, and on October 19, the Vice President of the Court provisionally granted the Commission’s request for interim measures, which included ordering Poland to halt enforcement of the law and ensuring the judges at issue may continue their work without being replaced. In the current decision, the Court held first that the Commission’s arguments that the legislation jeopardizes the principles of the irremovability of judges and judicial independence are not unfounded, and second that a refusal to grant the interim measures could cause irreparable damage to the EU legal order, and so the measures are deemed urgent. Additionally, the Court determined that weighing the interests of Poland and the Commission in the matter supported the measures, and consequently the Court granted the Commission’s request for interim measures.