Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 120

June 2009

Wersel v. Poland (communicated case) - 860/08

Article 6

Criminal proceedings

Article 6-1

Independent tribunal

Independence of assessors (assistant judges): communicated

In 2006 a district court, composed of an assessor and two lay judges, convicted the applicant of attempted insurance fraud and sentenced him to imprisonment. His appeal and cassation appeal were dismissed respectively in 2007 and 2008.

Under Polish law, a candidate for the office of a district-court judge must first serve a minimum of three years as an assessor in a district court. Assessors are legally qualified and appointed by the Minister of Justice. In October 2007 the Constitutional Court held that the vesting of judicial powers in assessors by the Minister of Justice (representing the executive) was unconstitutional since assessors did not offer the guarantees of independence that were required of judges. In particular, the Minister of Justice could effectively dismiss an assessor at his discretion. The Constitutional Court ordered that the unconstitutional provision should be repealed within 18 months. It did not order an immediate repeal as assessors constituted nearly 25% of the judicial personnel in the district courts and their immediate removal would have seriously undermined the administration of justice. That period was also necessary for Parliament to enact new legislation. In the interim the assessors were allowed to continue adjudicating. Having regard to the constitutional importance of the finality of rulings, the Constitutional Court held that its judgment could not serve as a ground for reopening cases which had been decided by the assessors.

Communicated under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.

(See also communicated cases Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacyjno-Spedycyjne TYCHY spółka z o.o. v. Poland (no. 18342/08), Urban v. Poland (no. 23614/08), BANAŚ v. Poland (no. 50845/08) and Witek v. Poland (no. 3535/09))

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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