History

History of the Supreme Court

Traditions

The traditions of the highest judicial authority in Poland go back to when full power, including the power to judge, was concentrated in the hands of the monarch. As early as in the Middle Ages, mechanisms for exercising power by the political sovereign, i.e., the gentry, were developed. In the 16th century, the high court of land law, the Crown Tribunal, which took over the authority to judge appeals from the king, was established. However, in cases concerning the interest of the state, including cases of high treason, the Sejm Court (in which all senators and deputies of the Chamber of Deputies adjudicated) had jurisdiction. The traditions of the Crown Tribunal, which held its sessions in Piotrków and Lublin (as well as the Lithuanian Tribunal, established some years later), and the Sejm Court (also as the predecessor of the Tribunal of State), were followed by the Supreme Court.

The lack of uniform law for all in this period (each social group characteristic for feudal society was governed by its own laws) meant that the judiciary was also separate for each feudal social group (gentry, burghers, clergy, peasants) and nation/religion (Jews and Armenians). Particular towns and cities had their own separate judiciary; however, in those that had been established under German law (mainly under Magdeburg law) judicial authorities developed. In the 13th century, higher instance courts of German law had already been established. The most famous one, the Court of German Law at the Kraków Castle established during the reign of King Casimir the Great, was not abolished until 1791.

The first modern European constitution of 3 May 1791 was based on the Montesquieu tripartite division of powers and, in the judicial area, it reflects a gradual departure from the state system in society. It confirmed the existence of a separate judiciary in the structure of state power, in principle of two instances, where appeals were to be lodged with the main tribunals established in the provinces. At the same time, it provided for the establishment of the supreme court, the composition of which was to be elected by each Sejm. The court was to have jurisdiction over all social groups for ‘misdemeanours against the nation and the king, i.e., crimina status’ (Article VIII, paragraph 6).

At that time, multinational Poland was a monarchy with a mixed political system – a democracy of the gentry, while the neighbouring states (Prussia, Russia and Austria) were centralised absolute monarchies. In 1795, those countries led to the collapse of the Polish-Lithuanian state. Therefore, the modern socio-political changes (abolishment of the feudal social structure and introduction of the division of powers, including a separate judiciary) took place when Poland was being erased from the map of Europe. Following the establishment of the Duchy of Warsaw and the introduction of the French political and legal system there, the Court of Cassation was established in 1810 in Warsaw with its seat in the Krasiński Palace. It heard cassation appeals against final judgments of civil and criminal courts. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Duchy of Warsaw collapsed and was replaced by the Kingdom of Poland, which was bound by a personal union with Russia and under Russian protectorate. During this period, the Sejm Court, established under the provisions of the 1815 constitution and composed of all senators, held its sessions in the Krasiński Palace. In 1827-1828, the Sejm Court heard the case of members of the Patriotic Society accused of high treason, and ultimately found them not guilty. Soon after the fall of the November Uprising, the Constitution was abolished, as was the Sejm and the Sejm Court. The restriction on the autonomy of the Kingdom by Russia, especially following the January Uprising, resulted in the russification of the judiciary and the introduction of the Russian judicial system in the kingdom in 1876. The Germans applied a similar policy with regard to Polish territory, while the Austrians did not introduce the right for nations living in the monarchy to be educated in their own language and use it in public offices until the 1860s. The supreme courts for the Polish population in that period were the courts of the partitioning states, i.e., the German Reich Tribunal, the Austrian Supreme Court of Justice and the Russian Ruling Senate. The highest courts where justice was administered in Polish language were the higher national courts in Lwów and Kraków – the highest courts of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Establishment of the Supreme Court – The Second Republic of Poland

The longed-for year of 1915 came when, under the onslaught of German and Austrian troops, the Russian army and thus the entire Russian administrative system, including the courts operating in the then Congress Kingdom, were evacuated deep into Russia. However, the change of occupant did not stop the difficult military and political process of the Polish Republic’s rebirth. Already in 1915, Polish schools, theatres and offices were being established quickly and spontaneously. The militia and the beginnings of an administrative structure were created from the bottom up, also the first Polish courts, including the Main Court in Warsaw as the supreme court, with its seat in the Krasiński Palace.

In 1916, the establishment of the Kingdom of Poland was declared, which constituted the foundation of emerging statehood within the territories occupied by the Central Powers. In January 1917, the Provisional Council of State of the Kingdom of Poland was established, which in August 1917 adopted a regulation entitled provisional rules on the organisation of the judiciary in the Kingdom of Poland. They provided for the establishment of the Supreme Court (SC) comprising the Civil Chamber and the Criminal Chamber. The chambers were to be headed by their presidents, one of whom was to be appointed first president. The first three judges were appointed immediately: the former advocate Jan Jakub Litauer and two of the few Polish judges previously sitting in the Russian courts in the Congress Kingdom, Stanisław Pomian-Srzednicki and Antoni Żydok. Stanisław Pomian-Srzednicki became the President of the Civil Chamber and was subsequently appointed the First President of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court held its first session on 14 December 1917. The prosecutor’s office, consisting of the Supreme Court prosecutor and sub-prosecutors, was created at the Supreme Court. In the following months, the composition of the Supreme Court was completed, and the seat of the supreme judicial magistrate was housed in the Krasiński Palace, also known as the Palace of the Republic, a place which already had its judicial tradition.

