Polish court rules that the constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights are “incompatible.”
A Polish court ruled that the constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights were not entirely compatible.
On Thursday, Poland’s constitutional court rendered a new decision holding that the European Convention on Human Rights and the Polish constitution are only partially compatible.
The Constitutional Tribunal, which was mostly selected by Poland’s nationalist-populist administration, questioned whether Polish legislation and Article 6 of the human rights convention were compatible.
The right to a fair trial by a court that is unbiased and independent is guaranteed by that article.
The right to “review the constitutionality and compatibility” of Polish laws pertaining to the judiciary with the human rights convention was denied by the tribunal to both national courts and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
An ECHR ruling that questioned the validity of the selection of judges to the Constitutional Court was previously dismissed by the constitutional tribunal in November.
Brussels has also charged that Poland’s controversial judiciary reform undermines judicial independence. The European Court of Human Rights has lately handed down a number of scathing rulings about this reform.
The Polish government, on the other hand, denounces “interference” from Brussels and claims that its changes are required to fight judicial corruption.
However, the EU claims that the changes weaken the judiciary’s independence, which in turn threatens democracy and the rule of law.
