The Case for Activating the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation in Respect of Poland

After several years of rule of law backsliding, Poland’s rule of law crisis has mutated into breakdown mode. To mention but a few crucial aspects which will be further detailed in this study, the EU currently includes a Member State where each of the apex courts is irregularly composed; where the investigation and prosecution services have been instrumentalised following the entry into force of a law which the Venice Commission described as “unacceptable in a State governed by the rule of law”; where every single judicial appointment procedure is inherently defective due to the involvement of an unconstitutionally reconstituted body; and where core EU and ECHR binding requirements relating to effective judicial protection have been held “unconstitutional” resulting in national authorities no longer recognising as binding the rule of law related orders and judgments of both the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights.