Polish lawmakers pass contentious judicial bills

Polish lawmakers overwhelming approved two bills today that would give the ruling party greater power over the judiciary despite blunt warnings from elsewhere in Europe that the legislation contravenes democratic norms.
Supporters in the conservative Law and Justice party said the changes would make Poland's courts more efficient and more accountable to regular citizens by giving elected representatives a role in choosing judges.
Opponents said the ruling party, led by powerful leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, was violating international law and Poland's Constitution by infringing on judicial independence and the separation of powers principle.
Opposition lawmakers in a country that threw off decades of communist rule 28 years ago chanted "Dictatorship!" before and after the votes in the Sejm, the lower house of Poland's parliament.

Grzegorz Schetyna, head of the opposition centrist party Civic Platform, called it a "black day" for Poland's judicial system.
Borys Budka, a former Polish justice minister who also belongs to Civic Platform, predicted the laws would not bring about real reforms, just "party-controlled courts."

The laws change the functioning of the nation's Supreme Court and the process for naming the National Council of the Judiciary, a body that nominates judges.
Lawmakers voted 239-171, with 24 abstentions, to pass the law on the Supreme Court, which confirms election results as well as serving as court of last appeal in Poland. They voted 237-166, with 22 abstentions, to approve the law on the judicial council.

Earlier versions were vetoed in July by President Andrzej Duda following mass street protests and condemnation from the European Union, which said the changes would undermine the independence of the judicial branch of government.
Law and Justice says it has a democratic mandate to reform the judicial system, which it claims never was properly purged after communism fell and which it describes as deeply corrupt and inefficient.