Post by Jaga on Jan 2, 2016 16:44:00 GMT -7
Read this article about danger of reversing democracy in Poland:
www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-31/poland-s-new-leaders-take-aim-at-democracy
...
The changes in Poland took place in the wake of a landslide victory by the Law and Justice party in October, when it became the first party to win a parliamentary majority since Poland became a democracy in 1989. The new changes make it easier to investigate and remove judges from the tribunal, but that’s not the main problem. The real trouble lies with a provision that now requires a two-thirds majority of the court's judges to rule on the constitutionality of the country's laws.
In practice, the two-thirds requirement, coupled with a rule that at least 13 of the 15 judges must sit on every case, means that the sitting judges will find it much more difficult than they otherwise would to strike down new laws from the new ruling party. Indeed, it now may be impossible to strike down a law without votes from at least one judge appointed by the new governing majority.
This structural change subverts one of the most basic -- and controversial -- functions of a constitutional court. In theory, the purpose of such a court is always to apply the constitution impartially when ruling on the constitutionality of laws. In practice, everyone usually understands, in almost every country, that there are different possible interpretations of a constitution, and that these often correspond to different political views.
Given this reality, one of the main functions of a constitutional court is to keep new majority governments in check and protect the legacy and rights of the older government that’s now out of office. This checking function in turn is supposed to strengthen democracy itself.
(...)
What’s concerning about this preemption is that it signals that the party doesn’t want to be held back from making changes that might make it less likely the opposition could return to power. That’s why various European officials who are committed to keeping Poland democratic warned against the changes to the court’s structure and rules. The president of the European Parliament even called passage of the new law a coup d’etat.
If there’s a silver lining here, it might be that Law and Justice clearly isn’t worried that its changes would lead to the kinds of undemocratic reforms that would force meaningful European sanctions. So maybe the party doesn’t want to undermine democracy -- at least not too much.
But the problem with this optimistic thought is that Law and Justice might just be calculating that Europe has too many other serious problems to bother punishing it for weakening democracy at the margins. A Europe worried about a British exit from the European Union, and still haunted by the trauma of Greece’s threatened exit, might not be inclined to push away Poland, which has become a major European economy and (probably) isn’t on the brink of economic collapse.
www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-31/poland-s-new-leaders-take-aim-at-democracy
...
The changes in Poland took place in the wake of a landslide victory by the Law and Justice party in October, when it became the first party to win a parliamentary majority since Poland became a democracy in 1989. The new changes make it easier to investigate and remove judges from the tribunal, but that’s not the main problem. The real trouble lies with a provision that now requires a two-thirds majority of the court's judges to rule on the constitutionality of the country's laws.
In practice, the two-thirds requirement, coupled with a rule that at least 13 of the 15 judges must sit on every case, means that the sitting judges will find it much more difficult than they otherwise would to strike down new laws from the new ruling party. Indeed, it now may be impossible to strike down a law without votes from at least one judge appointed by the new governing majority.
This structural change subverts one of the most basic -- and controversial -- functions of a constitutional court. In theory, the purpose of such a court is always to apply the constitution impartially when ruling on the constitutionality of laws. In practice, everyone usually understands, in almost every country, that there are different possible interpretations of a constitution, and that these often correspond to different political views.
Given this reality, one of the main functions of a constitutional court is to keep new majority governments in check and protect the legacy and rights of the older government that’s now out of office. This checking function in turn is supposed to strengthen democracy itself.
(...)
What’s concerning about this preemption is that it signals that the party doesn’t want to be held back from making changes that might make it less likely the opposition could return to power. That’s why various European officials who are committed to keeping Poland democratic warned against the changes to the court’s structure and rules. The president of the European Parliament even called passage of the new law a coup d’etat.
If there’s a silver lining here, it might be that Law and Justice clearly isn’t worried that its changes would lead to the kinds of undemocratic reforms that would force meaningful European sanctions. So maybe the party doesn’t want to undermine democracy -- at least not too much.
But the problem with this optimistic thought is that Law and Justice might just be calculating that Europe has too many other serious problems to bother punishing it for weakening democracy at the margins. A Europe worried about a British exit from the European Union, and still haunted by the trauma of Greece’s threatened exit, might not be inclined to push away Poland, which has become a major European economy and (probably) isn’t on the brink of economic collapse.