page_title: 2015 Polish Constitutional Court crisis
section_title: Constitutional court law changes
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 Polish Constitutional Court crisis / Constitutional court law changes
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Warszawa - Trybunał Konstytucyjny Deutsch: Hauptsitz des Verfassungsgerichtshofes der Republik Polen in Warschau.
context_page_description: The Polish Constitutional Court crisis of 2015 is a political conflict which began in Poland in October 2015 with the appointment of five Constitutional Tribunal judges by the Civic Platform party. As of 20 December 2017, the crisis had, according to the European Commission, extended to include "13 laws affecting the entire structure of the justice system in Poland". The Constitutional Tribunal changes included the replacement of three judges whose terms were not due to expire until after the first possible date of meeting of the new parliament and two judges whose terms were not due to expire until after the last possible date of meeting of the new parliament. According to the Polish law, judges of the Constitutional Tribunal are to be elected by the parliament which is sitting when the terms of the previous judges expire.‹See TfM›
  Civic Platform was predicted to lose the upcoming elections. After the Law and Justice party won the parliamentary election, it made its own appointments to the court, arguing that the previous appointments of the five judges by PO were unconstitutional.
context_section_description: On 22 December 2015, the Sejm passed a law which reorganised the Constitutional Court. The new law introduced a two-thirds majority and the mandatory participation of at least 13, instead of 9, of the 15 judges. Art. 190 (5) of the Polish Constitution requires only the majority of votes.
  Furthermore, pending constitutional proceedings had previously to wait in the docket for six months, or under exceptional circumstances for three months. The Court is now bound to handle the cases according to the date of receipt. Judges of the Constitutional Court can be dismissed on request of the Sejm, the President or the Department of Justice.
  The bill was approved by the Polish Senate on 24 December 2015 after an overnight session, and signed by President Duda on 28 December 2015. It has been said that as a result, the decision-making capacity of the court has been "paralysed".
  On 9 March 2016, the Constitutional Court ruled the amendments non-compliant with the Polish constitution. The Polish government regards this verdict as not binding, as it was not based on the rules introduced by the amendment, and refused to publish the verdict, a binding condition for its legal validity.
caption: The Constitutional Court in Warsaw
exif: {}