PiS approves controversial judiciary reforms

Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party voted to approve the controversial judiciary reforms, which according to the oppositions and many legal experts are in breach of Polish constitutions. Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro rebuffed the claims saying that the reforms will bring “democracy” to the court system. “"We want to end corporatism and introduce the oxygen of democracy there. Because Poland is a democracy based on the rule of law,” he said in parliament. The new law will terminate the terms of the current National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) members and allow the parliament to select 15 of its 25 representatives. The Council has powers to nominate judges, who are later appointed by the president. Its members are currently mostly selected by the judges themselves for four-year terms, the parliament has a right to choose four of them. “This way, the government wants to decrease the meaning of judges in favor of politicians. The scope of changes which breach Polish constitution means that by adopting this draft into the law in its current form will result in changing the nation's political system,” KRS wrote in a statement back in March. The bill will now be debated in the upper chamber of the parliament, where PiS also has the majority and will need to be signed by President Andrzej Duda, who is PiS ally. The new government has also overhauled the constitutional court, which makes blocking any laws passed by the PiS government nearly impossible.