Judicial Dialogue About Judicial Independence in Terms of Rule of Law Backsliding

The latest CEU DI Working Paper by our Post-doctoral Fellow Barbara Grabowska-Moroz discusses the recent ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU in the Getin Noble Bank case (C-132/20) in which the Court decided to discuss judicial independence with the Polish "judge" appointed by the captured council for the judiciary.

Both aspects of the Getin Noble Bank case – its admissibility and the substance of the questions referred – have a common denominator: judicial independence. The Court decided to enter into such a dialogue, which was a legal and strategic mistake. The main consequence of Getin Noble Bank is that Article 47 of the Charter does not need to be taken into consideration for the purpose of interpreting the admissibility criteria under Article 267 TFEU.

The Getin Noble Bank case also raises the question of whether the Court of Justice is willing to apply the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights in cases concerning the consequences of the rule of law backsliding diagnosed in numerous EU Member States.