The case boils right down to strikes by Tusk’s pro-EU administration to reject selections by some judges appointed underneath the right-wing Legislation and Justice (PiS) administration that led Poland’s authorities from 2015 to 2023.
The Giżycko decide dominated that the couple’s authentic divorce judgment was legally “non-existent” as a result of it had been signed off by one of many “neo-judges” appointed underneath reforms designed by earlier Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro.
EU courts later dominated that Ziobro’s overhaul had undermined judicial independence, leaving Tusk’s authorities grappling with tips on how to dismantle the system with out undermining authorized certainty.
It’s unclear what number of comparable rulings could exist throughout Poland, however the scale is huge. The nation data round 57,000 divorces a 12 months, and tens of 1000’s of routine instances, together with divorces, could have been determined by judges appointed underneath the disputed system.
Kinga Skawińska-Pożyczka, a lawyer at Warsaw-based agency Dubois i Wspólnicy, mentioned the choice was flawed and ought to be overturned on attraction, arguing {that a} court docket dealing with a property dispute mustn’t have questioned the validity of a remaining divorce ruling. “The Giżycko ruling ought to be handled as an exception, not a rule,” she mentioned.
However others warned that even remoted rulings can have wider penalties. “A system that begins mass-questioning its personal rulings stops being a system,” mentioned Bartosz Stasik, a Wrocław-based lawyer. “No person needs to be the one to inform 1000’s of individuals their divorces, inheritances or verdicts don’t exist — however each avalanche begins with a single stone.”
