Second Instance Court’s Bench Composition in Civil Proceedings

The aim of the article is to discuss the effects of the amendment to Code of Civil Procedure introduced by Act of 28 May 2021 within the scope of a change of a court bench composition in appeal proceedings. The new solutions are controversial and in some aspects interfere with the principle of judicial independence. By reversing the principle of a collective composition in favour of a one-person composition, there were insufficient guarantees for the continuation of the so-called unchanged bench composition for old cases, which may violate the principle of invariability of a bench composition. Secondly, entrusting a decision on a court composition to a court president that is an administrative body did not provide sufficient guarantees for respect for judicial independence. A court president’s decision on whether it is necessary to designate a bench due to the complexity or precedent-like nature of a case also raises objections. It is not within a court president’s competence to assess a nature of a case on which a judge adjudicates. On the other hand, classified conditions for establishing collective benches cause that the discussed regulation will be very rarely applied.