From mainstream to power: The Law and Justice party in Poland

2022 ◽  
pp. 401-414
Author(s):  
Bartek Pytlas
Keyword(s):  
The Law ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Lagno

Since 1 March 2011 Poland has marked the National Day of Remembrance of the „Cursed Soldiers” (Narodowy Dzień Pamięci “Żołnierzy Wyklętych”) — members of the anti-Communist underground in the 1940s and 1950s who tried to prevent Poland’s sovietisation and subordination to the USSR. The idea of establishing such a state memorial day was expressed in 2010 by Lech Kaczyński, the then President of Poland and one of the leaders of the Law and Justice Party (L&J). During the debates on the Bill of the National Day of Remembrance in the Sejm, the deputies of the two main opposing parties voted in favour almost unanimously and the Senate approved it without making any changes. After President Bronisław Komorowski signed it on 1 March 2011, Poland acquired an additional state holiday. In 2015, after the Law and Justice Party won both the presidential and parliamentary elections, the issue of the „cursed soldiers” turned into one of the key questions in historical policy. The „Civic Platform” party, forced to move over to the opposition benches in parliament, sounded the alarm, accusing the L&J party of rewriting history and primitivising the image of the anti-Communist underground. Thus, the memory of the “cursed soldiers” transformed from an issue that united political opponents to a topic for arguments and political struggle. The article attempts to show how the L&J party used the preservation of the memory of the “cursed soldiers” for its own political purposes, including its fight against the opposition.


Author(s):  
Andrew C. Willford

In 2006, dejected members of the Bukit Jalil Estate community faced eviction from their homes in Kuala Lumpur where they had lived for generations. City officials classified plantation residents as squatters and questioned any right they might have to stay. This story epitomizes the dilemma faced by Malaysian Tamils in recent years as they confront the collapse of the plantation system where they have lived and worked for generations. Foreign workers have been brought in to replace Tamil workers to cut labor costs. As the new migrant workers do not bring their whole families with them, the community structures need no longer be sustained, allowing more land to be converted to mechanized palm oil production or lucrative housing developments. Tamils find themselves increasingly resentful of the fact that lands that were developed and populated by their ancestors are now claimed by Malays as their own; and that the land use patterns in these new townships, are increasingly hostile to the most symbolic vestiges of the Tamil and Hindu presence, the temples. This book is about the fast-approaching end to a way of life, and addresses critical issues in the study of race and ethnicity. It demonstrates which strategies have been most “successful” in navigating the legal and political system of ethnic entitlement and compensation. It shows how, through a variety of strategies, Tamils try to access justice beyond the law-sometimes by using the law, and sometimes by turning to religious symbols and rituals in the murky space between law and justice.


Significance At the beginning of 2021, the ZP coalition of the Law and Justice (PiS), Accord and United Poland (SP) parties is stable, but not as strong as it has been in previous years. This weakening in the PiS-led government’s condition is due to many factors, among which the coronavirus pandemic is one of the most important. Impacts The process will continue of subordinating any independent state institutions still left to party control. PiS will take further, similar steps regarding the media, academia and NGOs. After months of pandemic lockdown, the state of the economy is stable if not ideal, and will not lead to early elections.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (22) ◽  
pp. 66-73
Author(s):  
Mahfutt Mahfutt ◽  
Khairil Anwar ◽  
Billi Belladona Matindas

The position of the Military Court is a body that executes the judicial power in the circle of the Indonesian National Armed Forces to enforce the law and justice with due observance of the interest in the state defense and safety. The Military Court is authorized to try the crimes committed by someone who when committing such crime is a soldier of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, a member of a group or office or body or equal to a soldier pursuant to the Law and someone is not included in the said group as set forth in the Law Number 31 of 1997 on Military Court. Following the reform of 1988, the existence of the Military Court is developed by some activists and the public that observe the Military Court, insisting the Parliament of the Republic of Indonesia to revise Law Number 31 of 1997 on Military Court, with the focus point for a soldier of the Indonesian National Armed Forces who commits a general crime to be tried in the General Court with the reason that the Military Court practice is closed in nature, and another reason is the equalization of rights before the law. The method used in this research is the normative law research that is carried out to obtain the necessary data relating to the problem. The data used is secondary data consisting of primary law materials, secondary law materials, and tertiary law materials. In addition, primary data is also used as the support of the secondary data law materials. The data is analyzed by the qualitative juridical analysis method. The results of the research show that the Military Court is one of the mechanisms that are always tried to be maintained. The outcome from the research discovers that the role of the Martial Court in Indonesia remains effective, fair, and democratic to this date realistically marked by fair punishment within the jurisdiction offended, which corresponds to the need of TNI institution in the aspects of Culture, Benefit, Assurance, and Fairness. It is recommended that the RI Government continuously develop and improve the same by maintaining the role of the Martial Court in punishing criminal offenses committed by military members on the Martial Court system currently in force.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
Abdul Manan

The court essentially banned refused to examine, decide a case filed with no legal argument or less clear, but obliged to examine and judge ". Provisions of this chapter gives the sense that as major organs Court judge and as executor of judicial power is obligatory for the Judge to find the law in a case despite legal provisions do not exist or are less clear. Law No. 48 of 2009 Article 5 (1) explains that "Judges shall multiply, follow and understand the values of law and justice that lives within the community. the judges in the religious court in making decisions on matters that should be examined and judged using the technique of taking decisions which include Analytical Techniques, Technical equatable, and techniques syllogism. Keywords: Rechtsvinding, Justice, Law Events, Religious Courts.


