On Persons “Not Authorized to Adjudicate” as Referred to in the 2024 Acts Concerning the Constitutional Tribunal

On September 13, 2024, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland adopted two new acts regulating the status of the Polish constitutional court – the Constitutional Tribunal Act and the Act on Provisions Implementing the said Act. Neither of these acts entered into force because the President of the Republic of Poland, before signing them, referred the acts to the Constitutional Tribunal under the so-called preventive control procedure. One of the declared goals of the laws in question is to fix up the constitutional court, in particular to solve the problem of the so-called “persons not authorized to adjudicate” – people elected in December 2015 (including people who replaced them later) to fill the previously already filled positions. The Author analyzes the situation that led to the recognition of some Constitutional Tribunal judges as defectively appointed and comes to the conclusion that there do not exist grounds for qualifying them as such. However, the sharp political dispute that accompanies the current situation can only be resolved if a broad political consensus is reached, which requires making an amendment to the Constitution.