Management control in common courts – selected legal aspects

The main purpose of this paper is to present the important aspects of management control over polish common courts. This type of control has been introduced by the Act on common courts system as a kind of administrative supervision over common courts and has been entrusted to the Minister of Justice. The Author of this paper deliberates what the management control is and what the character and duties of the director of a common court are in this process. The Author also describes differences in legal nature between the notice of the Minister of Justice, and the notice of the Minister of Finance. They both are issued in the process of management control, but their actual impact on common courts is different.

Dysfunctionalities in the System of Transfer and Delegation of Judges and Associate Judges of Common Courts

as a Sign of Supervision Exercised by the Minister of Justice over Common Courts and Established in Statute The purpose of the article is to examine the competences of the Minister of Justice in the sphere of transfer and delegation of judges and associate judges of common courts. To this aim the dogmatic method was applied. The article puts forward the thesis that the competence of the Minister of Justice in transfer and delegation of judges and judge assessors promotes not so much the nourishing of judges’ sense of prudence and careful administration of justice as strengthening the desire to promote and accelerate a rise in the social and material status, thus containing a high burden of dysfunctionality, which as such should be revoked.

Constitutive and Conventional Provenance of Law to Fair Consideration of Case (Right to a Fair Trial)

The text is devoted to the problem of the right to a fair trial, which the Polish legislator recognizes as the one of the most important civil rights and liberties. The constitutive and conventional lineage of this right was indicated. It is noted in the text that this right can only be excercised in a state that recognizes the tripartite division of power as well as in situation in which common judiciary is based on four fundamental foundations such as jurisdiction to hear a case of a given type, impartiality, independent in legal, organisational and decision-making terms.

A few remarks on statutory marginalization of judicial self-government in the context of its essence (on the example of common courts)

The judicial self-government (general assemblies of court judges) make an important role as it is one of the elements that guarantee the independence of judges and the independence of courts. The article discusses the essence of judicial self-government in common courts and the statutory limitation of the role of this institution in recent years. The direction of these changes should be assessed critically, because in the current legal state the statutory competences of the judicial self-government have been excessively narrowed. This is accompanied by the restrictive practice of the functioning of local governments in some courts, confirmed by the actions of the presidents of these courts. This legal and factual situation seems to confirm the assumptions about the intention to exclude judicial self-governments from participation in cases concerning judges. Nevertheless, it is the Constitution that grants and guarantees judicial self-governments (also of other professions) to represent them and to supervise the proper performance of the profession within the limits of the public interest and for its protection.