Piotr Gąciarek

Judge since 2001, Regional Court of Warsaw

Does judicial independence have any limits? Of course. This limit is a matter of intellectual honesty.

•••

I became a judge because I was always tuned in to the idea of justice and to the injustice done to others. That was extremely important to me. When I began my legal training, I knew I wanted to be a criminal judge, so now I am a judge, although today we are living in difficult times.

•••

My first robbery case involved me sentencing some young defendants that were 18 and 19 years old. They were in custody and the prosecutor demanded a prison sentence for them that would not be suspended. Although it was a serious crime which involved the threat of violence, it was not a shocking armed robbery or anything like that. On the day the sentence was announced, I was getting ready for work and was listening to a speech by the then Justice Minister Stanisław Iwanicki (the successor of PiS founder Lech Kaczyński) in Jerzy Buzek’s government. He said something to the effect that punishment in the courts should be more severe. “Whatever,” I thought, “I am not interested in what he has to say and I don’t want to listen to this anymore. If the state has something to say, they should change the law and make the penalties severer”. That would have been the appropriate signal from politicians and parliament. I went to work, passed the sentence in line with my conscience, a sentence that even the prosecutor did not challenge: a suspended sentence. We gave those young people a chance.

•••

In criminal law, guilt is determined on a binary scale, that is, if it cannot be attributed, if there are doubts that cannot be completed resolved, then a person cannot be convicted. In this respect, criminal law gives the judge greater comfort. Even if I am 90% convinced that a defendant is guilty but not 100% sure, I cannot convict him. It is more difficult in family court. Awarding custody to a child is not binary. It is not a case of ‘guilty or not guilty’ because everyone has their own reasons, emotions are involved, and it is not so much a lesser of two evils but what is best in the given – often difficult and complicated – situation. I feel sorry for judges in the family courts because theirs is a more difficult job. My job? I only convict when I am convinced. People may be disappointed when a defendant is not convicted, or convicted for a different reason then they originally thought. Making judgments is not easy, as any juror will tell you. It is one thing to scream and shout and demand harsh punishment but quite another to sit on a jury, be a juror, a layman elected by the local government, to take responsibility for someone else’s life and for the punishment that will be meted out. First of all, we must know if the accused actually committed the alleged crime, and whether we can convict him or her. Only then can we begin discussing the question of punishment.

•••

A judge cannot be lazy, their work cannot be shoddy, and they must always be willing to understand difficult issues. A judge must succumb to and be guided by logical thinking and science but also the experiences of life. There are no other pressures a judge can succumb to. Perseverance, for one thing, comes at a terrible personal cost. One has moods that range from euphoria to depression. Right now, for example, I feel good. I have met judges from all over Poland, those who are incredibly committed, brave, creative, incredibly strong, incredibly determined. And this drives me. I see and feel an absolute solidarity amongst us and a readiness to help, and so I try to give as much of myself as I can to support others. But there is frustration. For example, I saw the list of candidates for promotion in my court. They are pretty good judges who I know, but they are people who just cannot wait to get promoted despite the illegally appointed National Judicial Council. It is terrible. I cannot ask everyone to stand on the front line, to take that risk and fight for the independence of the courts, but if you do not want to get involved then at least be a decent person and do not push yourself to the front of that queue and get promoted. Do not play along with the current system and legitimise the illegal body that is the current National Judicial Council. That is all there is to it. Stop. It is like that well-known poem by Zygmunt Herbert which tells us that doing the right thing does not require much effort, all you have to do is be decent.