Instytucja asesora sądowego w polskim systemie wymiaru sprawiedliwości – czy istnieje potrzeba reformy jej statusu ustrojowego?
The institution of an assessor in the Polish justice system: Comments de lege ferenda

Summary/Abstract: The paper aims to answer the question whether the current regulation concerning court assessors meets the requirements set out by Article 45(1) of the Polish Constitution, that is, whether the panel in which a court assessor sits can be regarded as a competent, impartial, and independent court. The constitutional position of court assessors is not equal to that of judges. The Constitution of the Republic of Poland does not mention a court assessor as an entity exercising the administration of justice. The basis for acting as a court assessor is only contained in an ordinary law – the Law on the System of Common Courts. The lack of sufficient stability of the statutory basis (bearing in mind also its frequent amendments) results in the mentioned constitutional principle in question not being properly implemented. Maintaining court assessors therefore requires then amending the content of Article 179 of the Constitution by including them in the basic law. However, it seems that such a solution may be difficult to implement. Hence, a unification of the status of a judge should be advocated, by excluding the institution of the assessor and replacing it with a professional judge, who would be subject to more frequent evaluation. This study employs a legal-dogmatic approach and an analysis of case law.

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