2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 215-221
Author(s):  
Irena Pańków

This essay is a review based on material from nineteen published interviews that focused on a diagnosis of Polish conditions after a year of the Law and Justice [Prawo i Sprawiedliwość] party’s rule. The interviews were conducted with experts—academics and journalists—by Michał Sutowski, who published these interviews as a collection.  The author demonstrates that such a collective diagnosis has major advantages in Poland’s current, rapidly changing, social conditions. Such a method is quicker than the scholarly approach to describing and explaining the state of affairs. The collection of interviews could also be a valuable source of inspiration for public debates and scholarly research in many areas, and could contain guidelines for decision-makers.


2021 ◽  
pp. 64-85
Author(s):  
Artur Ghambaryan

The aim of the article is to reveal the collisional relationship between justice and the law in the philosophical dimension. The main objectives of the article are to analyze the contradictions between law from the point of view of broad legal understanding, as well as the answer to the question of how law enforcement agent should act if, in solving a specific case, an outrageous contradiction between law and justice is encountered. The author used a number of scientific methods, in particular, historical-legal-comparative methods. The author concludes that supporters of a broad legal understanding consider the issue of contradiction between law mainly from the point of view of legislative policy, however, they do not discuss the issue of how the law enforcement agent should act when an obvious contradiction between law is encountered in a particular case. In the article the sayings «dura lex sed lex» (The law [is] harsh, but [it is] the law) and «lex iniusta non est lex» (An unjust law is no law at all) are considered in the dimensions of the legalism and natural law. The author concludes that the Radbruch formula is an exception to the saying «dura lex sed lex» (The law [is] harsh, but [it is] the law), which has undergone practical approbation. On the one hand, this resolution values the certainty and stability of the law, and on the other hand, it protects the person (society) from the unjustly shouting unjust laws.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-48
Author(s):  
Onvara Vadhanavisala

Abstract A quarter of a century ago, the Soviet Union dissolved and the Cold War ended. Now the current political era involves a broad challenge to liberal democracy in the European Union. Central European countries such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Republic of Poland, and the Slovak Republic (‘the Visegrád Group’) joined the EU in 2004 with the hope that the post-Cold War era would be one of peace and stability in Europe, including (most importantly) the expansion of Europe’s democracy. A turning point came in 2014, however, when the Syrian refugee crisis hit the EU and caused a political ‘about face’. The European refugee and migrant crisis have strengthened right-wing populism among the European countries, including the Visegrád group. Obviously there are certainly similarities between the populist rhetoric of Hungary’s ruling party, Fidesz, and the Law and Justice party (known as PiS) which is governing the Republic of Poland. The two countries appear to be following the same path of becoming ‘illiberal democratic’ states. The templates of authoritarianism which both countries have adopted involve the following: the restriction of civil society and the independence of the media, control of the judiciary and the court system, together with the transformation of the constitutional framework and electoral law in order to consolidate power. This paper analyses two examples of authoritarian populist leaders: first, Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary of the Fidesz Party and, second, Jarosław Kaczyński, a leader of the Law and Justice Party (PiS) in Poland. A brief description of each is provided as a background for the discussion which follows.


2018 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 02006
Author(s):  
Riris Ardhanariswari ◽  
Muhammad Fauzan ◽  
Ahmad Komari

The Constitutional Court is one of the perpetrators of judicial power, in addition to the Supreme Court as referred to in Article 24 paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution. The Constitutional Court is also bound to the general principle of an independent judicial power, free from the influence of other institutions in enforcing law and justice. The Constitutional Court is the first and last level judicial body, or it can be said that it is the only judicial body whose decisions are final and binding. The existence of the Constitutional Court is at the same time to maintain the implementation of a stable state government and is also a correction to the experience of constitutional life in the past caused by multiple interpretations of the constitution. Judicial review towards the constitution is one of the authorities of the Constitutional Court that attracted attention. This shows that there has also been a shift in the doctrine of the parliamentary supremacy towards the doctrine of the supremacy of the constitution. The law was previously inviolable, but now the existence of a law is questionable in its alignment with the Constitution. The authority to examine the Law towards the Constitution is the authority of the Constitutional Court as the guardian of the constitution. This authority is carried out to safeguard the provisions of the Act so that it does not conflict with the constitution and / or impair the constitutional rights of citizens. This shows that the judicial review towards the Constitution carried out by the Constitutional Court is basically also to provide protection for human rights.


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