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The court system

The structure of the judiciary in Poland

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Infografika. Jej głównym elementem jest napis "Judicial power". Odchodzą od niego dwa kolejne elementy. Pierwszy to "tribunals", który dzieli się na "Constitutional Tribunal" oraz "Tribunal of State". Drugi z elementów to "Courts – administration of justice". Dzieli się on na dwie grupy. Pierwsza z nich składa się z następujących elementów "administrative courts", "Supreme Administrative Court", "voivodship administrative court". Druga nitka to "Supreme Court" i dzieli się na "common courts: courts of appeal, regional courts, district courts" oraz "military courts: military regional courts, military garrison courts".

Common courts settleto settlesettle, among others, criminal, civil, family and guardianshipfamily and guardianship lawfamily and guardianship, and labour law cases, as well as all other matters that are not reserved for the jurisdiction of other courts.

Military courts deal first and foremostfirst and foremostfirst and foremost with matters related to offencesoffenceoffences committed by soldiers in active service.

Administrative courts primarily control the activities of public administration bodies, both governmental and self‑governmental (local governments). The control applies to, among others, administrative decisions, resolutions issued in administrative proceedingsresolution in administrative proceedingresolutions issued in administrative proceedings or complaints about inactivity of administrative bodies.

The Supreme Court supervises the judgements of common and military courts. There are two basic forms of such supervision: recognizing legal remedies against court rulingslegal remedies (against court rulings)legal remedies against court rulings adopting resolutions that resolve legal problems that raise doubt and discrepanciesdiscrepancydiscrepancies in the jurisprudencejurisprudencejurisprudence The competence of the Supreme Court also includes confirming the validityvalidityvalidity of the elections in accordance with principles specified by statute, as well as giving opinions on draft billsdraft billdraft bills and other legal acts.

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Infografika, która zatytułowana jest "Common courts – structure". Składa się z następujących elementów: Na samej górze grafiki znajduje się główny element "Supreme Court" na poziomie cassation, który składa się z dwóch elementów "regional courts" oraz "courts of appeal" na poziomie appeal oraz z dwóch elementów "district courts" oraz "regional courts" na poziomie first instance.

The Constitutional Tribunal

The main competence of the Constitutional Tribunal is to adjudicate regarding the conformity of statutes and other legal acts with the Constitution. The idea of controlling the constitutionality of law is based on the assumption that it is a hierarchical system, i.e. that the legal acts that are inferiorinferiorinferior cannot contain provisions that are contrary tocontrary tocontrary to the Constitution of other superiorsuperiorsuperior legal acts. Judgements of the Constitutional Tribunal are final. An act incompatible with the Constitution ceasesto ceaseceases to apply either at the moment of pronouncing the ruling or on a date determined by the Tribunal.

According to the Constitution, everyone whose constitutional freedoms or rights have been violated may bring a complaint concerning these infringementscomplaint concerning infringements of the Constitutioncomplaint concerning these infringements.

Other competencies of the Constitutional Tribunal include:

• adjudicating regarding the conformity to the Constitution of the purposes or activities of political parties;

• settling disputes over authority between central constitutional organs of the state.

The Tribunal of State

In modern democracies, constitutional accountability is, along with the political one, the most important form of executive power responsibility. It is the accountability for the violation of law. The procedure is initiated by the parliament, but the responsibility is incurred before the authority of the judiciary. In Poland it is the Tribunal of State.

The following persons are constitutionally accountable to the Tribunal of State:

The types of punishment imposed by the Tribunal of State:

• for crimes – punishments provided for in statutes;

• for infringementinfringementinfringement of the Constitution – loss of electoral rights (for a period from 2 to 10 years), prohibition to hold managerial positions or perform public functions (for a period from 2 to 10 years), loss of all or some of the orders and decorationsorders and decorationsorders and decorations.

Keywords

judicial, jurisdiction, common/military/administrative courts, the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Tribunal, the Tribunal of State, constitutional accountability

Glossary