Country Poland Judge term length 9 years, only one term | Location Warsaw | |
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Established 1982-constitutional amendment establishing the Constitutional Tribunal
1986-the beginning of activity Composition method Prime ministerial nomination with Sejm RP confirmation
President and Vice President appointed by President of the Republic Authorized by | ||
The Constitutional Tribunal (Polish: Trybunał Konstytucyjny) is the constitutional court of the Republic of Poland, a judicial body established to resolve disputes on the constitutionality of the activities of state institutions; its main task is to supervise the compliance of statutory law with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.
The Constitutional Tribunal adjudicates on the compliance with the Constitution of legislation and international agreements (also their ratification), on disputes over the powers of central constitutional bodies, and on compliance with the Constitution of the aims and activities of political parties. It also rules on constitutional complaints.
The Constitutional Tribunal is made up of 15 judges chosen by Sejm RP for nine-year terms. They are fully independent. The Constitutional Tribunal constitutes one of the formal guarantees of a state grounded on the rule of law.
Three judges, appointed by the President of the Tribunal, serve as members of the National Electoral Commission (Act of 5 January 2011 Electoral Code).
Current Justices
The three judges with term of office 'since 7 November 2015' are disputed : the Sejm appointed them (with two others) before the parliamentary elections of 2015; after these elections, the Sejm invalidated their appointment and elected five new judges in their place. The president denied the serment to the five appointed before the election and swore the five new judges in.
Of the appointments made before the election, the Constitutional Tribunal itself invalidated two (Bronisław Sitek and Andrzej Sokala) and accepted three (Roman Hauser, Krzysztof Ślebzak and Andrzej Jakubecki). As a consequence, of the appointments made after the election, the Tribunal accepted two (Piotr Pszczółkowski and Julia Przyłębska) and invalidated three (Henryk Cioch, Lech Morawski and Mariusz Muszyński). See Polish Constitutional Court crisis, 2015.