The emergence of independent Poland in November 1918 gave rise to an urgent need to rapidly construe Poland’s own judiciary, including that of administrative type. In February 1919 the Supreme Court in Warsaw took over the competence of the Vienna Administrative Tribunal. All former judges of the latter: Wilhelm Binder, Roman Moraczewski, Włodzimierz Orski, Rudolf Różycki, Zbigniew Smolka became members of the Fourth Chamber of the Supreme Administrative Court. Jan Sawicki was appointed to the Chamber. The governmental Bill on the implementation of the Supreme Administrative Tribunal, prepared in 1922, was fully based on the Austrian law on Administrative Tribunal of 1875, Jan Sawicki being the author of the Bill. Thus the judges with the Austrian legal background occupied a prominent position in the newly formed Supreme Administrative Tribunal (NTA). Jan Sawicki became the first President of the NTA. For the twenty two judges who made up the first team of the NTA over half derived from the former Austrian partition territory. Jan Sawicki performed the function of the NTA First President until 1928 when, for political reasons, he retired. Then – for over two years – it was R. Różycki who acted in the capacity of the one fulfilling the duties of the First President. He was eventually nominated to the position of the NTA First President in 1930. He performed this function until 1932 when he retired. It is worthwhile to note that from November 1926 R. Różycki was also the President of the Comeptence Tribunal. Also W. Orski was the first President of the Supreme Administrative Tribunal and he performed this function for less than one year (1933-1934). The dismissal of Jan Sawicki overnight (!) through applying urgent procedure to which the authoritarian regime referred to as “Sanacja” resorted, was reflective of the beginning of the tendency to limit the NTA independence. The decree of the President of 1932 on the NTA introduced new principles according to which the judges were expected to be appointed. It was Prime Minister who was vested in the exclusive right to indicate the candidates for the management posts in the Tribunal. The candidate for the President was not even required to be the NTA judge! The transitory provisions contained in the decree provided the government with the right to remove inconvenient judges and replace them with the individuals who proved to be friendly-disposed toward the “Sanacja” authorities. It is worthwhile to emphasize however that these provisions were exploited on a fairly limited scale and as result had no negative impact on the NTA judicial decisions.
number of pulisher's sheets:
0,5
departmental parameterization:
5
affiliation:
Wydział Prawa i Administracji : Katedra Powszechnej Historii Państwa i Prawa