Thesis defence Mimetic rivalry Judicial constitutional mobilization, resistance and contestation Add to calendar 2026-05-22 10:30 2026-05-22 12:00 Europe/Rome Mimetic rivalry Sala del Consiglio Villa Salviati - Castle YYYY-MM-DD Print Share: Share on Facebook Share on BlueSky Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Scheduled dates May 22 2026 10:30 - 12:00 CEST Sala del Consiglio, Villa Salviati - Castle Organised by Department of Law PhD thesis defence by Katarzyna Karolina Krzyżanowska This thesis investigates the conflict within the Polish judiciary following the post-2015 constitutional breakdown inflicted by the Law and Justice government. This thesis characterizes this period as one of constitutional transgression, a liminal state in which the unamended Constitution came into conflict with ordinary laws. Central to the analysis is the mimetic rivalry between the old and new apex court judges of the Constitutional Tribunal and Supreme Court appointed before and during the crisis. The study addresses how these judicial actors resisted or contributed to the crisis through judicialcontentious politics, where core legal categories – such as judicial independence, judicial accountability, and constitutional review – become sites of contention. Employing a socio-legal methodology that combines discourse analysis, case law comparison, and semi-structured interviews, the work explores both on- and off-bench constitutional mobilization and counter-mobilization. This approach moves beyond law in books to capture individual constitutional ideologies expressed through public interventions, media appearances, and academic polemics. This thesis argues that while old judges engaged in constitutional resistance to uphold liberal constitutionalism, new judges employed contestation to imbue the legal framework with illiberal content. Through mimetic practices, new judges adopted established methods of constitutional reasoning and discursive mobilization to delegitimize the former judicial elite, validate their own status and contribute to the endurance of the illiberal regime. This rivalry erodes judicial independence, constitutional review, and the certainty of law. The study concludes that the Polish case exemplifies global democratic decay, where legal professionals themselves act as agents in the subversion of constitutional norms. This thesis aims to provide a framework for understanding constitutional resistance and contestation and the ongoing challenges of restoring legal integrity in a post-illiberal legal landscape. Register Related events