Beata Morawiec
Judge since 1990
Regional Court in Kraków
President of the “Themis” Judges Association
The definition of a state is that it is a way of organising society with a monopoly on making and enforcing laws within a given territory; it is an institution, not a nation. It is supposed to serve citizens who create the state. If there is no bond among its citizens, there is no state. If the bond is broken because the actions of the state lead to divisions, the state ceases to function and ceases to fulfil the function incumbent upon it. The state should create laws that are legible, clear and, above all, stable for all citizens. Only then can a citizen feel safe.
•••
My parents had nothing to do with law. My father graduated from the University School of Physical Education. He worked in the army for a few years in the ground troops which entitled him to early retirement. He then carried on as a teacher, teaching PE in various schools. My mum taught for over forty years in a special school. We have accountants in the family, maths teachers, textile designers who had studied at the Academy of Fine Arts but I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer and a judge. I remember saying it out loud for the first time and my auntie (who was an accountant) said: “Beata, you’re crazy! Do you know how little lawyers make? The legal advisor in our company is as poor as hell!” I just replied, “Life is not only about making money.” In high school everyone already knew I wanted to be a judge.
•••
Judges really are human beings, we are not robots. All our decisions, rulings and sentences must be thought through, considered from every possible angle, and based on the letter of the law and the evidence. Punishment is supposed to be a deterrent but it should also serve as a way of re-socialising people. Someone might say that “the courts are too lenient in their penalties”, but has that person ever given any thought to what prison is like? It is a gloomy building with four doors, each closing behind the prisoner with a slam. Every time that door slams behind you it sends shivers down your spine. Isolation means you are master of neither your own free time nor your own free will. It is a terrible punishment. But there are also people who cannot live without prison. Once, after I sentenced someone to three years’ imprisonment, the defendant looked at me and asked, “Why such a short sentence, Judge?” I was stunned. He was an older gentleman, in his late seventies. I remember exactly what he looked like. He was a repeat offender so I could not give him a sentence of less than three years back then. He stole some choke cables from the railway. They are copper wires that feed electricity to the signals (these are the kinds of things judges have to learn). He had no pension rights so he would probably have ended up in a shelter so he came up with the brilliant idea that he would go back to prison. He stole the wires, melted them over a fire and sold them as copper to a scrap yard. It was quite profitable at the time. When he was arrested, he was charged with breaching disaster risk laws. At the time there was no internet or computer systems that could monitor railway signals so a failure to supply electricity to the signals could in fact lead to a rail disaster. It turned out that he had already thought it over in prison so that if he was charged he would at least get five years and would not have to leave prison. He simply did not know how to be a part of society.
•••
Polish people trust nobody. “A court is a court but justice must be on our side” (a famous line from the classic Polish film Sami Swoi).
Everyone thinks that all we do is wait for people to come to us and beg for help or we ‘fix’ something for them. Rubbish! That is the kind of thinking that led me to be suspended. There have been accusations against me of irrational behaviour, based on slander and insinuation, which have nothing to do with the truth. Accusations were made against me of misappropriation of public funds where no such misappropriation took place. It is all ridiculous. All my life I have been telling colleagues that I would love someone to try and bribe me so that I could make a show case out of it. But nobody has had the courage to even ask me for anything, not to mention the fact that for many years, from the very start of my career, lawyers, let alone any other party in court proceedings, were not allowed in a judge’s chambers. It does not matter if it is your brother, cousin or even your best friend who you have known for years, it is not allowed because “a judge must be above that”. For many years we were not even permitted to marry members of other legal professions. As a professional group we isolated ourselves and were isolated from society. We did not actively participate in social life and that was a mistake. However, now that the rule of law is being systematically dismantled, we must try so much harder to make citizens aware that we cannot allow the rule of law to be destroyed. We have to help citizens understand what the rule of law actually is. The definition of the rule of law is extremely simple: it is the application of the law. Nothing else. Obey the law, apply the law, and you a person of the rule of law. If you attempt to circumvent the law, disobey it or disregard it, you are not a member of the civil society.
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Judges today are stuck in a malaise, in a virtual anti-reality. There are no principles any more, there are no authorities, there is no respect for the law! The authority of the independent judges and the independent courts, which has been built up over many years, has been all but destroyed. What happens next? It will be very difficult to correct the mistakes that have been made and to rebuild respect for the justice system and respect for judges. We will no longer keep quiet and idly watch as the rule of law is being dismantled. A side effect of what those in
government are doing, which they did not envisage, is the resistance within the judiciary: an atmosphere of unanimity and fighting for civil rights, together shoulder to shoulder. Nobody expected this to happen because we never prepared for it. “Sit tight and they will find you” is what we were taught, “do not say anything, it is not appropriate, it is not proper to do so”, “a judge must not get involved in society”. Life has now shown us that this was an irrational approach and has led to
legitimate criticism of our profession.
However, those in power have had a major reality check: their erroneous assumptions and attempts to destroy the rule of law have come to nothing because the fight for the rule of law and the rule of law itself has always been, is and will always be the goal of every independent judge.
