The development of case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the assessment of the independence of judges in Member States: an analysis on the example of cases concerning the judicial reform in Poland

Abstract

In recent years, interpretation of the concept of an independent and impartial court has been the subject of debate in national and international legal space. In particular, the issue of the admissibility of an assessment of the independence and impartiality of judges, and the criteria that should be taken into consideration in such an examination, raise doubts. This problemis discussed in a broader context concerning the competences of European Union bodies to assess the organisation of the system of justice in Member States.The article presents the matter of the formation of the competences of the Court of Justice of the European Union with regard to the functioning of the judiciary along with the mostimportant judgments from the perspective of the issues in question. An analysis of the court rulings enabled a conclusion to be drawn of the creation of two different ruling practices: in the domestic aspect, it allows for an arbitrary and abstract test of judicial independence, whereas in the EU aspect the test is objective and individual.