(MENAFN- Jordan Times) Poland has launched a programme of essential changes to the judiciary system, met with resistance by some judges and stirring emotions due to a massive disinformation campaign.
The comprehensive reform of the judiciary will streamline the functioning of the courts by ensuring that judges have equal and fair workloads. The proposed changes will not affect the independence of courts or judges.
One of the key aims of the reform is to make the work of judges more effective.
The proposed amendments respond to social expectations. The reform should result in raising ethical and moral standards of the judiciary.
The National Council of the Judiciary is a constitutional body that safeguards the independence of courts and judges. However, it is vested with no judicial powers in Poland, nor is it an institution of judicial self-government.
The council does not settle disputes and does not serve as a disciplinary court for the judges.
The proposed regulations concerning the council are consistent with the provisions of the constitution, which stipulates that the organisational structure, the scope of activity and the functioning of the National Council of the Judiciary, as well as the manner of choosing its members, shall be specified by statute.
Under the proposed reform, the National Council of the Judiciary will become a truly independent institution, free from corporate interests of judiciary.
All judges will enjoy equal opportunities, in terms of selection to the council, regardless of the level of court they are part of — their competencies will be the only prerequisite.
Under the previous procedure of electing council members, some groups of judges, especially those from district courts, were not adequately represented in the council.
According to the proposed solutions, members of the National Council of the Judiciary are to be appointed by the Sejm (lower house of parliament), which has a democratic mandate. Yet the judiciary's prominence in the composition of the National Council of the Judiciary will be retained; there will be 17 judges versus eight representatives of the Sejm, senate, president of the Republic of Poland and government (the government's representative being the minister of justice).
The law establishes two new bodies of the National Council of the Judiciary: the first and the second assembly.
The balance of both assemblies of the council, composed of representatives of the executive, legislative and judicial branches, will be guaranteed by the principle according to which the decisions of the council are valid only if they have been adopted by both assemblies.
Across Europe, it is common for representatives of parliaments or executive branch to sit on judiciary councils, and their independence is not questioned.
As in Poland, parliament representatives are members of judiciary councils in such countries as Belgium, Bulgaria, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia.
On the other hand, ministers of justice or their appointees are members of judiciary councils in Ireland, France, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovakia.
One of the key goals of the reform of the judiciary is to open the judicial profession to well-educated and competent lawyers.
An important step will be to benefit more from the graduates of the National School of the Judiciary and Public Prosecution.
Currently, the graduates of this school, instead of working as judges, often perform clerical works: of referendaries or assistants. Only 24 out of the 165 people who completed their judicial training at the university were appointed to judicial positions.
Overall, the proposed reform is indispensable to regain the citizens' respect for the judiciary.
Greater transparency, closer control and ensuring independence of disciplinary proceedings should strengthen the authority of the judiciary and the judges themselves.
The regulations concerning the judiciary reform have to be approved by the president to become the law. The president has recently submitted an amendment to proposed solutions concerning procedures for the selection of judges to the National Council of the Judiciary. Under this proposal, new judges to the council would have to be elected by a three-fifths majority in parliament.
The Polish parliament passed a law on the system of common courts, on the National Council of the Judiciary and on the supreme court. Laws passed by the parliament aimed at judicial reform, which responds to the overwhelming majority of society and whose main purpose is to restore trust in the courts.
According to the Polish constitution, the act was passed to the president of the republic who announced that he would sign the law on the system of common courts and veto the other two acts.
The president also announced his own initiatives on the reform of the National Court Register and the supreme court.
The actions of the Polish authorities on the reform of the judiciary are dictated by social dissatisfaction with the current functioning of the courts.
In the democratic system, the individual organs of the state are obliged to decide on the bases and within the limits of the law, among others.
The implementation of this obligation was initiated by representatives of the public, i.e., MPs and senators. It is expected to continue the work on reform.
The writer is ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Jordan. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.
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