Op-ed: Poland's constitutional tribunal says government cannot disqualify controversially-appointed judges

On November 25, 2025, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal issued a judgment (P 7/23) in which it answered the following legal question: whether Article 48 § 1 point 1 of the Act of 17 November 1964 – Code of Civil Procedure (Official Journal of 2021, item 1805, as amended) “understood as meaning that the circumstance of a judge’s appointment by the President of the Republic of Poland, upon a motion of the National Council of the Judiciary, to hold office constitutes a ground for the judge’s disqualification by operation of law,” is consistent with Article 179 in conjunction with Article 144(3)(17) and Article 190(1) of the Constitution. In essence, the question concerned whether a court may rely on the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure concerning the disqualification of a judge by operation of law to disqualify a judge solely and exclusively on the ground that the judge was appointed by the President of the Republic of Poland on the basis of a motion by the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), elected under the rules in force since 2018 (that is, one whose members chosen from among judges, as referred to in Article 187(1)(2) of the Constitution, were elected by the Sejm). Let us recall here that the change in the method of electing KRS members was one of the main fault lines in the conflict between the then-opposition, which now governs as part of a broad left-liberal coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and the then-parliamentary majority led by Law and Justice (PiS).
Read the full article here: Obserwator-Raworzadnosci