On 11 May 2007, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal ruled the partial inconsistency of the new lustration law with the Constitution. According to the President of the Tribunal, Jerzy Stepien (right), the lustration law is feasible despite the necessity to introduce amendments. (14-MAY-07)

Written by Marta Lempicka/HRH Warsaw
Sources: www.tribunal.gov.pl, www.gazeta.pl
Photo: The Polish Constitutional Tribunal

The new lustration law entered into force on 15 March 2007. According to this law, lustration was supposed to apply to all persons who served public functions. At the same time, the term is defined very extensively and includes inter alia university authorities, scholars, journalists, members of the board of joint stock companies. The act also introduced a new definition of cooperation with security services and strict sanctions for failing to submit a lustration statement and for being found guilty of a so called “lustration lie”. Academic teachers, journalists and intellectuals protested against the act.  The Helsinki Committee in Poland   also published its position indicating violations of human rights resulting from the act.

At the beginning of 2007, a group of Sejm representatives filed a motion to the Polish Constitutional Tribunal to assess the conformity of the lustration law with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The Tribunal considered their complaint on 9-11 May 2007, a few days before the deadline for submitting statements (15 May). The authorities attempted to delay the consideration of the motion by the Constitutional Tribunal. First, the Speaker of the Sejm Ludwik Dorn (Law and Justice party – PiS) approached the Tribunal asking it to postpone the consideration of the complaint. When the Tribunal decided not to change the date of the session for this case, a representative of the Sejm (a member of PiS) brought about a situation, where the President of the Tribunal excluded two Tribunal judges from the ruling lineup. The President of the Tribunal made this decision due to suspicions (as it turned out insufficiently substantiated ones) made by the Sejm representative regarding cooperation with security services during the period of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL).

On 11 May, the Tribunal issued a verdict, in which it stated that this law is partially unconstitutional. Inter alia the following issues were considered as unconstitutional: the template of the lustration statement, limiting the opportunity for the court to close the trial to the public and depriving the lustrated individual of the right to lodge a cassation appeal. The Tribunal shortened the list of categories of individuals subject to lustration and decided that the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance will be closed until a new law is passed.                             

In accordance with Polish law, the Tribunal ruling enters into force on the day of its publication in the Journal of Laws, only that the Prime Minister decides when it will be published. If this does not take place by 15 May, than many people will face a dilemma of what position they should take on the binding act, which the Tribunal ruled unconstitutional.