26 February 2020
Elena Crespi and Joshua Ratliff argue that a new set of reforms to Poland's judiciary is a further consolidation of power by the PiS party.
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"Following four-plus years of assault by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, the embattled Polish judiciary may be on its last legs.
On 4 February, amid mass domestic and international protest, Polish president Andrzej Duda signed into law a deeply-controversial set of new reforms openly defying the authority of the EU's top court and seeking to prevent Polish judges from applying EU law under penalty of suspension, fines, salary cuts and dismissal.
The power consolidation strategy pursued by the Law and Justice government since it came to power in 2015 has taken repeated aim at judicial restraints on the government's ability to act, and represents at its core an effort to dismantle the very checks and balances that characterise democratic forms of government."
Polish rule of law crisis at point of no return (EUobserver, link) by Elena Crespi and Joshua Ratliff
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