Europejski Komitet Zapobiegania Torturom oraz Nieludzkiemu lub Poniżającemu Traktowaniu albo Karaniu

Pozasądowe mechanizmy praw człowieka i podstawowych wolności Rady Europy / redakcja naukowa Elżbieta H. Morawska, Katarzyna Gałka. Lublin : Wydawnictwo Episteme, 2021, s. 215-239.

The 1987 European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is one of the core conventions of the CoE. It serves to strengthen the protection of individuals against torture and other forms of treatment incompatible with Article 3 ECHR. The Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) is empowered to visit any places where persons are deprived of their liberty by the public authority. CPT members are guaranteed full access to areas of detention and the detainees. These visits are the basis for reports containing, where necessary, recommendations to States to improve the situation. The introduction of direct visits to places of detention was seminal in the CoE legal order. An important sphere of State activity that poses a risk of arbitrary abuse was subjected to the scrutiny of an independent international body. The systematic work of the CPT over three decades has made it possible to develop detailed standards for the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty. These standards have been developed gradually, based on the reports following visits State-Parties, and recommendations made. They influence national legislation and practice, are recognized by other international institutions, including the ECtHR, and are incorporated in the European Prison Rules.

Wyroki TS w sprawie C-216/18 LM oraz C-354 i 412/20 L i P (wykonanie ENA)

Problem praworządności w Polsce w świetle orzecznictwa Trybunału Sprawiedliwości UE (2018-2020) / wstęp, wybór i redakcja Jan Barcz, Agnieszka Grzelak i Rafał Szyndlauer. Warszawa : Dom Wydawniczy Elipsa, 2021, s. 189-286.

The Assessment of Judicial Independence Following the CJEU Ruling in C-216/18 LM

Współautorstwo: Biernat, Stanisław

Defending checks and balances in EU member states : taking stock of Europe’s actions / Armin von Bogdandy, Piotr Bogdanowicz, Iris Canor, Christoph Grabenwarter, Maciej Taborowski, Matthias Schmidt, editors. Berlin : Springer-Verlag GmbH, copyright 2021, s. 403-430.

In the LM ruling, the Court of Justice developed the Aranyosi and Căldăraru test and indicated it as the one to be applied for the assessment of judicial independence and fair trial guarantees in the context of executing European Arrest Warrants. Although serious threats to the rule of law and judicial independence in some EU countries, like Poland, have been documented over recent years, no warrant has so far been definitely rejected as a consequence of the application of the LM test, although there are cases in which the execution of warrants to Poland has been suspended. This naturally raises questions as to whether the mechanism proposed by the Court responds to the need of protecting the right to a fair trial and safeguarding judicial independence. In this contribution we evaluate the mechanism devised by the Court, taking into account the available judicial practice after the LM ruling. We point out that the almost automatic transfer of a mechanism proposed to evaluate the functioning of a prison system to that evaluating a fair trial and judicial independence has not been fully successful. The mechanism proposed by the Court reveals a number of problematic issues and proves to be insufficient and not entirely adequate to assess judicial independence and guarantees of a fair trial.