Since Law and Justice took power in Poland in 2015, its influence rapidly extended to the judicial branch, through contended nominations that produced the 2015 Polish Constitutional Court crisis.
The Law and Justice party argues that the reforms are needed to improve the efficiency of the judiciary, but the opposition, supported by a significant number of members of the judiciary, has been very critical of the reforms.
[3][4][5] The Polish judicial disciplinary panel law was approved by the Sejm on 20 December 2019.
[10] The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and the Committee for the Defence of Democracy organized protests throughout Poland against the bill.
[12] By 2020, fourteen out of the fifteen judges had been appointed to the Constitutional Tribunal by the Sejm since the return in power of PiS in 2015, which was seen by the former tribunal presidents and judges as one of the signs of a lack of checks and balances against PiS' domination of three branches of government power.