Dispute over judges of the Constitutional Tribunal. The Chancellery of the Sejm reports to the President
The Sejm successfully elected six judges of the Constitutional Tribunal, and the president has not yet fulfilled the “statutory obligation to take the oath” from all of them – emphasizes the Chancellery of the Sejm in a statement on Friday.
“Each candidate was voted on individually for six vacant positions,” the Chancellery noted. Against, among others, this all persons elected as judges of the Constitutional Tribunal on March 13 “are judges of the Constitutional Tribunal and are in an identical legal situation”. “Taking the oath from only two of these people has no legal basis and is a manifestation of abuse of power,” she said.
See also: Two judges invited to the Palace. What about the rest?
“Usurpation of competences”
The statement from the Chancellery of the Sejm emphasized that, in accordance with the constitution, it is the Sejm that elects the judges of the Constitutional Tribunal, and the role of the president under the act is to take all their oaths. “The head of state has no competence to assess the correctness of the choice made. The refusal to take the oath from some selected judges has no legal basis and constitutes usurpation of competences by the President of the Republic of Poland. – says the message.
In the opinion of the Chancellery, the appointment of Constitutional Tribunal judges after the expiry of the predecessor's judicial term – which is one of the comments of the KPRP raised in connection with the March election of the Sejm – is “nothing unusual” in the Polish legal order.
As an example, it was indicated that after the term of office of Leon Kieres expired, which occurred in July 2021, the Sejm filled the position approximately 200 days later – in February 2022, when it elected Bogdan Święczkowski (national prosecutor during the PiS government, currently president of the Constitutional Tribunal) as a judge of the Tribunal. As indicated, even though more than half a year has passed between these dates, the president has not yet questioned the effectiveness of Święczkowski's election to the position of judge of the Tribunal.
See also: New judges of the Constitutional Tribunal. “We are counting on a specific move by the president”
Dispute over judges of the Constitutional Tribunal
According to the Chancellery, the election of several Constitutional Tribunal judges at one session of the Sejm does not constitute an “extraordinary situation”. As reported, in November 2001, in one day, the Sejm elected four judges of the Constitutional Tribunal (Marian Grzybowski, Marek Mazurkiewicz, Mirosław Wyrzykowski and Bohdan Zdziennicki), and on October 27, 2006, three (Maria Gintowt-Jankowicz, Wojciech Hermeliński and Marek Kotlinowski).
The law firm pointed out that the statutory deadline between submitting and selecting candidates – which is also pointed out by critics of the election of six Constitutional Tribunal judges in March – was shortened during previous terms – in 2019, when Krystyna Pawłowicz and Stanisław Piotrowicz were elected judges of the Constitutional Tribunal.
The Chancellery of the Sejm comments on the words of Zbigniew Bogucki
In the statement, the Chancellery also referred to the arguments of the Chancellery of the Presidentpresented by its head, Zbigniew Bogucki, that President Nawrocki took the oath from two judges, because two seats at the Tribunal had just become vacant during his term of office (in December 2025, judge Krystyna Pawłowicz and judge Michał Warciński retired).
According to the Chancellery of the Sejm, such reasoning is “not only extra-legal, but also leads to unacceptable consequences” – including the recognition that it will not be possible to fill the remaining four positions vacant during the term of office of former President Andrzej Duda. According to the Chancellery of the Sejm, this state of affairs causes “obvious obstruction of the Tribunal's operation” and “clearly” and “devoid of any legal basis” limits the creative function of the Sejm. At this point, she emphasized that, according to the constitution, the Sejm has the right to elect judges of the Tribunal.
Constitutional Tribunal judges elected by the Sejm
When the Sejm elected judges in the Constitutional Tribunal, there were six vacancies. The Constitutional Tribunal then consisted of 9 judges for 15 judge positions. After the judges who took the oath on Wednesday take up their functions in the Constitutional Tribunal, there will be 11 people in the Tribunal, although the government currently does not recognize Justyn Piskorski and Jarosław Wyrembak as judges of the Constitutional Tribunal, which was reflected in a recent resolution of the Sejm.
The Sejm elected six judges of the Constitutional Tribunal on March 13. The following people were elected as judges of the Constitutional Tribunal:
— judge and chairman of the codification commission of the judiciary and prosecutor's office at the Ministry of Justice Krystian Markiewicz;
— Ph.D. legal sciences, prof. at the Institute of Legal Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences Maciej Taborowski;
— Ph.D. legal sciences, prof. at the Department of Civil Procedure at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw Marcin Dziurda;
— judge, former president of the District Court in Opole, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska;
— Ph.D. prof. University of Silesia Dariusz Szostek,
— and lawyer Dr. Magdalena Bentkowska.
