In a judgement published on Tuesday 29 June, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Poland for the dismissal of two judges without cause and without possible appeal, stating that the “compatibility” of this 2017 reform with the requirements of the Rule of law, was “doubtful”.
These judges were appointed as vice-presidents of the Kielce court in 2014, and in 2018 they were informed of the termination of their mandate in accordance with the 2017 Act on the Amendment of the Act on the Organisation of Ordinary Courts.
In response to their requests for explanations, they were told that the Minister of Justice - Zbigniew Ziobro, a member of the Law and Justice (PiS) ally Poland Solidarity - was not obliged to communicate the reasons for his decision and that no appeal was possible.
Poland thereby infringed the applicants’ right of access to a court as guaranteed by Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Court ruled, ordering Poland to pay each of the applicants €20,000 for material and non-material damages.
The judges - who had already condemned Poland in May for the irregular appointment of one of the judges of the Constitutional Court - insisted on the importance of control by an independent judicial body in order to guard against the arbitrariness of executive power. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)