Legislative Practice and the ‘Judiciary Reforms’ in Post-2015 Poland – Analysis of the Law-Making Process

Abstract

This paper examines changes that occurred in the Polish lawmaking process associated with primary legislation (laws and amendments) affecting the court system. It uses the database of 126 laws adopted in the 1991–2019 timeframe (Ist to VIIIth term), that modified either (i) the law on common courts system or (ii) the law on the National Council of Judiciary – two legal acts constituting the backbone of the general jurisdiction courts system. A significant extension of our research is the coverage of RIAs and assessment of their quality. Analysis documents the transition from a rather consensual and deliberative law-making process to the partisan voting machine. That, in turn, enabled so-called ‘reforms’ of the Polish judiciary, implemented after 2015.

Keywords: law-making process, the court system, judicial independence, illiberal democracy