Only Eight Constitutional Tribunal Judges Formed a Quorum, Though “Different Legal Interpretations Exist”

Eight judges of the Constitutional Tribunal, Poland’s top constitutional court, constituted the quorum needed to adopt the Tribunal’s draft revenue and expenditure plan for 2027, Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek said. In his view, this follows from the rules for counting the Tribunal’s membership, taking into account the status of the so-called “doubler” judge and the suspension of two judges.

The General Assembly of Judges of the Constitutional Tribunal, convened for Tuesday by Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, adopted the Tribunal’s draft revenue and expenditure plan for 2027. Eight judges took part in the vote, and all of them voted in favor of adopting the document. Korwin-Piotrowska concluded that this number was sufficient to establish a quorum and to adopt resolutions validly.

She said the attendance list of the General Assembly included all judges elected by the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament. She noted, however, that on Oct. 30 orders were issued for an immediate break in the official duties of judges Bartłomiej Sochański and Bogdan Święczkowski, which, she stressed, rules out both their obligation and their right to take part in the assembly.

Asked at a Tuesday press conference at the Justice Ministry whether eight judges constituted a quorum, Żurek acknowledged that different legal interpretations exist on the issue. “Someone once said that when there are two lawyers, there are three opinions, especially on difficult legal issues,” he said. He added that he favors the position shared by many law professors, as well as by former presidents of the Constitutional Tribunal.

The justice minister also pointed out that the rules provide for the participation of judges in active service, and that Bartłomiej Sochański and Bogdan Święczkowski have been temporarily suspended from their duties. As a result, he calculated, the basis for determining the quorum was 12 judges, and the required two-thirds of that number is eight people.

“So it seems that most of the legal world leans toward the view that there was a quorum today,” Żurek said.

On the evening of Friday, Oct. 30, representatives of the group of Tribunal judges elected by the Sejm in its current term announced that Korwin-Piotrowska, as the longest-serving judge, had become the acting head of the Constitutional Tribunal and had issued an order suspending the activities of Tribunal President Bogdan Święczkowski and Vice President Bartłomiej Sochański.

President Święczkowski, whose duties Korwin-Piotrowska declared suspended, said as early as Saturday that, “together with the legal judges” of the Tribunal, they had decided not to take part in events organized by the “usurper judges,” including the General Assembly of Tribunal Judges planned for Tuesday. “A usurper cannot convene a General Assembly,” he said.

Under the constitution, the Constitutional Tribunal consists of 15 judges. According to the law on the organization of and procedure before the Tribunal, “the General Assembly adopts resolutions by an absolute majority of votes, in the presence of at least two-thirds of the total number of the Tribunal’s judges.” With a total of 15 judges, that is 10 people.

According to Święczkowski and the presidential side, among others, the Tribunal currently has 10 judges, including three elected by the Sejm in its current term. President Karol Nawrocki has not administered the oath of office to the other five people elected by the Sejm in this term, and Święczkowski has therefore not allowed them to adjudicate.

According to the government side, among others, after the Sejm elected eight people as Tribunal judges in this term, the Tribunal’s membership was filled to 15, with two judges, Święczkowski and Sochański, suspended from their duties. It is also argued that Jarosław Wyrembak does not have the status of a Tribunal judge, because he took the post in place of a person who was “defectively” elected to the Tribunal. In journalistic parlance, such a judge is called a “doubler judge.” (PAP)