On May 26–May 27, 2022, the international conference “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on justice was held. Case study and suggested solutions” at the University of Silesia in Katowice (day one) and the Jagiellonian University (day two).
The conference was organized as part of an international research project led by dr hab. Katarzyna Gajda-Roszczynialska implemented by the Interdisciplinary Center for Research on the Justice System of the University of Silesia co-financed by NAWA.
The partners of the conference were, among others Vilnius University, Faculty of Law of the Kiev National University Taras Shevchenko, IAJ, ODIHR / OSCE, SPP “Iustitia” and the Foundation “Facultas Iuridica”. The conference was held under the honorary patronage of the Rector of the University of Silesia, prof. dr. hab. Ryszard Koziołek, Scientific Society of Civil Processists, President of the Supreme Bar Council, attorney Przemysław Rosati and the National Chamber of Legal Advisers. The first day of the conference was also under the honorary patronage of the President of the City of Katowice, Marcin Krupa, with the support of the District Bar Council in Częstochowa and Iustitia, Katowice Branch, and the second day of the conference was under the honorary patronage of the President of the City of Krakow, Jacek Majchrowski, and the Krakow Bar Association. The media patronage over the event was held by the Wolters Kluwer publishing house.
The conference was attended by foreign partners and experts from the grant project (Prof. Dr. Vigita Vėbraitė, Faculty of Law, Vilnius University (Lithuania), Prof. Dr. Irina Izarowa, Law Faculty of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev (Ukraine), Prof. Dr. Anna Nylund, Faculty of Law of the University of Bergen (Norway), Prof. Dr. Fernando Gascón Inhausti, Professor of Procedural Law, Complutense University de Madrid Law School (Spain) and Prof. Dr. Remco van Rhee – Professor of History of European Law and Comparative Civil Procedure at the University of Maastricht, director of the program “Basics and rules of civil procedure in Europe” (the Netherlands) In addition, the conference was attended by scientists and judges from Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Ukraine, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania and, of course, Poland.
The conference included three thematic sections. On the first day of May 26, 2022, the impact of COVID-19 on the organization and technical functioning of the judiciary, including international courts, and the impact of COVID-19 on the model of civil proceedings were discussed. On the second day – May 27, 2022, the issue of the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on penal law and criminal proceedings was raised. The second day of the conference was an event accompanying the 90th anniversary of Professor Stanisław Waltoś (see more: www.uj.edu.pl) and its organization was conducted by dr hab. prof. UJ Dobrosława Szumiło-Kulczycka.
On May 26, 2022, the conference was opened by dr hab. Katarzyna Gajda-Roszczynialska, dr. hab. Krystian Markiewicz, prof. UŚ as the Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Research on the Justice System and vice-rector for international affairs of University of Silesia prof. dr. hab. Tomasz Pietrzykowski.
The first panel was devoted to more general issues, i.e. the impact of COVID-19 on the functioning of the judiciary. The panel was opened by Judge José Igreja Matos, President of the International Association of Judges, on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the independence of judges and the impact of the pandemic on the rule of law (Duro Sessa, President of the European Association of Judges). Subsequently, the role of the courts and the observance of the right to a fair trial in post-pandemic reality were analyzed (Ghenadie Barba, Head of the Rule of Law Department at the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Warsaw). Later on, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the functioning of international courts was discussed: the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg (dr hab. Maciej Szpunar prof. UŚ, Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia, First Advocate General of the CJEU) European Court of Human Rights In Strasbourg (dr. hab. Michał Balcerzak, professor UMK, Department of Political and Security Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University) and common courts on the example of Poland (Dr. Urszula Żółtak, judge, Association of Polish Judges “Iustitia”).
The second part presented what changes in the procedural civil law system were introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic. This issue in the comparative legal aspect was discussed by prof. dr Anna Nylund, Faculty of Law, University of Bergen (Norway), a. in relation to Poland, prof. dr hab. Andrzej Jakubecki, Faculty of Law and Administration, UMCS (Poland). Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a leap in digitization. This issue was discussed by: prof. Dr. Fernando Gascón Inhausti, Professor of Procedural Law, Complutense University de Madrid Law School (Spain), prof. dr Vigita Vėbraitė, Faculty of Law, Vilnius University (Lithuania) and prof. dr Irina Izarowa, Faculty of Law of the Kiev National University Taras Shevchenko (Ukraine).