On 11 November 1918, the Polish state already had developed power structures, a government, an army and a judiciary – partly taken over (from the former Austrian and German partitions), and partly created (in the former Russian partition). The Supreme Court was a new institution, one of whose objectives was the judicial unification of Polish territories.

The Supreme Court Rules were issued by the Provisional Chief of State, Józef Piłsudski, on 8 February 1919. They provided that on the motion of the Minister of Justice, the Supreme Court had the authority, sitting in its general assembly, to interpret provisions of law in force that had cast doubts in practice or had been applied divergently, as well as to point out and amend, as far as possible, defects noticed in official acts of the courts of lower instance and, at its discretion, to notify the Minister of Justice of them.

After the decree of the Chief of State, other chambers were created in the Supreme Court. Chambers I and II heard cases from the former Russian partition (civil and criminal, respectively), while Chamber III heard civil and criminal cases from the former Austrian partition. Chamber IV, which was composed of judges who came from the Austrian Administrative Court in Vienna, was established for administrative cases. The last Chamber V was established to hear civil and criminal cases from the former Prussian partition. Moreover, a division of the military judiciary was also established, headed by the Supreme Military Court. In 1922, based on Austrian models, the Supreme Administrative Tribunal was established on the basis of Chamber IV of the Supreme Court.

At that time, the state was struggling with the applicability of several legal systems that had been inherited from the partitioning states. In order to resolve this, in 1919, the Legislative Sejm enacted the Codification Committee Act, which initially comprised 44 eminent lawyers from all provinces of Poland. The committee’s task was to unify court law, i.e., substantive, formal civil (including commercial) and criminal law, as well as organise the administration of justice.

The Constitution of 17 March 1921, as well as the Constitution of 23 April 1935 (although this one was based on the concept of unitary state power) provided for the separation of and guarantees for the judiciary – primarily the irremovability of judges. Both constitutions provided that judges were appointed by the President of the Republic of Poland, were subject only to the law, were irremovable from office and had immunity. It was also constitutionally confirmed that the Supreme Court adjudicates in civil and criminal cases, while judicial review of administration is exercised by the Supreme Administrative Tribunal. The State Tribunal and the Tribunal of Competence were also established.

The unification of the judicial system in Poland took place on 1 January 1929 by virtue of the Law on the System of Common Courts, issued as a decree of the President of the Republic of Poland on the basis of the draft prepared by the Codification Committee. The court of first instance was the municipal court, while the court of second instance was the regional court. In cases in which the regional court adjudicated in the first instance, the court of appeal ruled in the second instance. The Supreme Court, as the instance of cassation, supervised the jurisdiction of the common courts, and as a rule it adjudicated cassations in civil and criminal cases. However, it also had the functions of a public law court, as it ruled on the validity of parliamentary elections by reviewing election protests. Moreover, the Supreme Court was a disciplinary court. The Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office was also reformed, but continued to be subordinated to the Chief Prosecutor, who was the Minister of Justice. The Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court was composed of the First Prosecutor of the SC, prosecutors of the SC and – until 1932 – deputy prosecutors of the SC.

Following the entry into force of the Law on the System of the Common Courts, controversial circumstances resulted in the retirement of the First President of the Supreme Court, Władysław Seyda, the President of the III Civil Chamber, Zygmunt Dworski, and shortly afterwards also the President of the II Criminal Chamber, Aleksander Mogilnicki. It took place on the basis of government-initiated provisions in the abovementioned Act. Formally, the presidents were retired, but the motives were essentially political. The provisions providing for the retirement of Supreme Court judges were soon abolished as unconstitutional. Ultimately, in compliance with the constitution, two chambers were to remain in the Supreme Court. In 1929, Chamber V was abolished, by taking over jurisdiction for the lands of the former German partition by Chambers I and II. On 1 January 1933, with the entry into force of the uniform civil trial, Civil Chambers I and III were merged.

Throughout the Second Republic, judges, including the Supreme Court judges, were appointed by the President of the Republic of Poland on the motion of the Minister of Justice. From the time of their appointment, they were irremovable and entitled to immunity. In 1917-1939, a total of approximately two hundred judges served in the Supreme Court.

In May 1938, the Bar Association Chamber was established at the Supreme Court, which was partly composed of Supreme Court judges and partly of advocates who were members of the General Bar Council. This chamber, which did not affect the structure of the Supreme Court but which was in fact the ‘judge-advocate supreme court of disciplinary matters of the Bar’, ruled until the end of 1950.

