A few words about judicial independence according to Articles 77-78 of the Polish Constitution of 1921

The article was published in the „Czasopismo Sędziowskie” (“Magazine of the Judges”) in 1931. This is an intervention of Professor Stanisław Starzyński – one of the greatest Polish constitutionalists of the era who is widely respected and considered a nestor among constitutionalists. The position of this scholar from the University of Lwów is confirmed by numerous opinions from the era, including the fact that he was a permanent consultant with regard to drafts of the constitution and any modifications therein. Starzyński was a teacher of Ludwik Ehrlich whose article we reprint above. In the reprinted article, the scholar focuses on the foundation of the third power, i.e. the guarantee of independence and the associated guarantee of irremovability. He omits an issue of the appointment of the judges because this did not interest the nineteenth-century and the twentieth-century constitution-makers – it was secondary to the fundamental principle of independence and the irremovability resulting therefrom. All constitutions of democratic and law-abiding states guaranteed them.

Keyword: court of law, judge, judicial independence in European constitutions, judicial independence in the March Constitution of 1921

This article is published in Polish.