Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? The Constitutional Tribunal as the (Un) Objective Guard of the Constitution. Remarks on the Judgment K 34/15 of the Constitutional Tribunal of 3rd December 2015
Georg Jellinek, when in 1885 he devised the concept of a constitutional court which was to control the legislative branch of government, was aware that the guard of the constitution would be free from any external control or constraints. Therefore, in that context, he expressed concerns that the judges making decisions in cases touching upon political and systemic issues may themselves be prejudiced due to their political inclinations and consequently violate the rules of impartial judicial decision making. Jellinek was correct in his predictions. In 2015 the Polish Constitutional Tribunal in its judgment K 34/15, in which it examined the constitutionality of the Constitutional Tribunal Act, transgressed the boundaries of its jurisdiction while falling below the desired standard of objectivity. On numerous occasions the court failed to meet the criteria of rational legal reasoning and includes a significant degree of discretion in its interpretation of constitutional provisions.
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