Wymiar sprawiedliwości w świetle obrad i postanowień IX Nadzwyczajnego Zjazdu PZPR (14–20 lipca 1981 r.)

The sessions of the 9th Extraordinary Congress of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PUWP) was preceded by a profound public critique of both the structures and the activity of the judiciary and administration of justice. The corporations of lawyers demanded to strengthen the independence of the judiciary. They demanded to abolish the regulations on the so called “warranty” of socialist justice and to abolish the term of office in the Supreme Court. The Party, however, had no intention of changing and getting rid of legal regulations that allowed them to control the sphere of the judiciary. In the programme presented at the congress, the Central Committee of the PUWP emphasized the need to strengthen the existing structures of the socialist system of justice that in their opinion ensured the ‘independence’ of the judiciary. This approach of the PUWP towards the system of justice was rejected by a group of delegates who criticized the programme presented by the Central Committee at a meeting of a task group. They pointed out the need for tangible legal changes in the system administration of justice as postulated by the corporations of lawyers. These views were nonetheless found to be anti-socialist, and were not included in the final text of the congress resolution, which merely reiterated the theses set forth in the Central Committee’s programme statement.