The third panel was devoted to changes in the organization of proceedings in the comparative aspect and in national law. This issue was presented by prof. dr Remco van Rhee – professor of the history of European law and comparative civil procedure at the University of Maastricht, director of the program “Basics and rules of civil procedure in Europe” and dr hab. Piotr Rylski, prof. UW, Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw.
In the fourth panel, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the right to a court in terms of the principle of open justice was developed (dr hab. Anna Machnikowska, prof. UG, Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Gdańsk and Katica Artukovic, judge, ODIHR / OSCE expert, Bosnia and Herzegovina ) and the principle of invariability of the composition (dr hab. Krystian Markiewicz, prof. UŚ, judge, Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia, Interdisciplinary Center for Research on the Justice System of the University of Silesia, President of the Association of Polish Judges “Iustitia” (Poland) and Dr. Dragos Călin, judge, ODIHR expert / OSCE (Romania).
The culmination of the first day of the conference was the awarding of the award for the best master’s thesis in the 7th Competition of the Polish Civil Process quarterly and the Scientific Society of Civil Processists. At the meeting of the Competition Committee composed of: Prof. Feliks Zedler (Chairman), Prof. dr. hab. Łukasz Błaszczak, dr. hab. prof. URz Anna Kościółek, dr hab. Tadeusz Zembrzuski and dr hab. Katarzyna Gajda-Roszczynialska (Secretary) voted and a decision was made to award prizes in the competition for the best master’s thesis in the discipline of civil proceedings, taking into account the following criteria: practical usefulness and topicality of the topic, compliance of the title of the master’s thesis with its content, complementarity of the literature and jurisprudence used, substantive content the work and the correctness and novelty of the formulated conclusions, linguistic correctness and exhaustion of the topic. In accordance with the decision of the Competition Committee, the first prize was awarded ex aequo to: mgr Iga Kozioł for the thesis entitled “Court reconciliation of the record gender of a transsexual person” (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań) written under the supervision of prof. dr hab. Paweł Grzegorczyk and mgr Klaudia Katarzyna Pluta for the thesis entitled “Proceedings in cases for the collection of a child abducted from abroad” (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań) written under the supervision of dr hab. Marcin Walasik prof. AMU. The second place went to mgr Iga Anna Makulska for the thesis entitled “Request for information under copyright and industrial property law” (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin) written under the supervision of prof. dr hab. Andrzej Jakubecki. The competition jury awarded the third prize to mgr Joanna Wójcik for the work entitled “Proceedings for the declaration of acquisition of real estate by prescription” (University of Silesia) written under the supervision of dr hab. Krystian Markiewicz prof. UŚ.
On May 27, 2022, the first panel was devoted to more general issues. The speeches of prof. Stanisław Waltoś, prof. Ewa Łętowska, prof. Paweł Wiliński and prof. Piotr Hofmański presented how states of emergency, including the COVID-19 pandemic, can affect the functioning of the criminal law and the process of administering justice, how they can be misused by the legislator for completely different purposes, and where, then, the limits of possible modification of the procedure are.
The second part presents how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the functioning of the criminal justice system in various legal systems. The papers were delivered by: Judge of Landgericht in Munich, Roland Kempfle LL.M., Judge of the Court of Appeal and President of the Danish Judges’ Association Mikael Sjöberg, prof. dr. Marc de Werd from the Netherlands, and prof. Oksana Kaplina from the University of Kharkiv.
The third panel was devoted to changes in the domestic law. Professor Radosław Olszewski presented the problem of changes introduced in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic in the area of coercive measures, att. Hanna Gajewska-Kraczkowska presented the issue of the impact of the pandemic on the implementation of the principle of open court proceedings, prof. Jerzy Skorupka dealt with the problem of limitation due to the pandemic COVID-19 rules of collegiality, and prof. Hanna Paluszkiewicz presented a paper on the impact of the pandemic on the time limits in the law and criminal trial.
Materiał filmowy z pierwszego dnia konferencji
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