Illiberal Judicialisation of Politics in Poland

Abstract

The judiciary currently plays an important role in any political system or kind of constitutionalism, regardless of the adopted system of constitutional review (judicialization of politics). The most important purpose of the constitutional court seems to be the protection of human rights against the arbitrary interference of state authority in individual interest. The key incentive is the protection of an individual against the constitutionally unauthorised and arbitrary intervention of the parliamentary majority. In the context of democratic decay and the development of other than liberal constitutional democracy versions of constitutionalism (authoritarian, autocratic, populist, illiberal), the question arises: what is the role of constitutional courts within these so-called democracies with adjectives. Applying this question into Polish reality, since 2015, the Polish constitutional court is described as politicized. Against this wording, the Author claims that the court is not only politicized but that we can talk about the illiberal judicialization of politics as best describing the Polish situation.