Strengthening the effectiveness of EU law via judicial incrementalism: YP and Others and MM (C-615/20)
Giulia Gentile, Op-Ed: “Strengthening the effectiveness of EU law via judicial incrementalism: YP and Others and MM (C-615/20)” by Giulia Gentile, EU Law Live, 15 September 2023
Posted: 16 Oct 2023
Date Written: September 15, 2023
Abstract
The rulings in the YP and Others and MM (C-615/20), delivered on 13 July 2023, belong to the convoluted, prolonged rule-of-law-backsliding saga affecting Poland. These two preliminary ruling requests stemmed from the operations of the Disciplinary Chamber established with the judicial reform introduced by the ruling party, the PIS. As it is extensively discussed in literature and in the media, these reforms were introduced to strengthen the President of the Polish Republic’s oversight on the judiciary. Both the Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights have found that the establishment of the Disciplinary Chamber and, more broadly, the recent judicial reforms, violate core elements of the principle of judicial independence protected under EU law and the Convention. Notwithstanding those binding judgments, the Polish Government has kept the judicial reforms into force. In 2022 the Polish Government adopted a framework dissolving the Disciplinary Chamber while introducing a remedy against the measures adopted by the same Chamber.
Keywords: preliminary ruling, EU law, Court of Justice, judicial independence, Polish judicial reform
JEL Classification: k19
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation