PiS proposes changes to Supreme Court bill

Law and Justice (PiS) has submitted to the Sejm a draft amendment to the Supreme Court bill that came into force that same day. According to Andrzej Matusiewicz, a PiS MP, the draft concerns the budget matters of the Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Chamber as well as the method of appointing judges. “The most important changes that we are proposing in the draft are specifying the provisions for appointing the members of the Disciplinary Chamber of Supreme Court,” he stated. He also added that the draft allows for more autonomy in budgetary matters of the Disciplinary Chamber to ensure “that the judges in the chamber are financially independent.” The controversial new law forced the immediate retirement of all supreme court judges — a move seen as undermining the independence of the country’s judiciary. It also allows complaints being filed with the Supreme Court for verdicts passed over the past 20 years. The law has created two new chambers where bench judges selected by the Senate would participate. The Disciplinary Chamber is to be independent in budget matters and will pay 40 percent higher salaries to its members than those received by judges in other chambers.