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The Constitution of the Republic of Poland contains many provisions defining the basic principles of the operation of the third power. These concern the rules of organizing the judiciary and the fair trialfair trialfair trial, as well as the rights of an individual related to court proceedings.

The principle of judicial independence was explicitly expressed in art. 178 para. 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, which provides: judges, within the exercise of their office, shall be independent and subjectsubjectedsubject only to the Constitution and statutes. This is the material guarantee of independence.

In practice, in order to ensure real independence for judges, the manner of their appointment, as well as formal and material guarantees, which stabilize their position and legal situation, are of significant importance. According to art. 179 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, the judges are appointed by the President of the Republic of Poland at the request of the National Council of the Judiciary. The appointment of a judge by the President of the Republic of Poland is the culmination of a long procedure, in which the qualification of the candidate for this office is assessedto assessassessed.

Guarantees of judicial independence

Common courts implement the administration of justice concerning all matters save forsave forsave for those statutorily reserved to other courts. They include district courts, regional courts, and courts of appeal.

A district court is established for one or more than one commune, or for part of a commune. It is a court of the first instance. In each district court penal (criminal) and civil divisions are established. If required, family and juvenile, commercial, labour and social insurance, and land and mortgage register divisionsland and mortgage register divisionland and mortgage register divisions are also created. There are more than 300 district courts operating in Poland nowadays.

A regional court is established for a local competence area of at least two district courts, referred to as the „court circuit”. These are courts of the second instance in cases first examined by district courts, and courts of the first instance in other cases (e.g. more serious offences). Usually, in the regional courts there are: penal, civil, labour and social insurance, commercial, penitentiarypenitentiarypenitentiary and telecommunications divisions. In addition, the Regional Court in Warsaw keeps a register of political parties. There are 46 regional courts in Poland.

Courts of appeal are courts of the second instance in cases in which the regional court was the first instance. Currently, 11 courts of appeal operate in Poland.

The Supreme Administrative Court and other administrative courts exercise, to the extent specified by statute, control over the performance of public administration. Their competences encompass among others:

• judging in cases of complaints on administrative decisions,

• judging on the conformityconformityconformity to the statute of resolutions of organs of local government and normative acts of territorial organs of government administration,

• resolving disputes over competences between bodies of local government units, as well as between bodies of local government units and government administration bodies.

Administrative courts are voivodeship administrative courts (there are 16 in Poland) and the Supreme Administrative Court, which also supervises the activities of voivodeship administrative courts. It deals, among others, with cassation complaintscassation complaintcassation complaints against judgments of voivodeship administrative courts and complaints against their decisions. The Supreme Administrative Court is divided into three chamberschamberchambers: financial, economic and general administrative.

Military courts are criminal courts. Criminal responsibility is borne before these courts by:

• soldiers in active military service,

• civilian employees of the army in matters related to work for the armed forces,

• soldiers of armed forces of foreign countries staying in Poland, if the agreement specifying the rules of their stay provides for such responsibility.

Military courts of the first instance are military garrison courts. Appeals against judgments made by the garrison courts are examined by military regional courts, which may also be courts of the first instance in the most serious cases. In such a situation, the court of the second instance is the Military Chamber of the Supreme Court.

In modern democratic systems, it is assumed that the judiciary should not be subject to current political influence. It has certain specific features that distinguish it from legislative and executive power. First of all, its activity is based solely on the law, not on the political requirements of purposefulnesspurposefulnesspurposefulness and efficiency. Secondly, the main task of the judiciary is to resolve disputes that arise in the process of applying the law or establishing it. The condition of the proper functioning of the judiciary is the observance of the principle of independence of courts and the independence of judges.

Keywords

judicial power, National Council of the Judiciary, guarantees of judicial independence, common courts, district courts, regional courts, courts of appeal, Supreme Administrative Court, voivodeship administrative courts, military garrison courts, military regional courts

Glossary