Assoc. Prof., SWPS University. Welsh by birth. English by upbringing. Irish by design. Polish by choice. I am a lineman for the county.
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May 30, 2023 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
Polish ForMin statement about the “Russian influence” committee. As is usual, you need to look for what is omitted. The ministry says “any party subject to a Committee's decision will have the right … to request that it is provisionally suspended” until a court reviews an
appeal against it. What is omitted is that the original decision of the commission will take effect until such a time as a court suspends its effect, *if* it agrees to do so.
The statement says that “the Committee's work will not limit voters' ability to vote for their
May 29, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Following today's passage of the bill enabling the parliament to form a commission to investigate Russian influence, some PiS folk are trying to insist that the bill doesn't actually empower the commission to take actions that have immediate effect. This raises two questions.
One is whether they have read the law on administrative procedure, which it seems they haven't, or they would know that the effects of administrative acts such as those the committee will be empowered to implement are not automatically suspended on appeal.
May 29, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Duda has signed a law allowing the parliament to create a commission that will usurp the functions of courts, prosecutors and special services and be used during the electoral campaign as an instrument to exclude opposition politicians from public life for up to 10 years.
Duda has sent the bill to the Constitutional Tribunal for review, but as he has signed it, the bill is assumed to be constitutional until the Tribunal decides otherwise.
May 26, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
PiS’s parliamentary majority has just passed a bill setting up a committee with the ostensible remit of investigating Russian influence in Polish politics. If the bill is not vetoed by the president or its entry into law is not delayed by being sent to the politically-captured
Constitutional Tribunal, it will be able to issue its first report by the 17th of September. Why is this date relevant? Well, it falls in the middle of the election campaign. Why is that relevant? Well, the committee is empowered to ban those it considers to have come under
May 5, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Latest in the division of power in Poland: unable to persuade the Constitutional Tribunal to sit in full panel due to some judges disputing the legitimacy of the chief justice’s tenure, PiS is now apparently trying to reduce the full panel to 9 judges.
My favourite bit of the justification is where they argue that the proposed amendments constitute nothing new, as from June to December 2015 9 judges sufficed for a full panel. Guess what happened in December 2015? PiS amended the law to raise the requirement for a full panel
