Round Table Approaches to Judicial Reform: Lessons and Challenges from the Divided Poland
DebateEuropean Parliament, Brussels, Belgium
24/06/2026 5pm
Moderator dr MAGDALENA M. BARAN
Speaker Prof. MACIEJ KISILOWSKI
Speaker Michał Wawrykiewicz
Speaker Maria Ejchart
Poland’s judicial crisis illustrates how constitutional institutions become battlegrounds in a deeply polarized society. As argued in Let’s Agree on Poland, the conflict is driven not only by legal disputes but by competing visions of the state, each seeking to secure its values through control of the courts. This panel, Round Table Approaches to Judicial Reform: Lessons and Challenges from the Divided Poland, explores whether negotiated, power‑sharing solutions can break this cycle.
We examine proposals for decentralization, including shifting selected judicial competences to the regional level and creating a Senate of Voivodeships as a counter‑majoritarian safeguard. The discussion focuses on three themes: constitutional polarization, decentralized models of judicial governance, and mechanisms of shared responsibility. The panel argues that sustainable reform requires a new constitutional settlement based on pluralism, mutual guarantees, and institutional restraint.

