Polish Constitutional Tribunal crisis (2015–2016)

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The Polish Constitutional Tribunal crisis has been an ongoing conflict in Poland starting in the second half of 2015 with the appointment of five of the 15 judges of the Constitutional Tribunal. In Poland, constitutional judges must be elected by the Lower House, and must take an oath of office before the President. In 2015, the governing Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, PO) party lost both the presidential election and the parliament (Sejm) majority to the Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS), which won an unprecedented absolute majority of seats. After the new (eighth) Sejm was seated on 12 November 2015 and the new president of Poland, Andrzej Duda, assumed office on 6 August 2015, the judicial branch would be left as the only branch of the government of Poland not under the control of PiS provided that the due seat replacements were made in advance. The terms of three constitutional court judges were due to end after the 25 October election but before the new (eighth...

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