It never rains but it pours

• Department of Law

The Human and Fundamental Rights Working Group hosts a discussion on a new development in the jurisprudence of Poland’s Constitutional Court.

The discussion will focus on a new development in the jurisprudence of Poland’s Constitutional Court: the Court’s finding that Art. 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights is incompatible with the Polish Constitution. The Court ruled thus for the first time in its judgment of 24 November 2021 in case ref. K 6/21 in a reaction to the European Court of Human Rights judgment in the case of Xero-Flor v. Poland (application no. 4907/18). This judgment will be subject to criticism both from the national and international perspective. During the discussion we will try to answer the question whether this judgment affects Poland’s obligation to enforce the Xero-Flor judgment. This ruling will form the basis for a new line of jurisprudence, as the Convention was again challenged before the Constitutional Court by the Prosecutor General in reaction to subsequent ECHR judgments. 

Dr Adam Ploszka graduated from the University of Warsaw with an M.A. law and a B.A. in international relations. His doctoral degree in law, with distinction, is from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw, for the thesis, ‘The Public-law Status of an Extremely Poor Person’. Adam is the author of many scientific publications on human rights, case law of the European Court of Human Rights and constitutional law. Adam also practised law for many years; he worked at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, conducting cases related to freedom of media and freedom of speech.

Dr Julian Scholtes is a Lecturer in EU and Public Law at Newcastle University and an EUI alumnus. His research is located at the intersection of constitutional theory, comparative constitutional law and European law, and focuses on the abuse of constitutional identity arguments in the European legal order.