What’s more important to us: Certainty of the law and predictability of verdicts, or a feeling of justice done among society at large ?

An interview with Paweł Kwiatkowski, advocate

On 23 June, the Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs Chamber of the Polish Supreme Court, considering an extraordinary complaint, held that the Constitution had been violated but, at the same time, refused to overturn a final payment order, citing the res iudicata principle (case I NSNc 144/21). But isn’t this the very idea of the extraordinary complaint, that it should concern things which have already been adjudicated upon ?

The reasoning adduced for this case is, in fact, imperfect, in that the general rule has it that a complaint is brought against final verdicts with regard to which all avenues of ordinary appeal have been exhausted. If, however, we delve deeper into the applicable rules, our sense of surprise might be lessened (…)

The full text of this article is available (in Polish) in Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. If you are interested in an English-language version or in discussing the issues raised herein with one of our lawyers, please contact: kontakt@gessel.pl.