Procesy dyscyplinarne sędziów tzw. sekcji tajnych, część 1
Disciplinary Proceedings against Judges of the So-Called Secret Sections, Part 1

Summary/Abstract: The article concerns two disciplinary trials pending before the Superior Disciplinary Court against four judges adjudicating during the Stalinist era in the so-called secret departments: Emil Merz, Kazimierz Czajkowski, Marian Stępczyński and Ilia Rubinow. The first three held the position of judges of the Supreme Court, while the last one was a judge and president of a voivodeship court in Warsaw. Secret departments were unlawful units of court administration responsible for handling political cases while remaining in violation of the most basic principles of the rule of law. Of the dozens of judges who worked in the secret departments, only four have ever been subject to attempts at being held accountable. Of this group, only one was sentenced to a largely symbolic punishment, while the other three were either acquitted or the proceedings against them were discontinued due to the statute of limitations. The author succeeded in reaching previously unknown rulings issued in this case, stored in the archives of the Supreme Court. Relevant disciplinary proceedings were held in camera, and the files remained classified until 2002. For this reason, even though information on the course and outcome of this trial can be found in some studies, it is usually incomplete at best and often fundamentally incorrect. Due to the vastness of the topic, the article has been divided into two parts, with the following entry being the first one.

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