University of Lodz

English abstract: In April 2022 four years passed since the introduction into the Polish legal system of extraordinary appeal – a new instrument for the review of final court judgements. The experience of several years of the functioning of this means of challenge provides an opportunity to analyse it on the basis of the emerging case law of the Supreme Court in the context of not only the effectiveness of this kind of appeal, as seen through the prism of procedural justice in criminal matters, but also in the context of emergence of constitutional awareness. It should be assumed that the legislator wanted to introduce a measure that would strengthen the protection of freedoms and rights, also within the framework of criminal proceedings, and which so far did not exist in such a form – in terms of evaluation of the process of applying the law. A few years after its introduction, the fears that extraordinary appeal would become a politically exploited mechanism have not come true. However, after a few years the first cautious conclusions can be formulated regarding its significance for the reliability of the criminal process. Unfortunately, these conclusions are not optimistic. The extraordinary complaint does not play a significant role in the functioning of the criminal process in the shape outlined by the Polish Constitution.

Keywords: extraordinary appeal, Supreme Court, judicial review (of constitutionality of statutes), constitutional awareness

Language: Polish

Published: Number 2(31)/2022, pp. 84-96.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2022.2.84

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