Constitutional Tribunal (Poland)

Constitutional Tribunal
Trybunał Konstytucyjny
Established	1982-constitutional amendment establishing the Constitutional Tribunal 1986-the beginning of activity
Location	Warsaw
Composition method	Prime ministerial nomination with Sejm RP confirmation President and Vice President appointed by President of the Republic
Authorised by	Constitution of the Republic of Poland
Judge term length	9 years, only one term
Number of positions	15
Website	trybunal.gov.pl
President
Currently	Prof. Andrzej Rzepliński
Since	3 December 2010
Vice President
Currently	Prof. Stanisław Biernat
Since	3 December 2010

The seat of the Tribunal, Warsaw (2006)

The Constitutional Tribunal (Template:Lang-pl) 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

No.	Term of office	Full name	Comment
1.	since 26 June 2008	Prof. Stanisław Biernat	Vice-President of the Tribunal since 3 December 2010
2.	since 6 May 2010	Prof. Sławomira Wronkowska-Jaśkiewicz
3.	since 3 December 2010	Stanisław Rymar
4.	since 3 December 2010	Prof. Piotr Tuleja
5.	since 3 December 2010	Prof. Marek Zubik
6.	since 5 January 2011	Prof. Małgorzata Pyziak-Szafnicka
7.	since 29 May 2011	Prof. Andrzej Wróbel
8.	since 23 July 2012	Prof. Leon Kieres
9.	since 02 December 2015	Prof. Henryk Cioch
10.	since 02 December 2015	Prof. Lech Morawski
11.	since 02 December 2015	Dr. hab Mariusz Muszyński
12.	since 3 December 2015	Piotr Pszczółkowski
13.	since 9 December 2015	Julia Przyłębska	acting President of the Tribunal from 20 December 2016 to 21 December 2016 President of the Tribunal since 21 December 2016
14.	since 28 April 2016	Dr. hab. Zbigniew Jędrzejewski
15.	since 20 December 2016	Dr. hab. Michał Warciński
-	since 7 November 2015	Prof. Roman Hauser
-	since 7 November 2015	Dr. hab. Krzysztof Ślebzak
-	since 7 November 2015	Prof. Andrzej Jakubecki

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.

See also

• Judiciary
• Rule of law
• Rule According to Higher Law
• Supreme Court of Poland
• Polish Constitutional Court crisis, 2015

External links

• Official website (en)