Abuse of procedural rights in Polish and European civil procedure law and the notion of private and public interest

The article discusses the abuse of procedural rights in Polish and European civil procedure law and the notion of private and public interest. The issue of abuse of procedural rights is a category of applying the law. At the current stage of development there is no simple transposition of the issue of legal interest on the institution of abuse of procedural right; undeniably, the lack of current and real interest, with the assumption of fulfillment of other prerequisites, may be contemplated in categories of abuse of right by the court under ius dicere. In the Polish law it is not sufficient to analyse this phenomenon solely in the sphere of procedural locus standi and there shall be the interest in taking a specific step. There also shall be the awareness of the party taking the step as to its inadmissibility and intention to harm the other party, as e.g. in case of fictitious actions. In the European area it is additionally necessary to create methodology and general approach to abuse of right in European civil proceedings and finding compromising approach towards understanding of the notion of the interest in Roman and Germanic law systems. Because application and development of the law due to lack of procedural fairness and good faith is rather difficult to verify and to define, the advantage of adopting admissibility of a separate international institution of abuse of procedural right would lie in the possibility of applying a universal approach towards abuse of procedural right in all member states. Thiswould mean that each court of the member state would apply the same standard of the test. Finally, the alternative use of exclusively national concepts of abuse of procedural right cannot be continued. It can be assumed that confirmation of the existence of the abuse of European procedural right in a given case would require existence of objective and subjective factors

Disciplinary Proceedings as an Instrument for Breaking the Rule of Law in Poland

This article advances the thesis that disciplinary proceedings may constitute a tool for breaking the rule of law in Poland. In 2017, as part of a package of legal changes to the judiciary, a disciplinary system was created in Poland to ensure that judges were subservient to the political will of the authorities. From the beginning, new disciplinary officers appointed by the Minister of Justice (the Prosecutor General) have targeted judges who disagree with unconstitutional changes to the judiciary. Disciplinary proceedings are by no means repressions that affect judges who demand that other authorities respect the rule of law in Poland. The article discusses, on a step by step basis, the practical mechanisms taken by the political authorities to break the rule of law in Poland. Particular attention is paid to the measures which have been taken concerning the judiciary. The article discusses the judgment of the CJEU on 19 November 2019 in combined cases C-585/18, C-624/18, and C-625/18 and the implementing resolution of the combined Civil, Criminal and Labour and Social Insurance Chambers of the Supreme Court on 23 January 2020 as well as the collapse of the rule of law in Poland from a practical perspective. The analysis of the recent events shows that after the so-called Muzzle Law (A bill amending the Act on the Organization of Ordinary Courts, the Act on the Supreme Court and the Act on the National Council of the Judiciary was submitted on 12 December 2019, and then voted on by the parliamentary majority in the lower house of the Polish Parliament (Sejm) on 20 December 2019.) came into force, the application of the resolution of the combined Civil, Criminal and Labour and Social Insurance Chambers of the Supreme Court on 23 January 2020 implementing the CJEU judgment in the joined cases C-585/18, C-624/18, and C-625/18 of 19 November 2019 can be and, in fact, is penalized by further disciplinary proceedings, which constitutes a real threat to the already weakened rule of law. Institutions and, above all, judges who are safeguarding the rule of law are being destroyed