The Social Factor in the Court of Cassation – Internal and External Motivations

Abstract

The article presents the results of empirical research devoted to the motivation for serving as a lay judge of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Poland. The social factor was introduced into the Polish legal system under the Act of December 8th, 2017 on the Supreme Court. Public discourse has pointed to the legislature’s intent to provide broader, social legitimacy to the Supreme Court. The participation of the social factor is envisaged in the following proceedings: disciplinary and extraordinary appeal. The empirical study consisted in the Supreme Court lay judges filling a survey, which included a series of questions – mainly closed ones – concerning their motivation for holding the office, their management style, the way they work in a group, the role of rewards and reinforcements, but also their opinions on their functioning in the Supreme Court, their sense of satisfaction with their work, and their possible proposals for changes in the existing regulations. The article consists of a theoretical part, devoted to the legal regulations concerning the institution of lay judges of the Supreme Court, a discussion of the methodology of the study, its results and final conclusions. The authors only present and discuss the obtained results, without evaluating the legitimacy of introducing the social factor into the judicial process at the level of the Court of Cassation from the perspective of the theory and philosophy of law or the science of management and quality. The aim of the study was to examine the social attitudes of people who decided to run for the position of a lay judge of the Supreme Court and were sworn in after successfully passing the induction procedure. The analysis is interdisciplinary. The study was prepared with the participation of researchers representing a number of disciplines in the field of social sciences: economics, law, management and quality sciences and psychology.