GRANICE WŁADZY SĄDOWNICZEJ A PRAWO DO OBRONY
LIMITS OF JUDICIAL POWER AND THE RIGHT OF DEFENCE

Summary/Abstract: RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: This article discusses a situation in which the accused has more than one defence lawyer and each of them lodges an appeal. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate that the limits of judicial power may be limited by the constitutional right to defence. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: In case law, it is widely believed that it is inadmissible to consider an appeal against a decision of the court of first instance lodged by one of the defence lawyers of the accused after the decision has come into force as a result of the consideration of an appeal lodged by another defence lawyer of the same person. The paper uses a dogmatic and historical method. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The author puts into historical perspective the probable cause for the limitation of the maximum number of defenders (to three) that one defendant can have. This is followed by a discussion of the constitutional understanding of the right to defence, and the arguments justifying the statutory limitation on the number of defenders an accused may have. RESEARCH RESULTS: This article attempts to show that limiting the powers of any of the advocate constitutes an unjustifiable limitation of a constitutional right to defence which comprises the right of the accused to have three advocates, each of whom is entitled to enjoy his/her full defence rights, independently of the other defence laweyr. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMENDATIONS: When there is more than one defence laweyer in a trial, each defence lawyer has full defence rights and is not constrained by the procedural actions of anothdefence lawyer. This also applies to the separate filing of appeals by each defence lawyer.

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