Poland’s Constitutional Breakdown
Since 2015, Poland’s populist Law and Justice Party (PiS) has been dismantling the major checks and balances of the Polish state and subordinating the courts, the civil service, and the media to the will of the executive. Political rights have been radically restricted, and the Party has captured the entire state apparatus.
Poland’s anti-constitutional breakdown poses three questions that this book sets out to answer: What, exactly, has happened since 2015? Why did it happen? And what are the prospects for a return to liberal democracy? These answers are formulated against a backdrop of current worldwide trends towards populism, authoritarianism, and what is sometimes called ‘illiberal democracy’.
Wojciech Sadurski, distinguished professor of law at the Universities of Sydney and Warsaw, will present his new book “Poland's Constitutional Breakdown” (OUP 2019) followed by a discussion with Mattias Kumm (WZB Center for Global Constitutionalism), Max Steinbeis (Verfassungsblog) and Kriszta Kovács (WZB Center for Global Constitutionalism).