This webinar featured Marcin Mrowicki alongside panelists Elizabeth A. Wilson and Doug Coltart
Webinar details:
This webinar explored the ways in which the legal community can draw practical lessons from the Polish judiciary’s resistance to authoritarian pressures under the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS). It delved into the tactics judges employed to safeguard their independence, from subtle acts of defiance within courtrooms to collective public resistance. By analyzing these actions, the webinar uncovered the role of judges as defenders of democratic principles, even under significant state pressure. Attendees considered how lawyers, like judges, can maintain ethical standards while navigating political conflicts that threaten judicial autonomy. Furthermore, the webinar emphasized the importance of understanding resistance strategies for legal professionals facing similar challenges globally. Ultimately, it shed light on the judiciary’s critical role in upholding the rule of law in the face of authoritarian encroachment.
Furthermore, key speaker Marcin Mrowicki discussed his monograph, All Rise: Judicial Resistance in Poland, which investigates the strategic and organized resistance of Polish judges against the authoritarian encroachments on judicial independence by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party from 2015 to 2023. The resistance movement led to significant national and international outcomes, including presidential vetoes of controversial judicial reform bills, the reinstatement of judges, and actions by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against Poland.
This webinar took place on December 11, 2024.
More About the Presenter and Author:
Marcin Mrowicki, PhD, is Assistant Professor of EU Law and Human Rights at the University of Warsaw (Centre for Europe). He is an author of many academic and popular science publications. He worked as a lawyer at the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg (2012-2016), and at the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights’ Office in Poland (2016-2024). Since February 2024, he is also a Secretary of the Inter-ministerial Committee for Restoring Rule of Law and Constitutional Order and a Deputy Head of the Criminal Law Department of the Ministry of Justice in Poland.
About the Respondents:
Elizabeth A. Wilson has a JD from Harvard Law School and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught public international law and international human rights at Seton Hall’s School of Diplomacy, Rutgers Law School, and Columbia University’s Institute for Human Rights, and has been a visiting senior fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany. She is the author of People Power and International Human Rights: Creating a Legal Framework, an ICNC monograph. She is now an attorney with Gilbert Employment Law, a civil rights law firm.
Doug Coltart is a Zimbabwean lawyer, human rights activist, social movement coach, and writer. His legal practice focuses on providing representation to journalists, activists, trade unionists, etc who are prosecuted for exercising their rights. Mostly, he just loves to dance!