The Second World War period

During the Second World War, the Supreme Court was suspended by the Germans, while some of its powers were transferred to the head of the main justice department. The Supreme Administrative Court also did not operate.

A large number of judges were murdered by the German and Soviet occupiers during the war and occupation. One victim of the Soviet crime in Katyń was the President of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court and at the same time the President of the Codification Committee, Bolesław Norbert Podhorecki, who was murdered by a shot to the back of the head. The President of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, Jan Rzymkowski, and several other SC judges died or were murdered in Soviet captivity.

Efforts to regain independence were accompanied by activities both at home and in exile to rebuild the Polish judiciary, including the Supreme Court. On the day of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, an interim decree was issued by the National Council of Ministers to take official action in the judiciary. Article 5 provided that the Minister of Justice would entrust the temporary management of the Supreme Court to the president or a judge of that court, unless the President of the Republic of Poland appointed the first president before the Supreme Court commenced its activities.

People’s Republic of Poland (1944-1989)

In 1945, due to the ruin of the capital city during the war, the Supreme Court resumed its activities in Łódź (at 151 Piotrkowska Street in the Gustav Adolf Kindermann Palace). Not until May 1950 did the Supreme Court return to Warsaw, to a court building on Leszno (now Solidarity Avenue). By the end of the 1940s, it was predominantly composed of pre-war Supreme Court judges. New judges were systematically recruited, frequently without appropriate qualifications, changing the image of the court. It is noteworthy that in 1948, the first female judge of the Supreme Court, Zofia Wasilkowska, was appointed. On the other hand, the pre-war First President, Leon Supiński, was not allowed to continue in office, and was only permitted to remain a judge. It very soon turned out that the judiciary, and particularly the Supreme Court, was to become a tool for the exercise of communist power.

In 1945, Wacław Barcikowski was appointed the first President of the Supreme Court, who was also a member of the Presidium of the State National Council (1945-1947), Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Sejm (1947-1952) and then Deputy Chairman of the Council of State, created under the Stalinist constitution of 1952 (1952-1956). The state functions that he had chosen to hold prevented him from duly supervising the functioning of the Supreme Court. In consequence, as the First President, he was one of the main people responsible for the Stalinisation of the judiciary and the Supreme Court.

In November 1948, the General Assembly of the Supreme Court concluded that the jurisprudence and legal principles (which the Supreme Court formulated in the Second Republic), if inconsistent with the then current political system, were only of historical value. During that period, the Supreme Court judges were also involved in judicial crimes against Second World War heroes such as General Emil Fieldorf (the adjudicating bench was composed of Emil Merz, Gustaw Auscaler, and Igor Andrejew). Numerous rulings that were in fact court crimes were issued by the Supreme Military Court, which was established in 1944. For instance, the case of the Auschwitz hero Rotmistrz (Cavalry Captain) Witold Pilecki (the adjudicating bench was composed of Kazimierz Drohomirecki, Roman Kryże, Leo Hochberg, Jerzy Kwiatkowski and Rubin Szwajg).

In 1946-1948, the Supreme National Tribunal (SNT) operated. Its task was to judge Nazi criminals as well as traitors to the Polish nation. The First President of the Supreme Court was also the president of the SNT. The adjudicating bench was composed of three judges (appointed by the Presidium of the State National Council (SNC) on the motion of the Minister of Justice) and four lay judges (appointed from amongst SNC deputies). The SNT’s rulings, as those of the SC, were final and non-actionable.

The Special Commission for Combating Fraud and Economic Detriment, which operated from November 1945 to 1954, was an infamous judicial body in the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL), whose rulings were final and subject to no review, including by the Supreme Court.

Following the deaths of Joseph Stalin (1953) and Bolesław Bierut (1956), there were changes in Poland after the Stalinist period. However, they did not result in fundamental changes in the judiciary, including the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, Prof. Jan Wasilkowski (also a deputy to the Sejm), representing the reformist wing of the communist party (PZPR), became the First President, and his wife, the Supreme Court judge Zofia Wasilkowska, became the Minister of Justice for a brief period (1956-1957).

In the period of the People’s Republic of Poland, a number of changes to the operation of the Supreme Court as well as its constitutional position were introduced. As early as 1949-1950, civil and criminal procedures were fundamentally changed. The three-instance judicial review as well as appeal and cassation procedures were abolished, and a two-instance review system with the institution of extraordinary review, based on the Soviet model, was introduced in their place.

In 1962, the Supreme Court Act was enacted, which, following the PRL constitution of 1952, provided that the Supreme Court ‘is the supreme judicial body and it shall supervise the adjudicatory activities of all other courts’. The Supreme Military Court was abolished, and subsequently the Social Security Tribunal, headed by the pre-war Supreme Administrative Tribunal judge Janusz Pierzchalski, which had been operating since 1946 under the law of 28 July 1939, was also abolished.

The Supreme Court was no longer a common (second instance) court and henceforth was composed of four chambers: the Civil Chamber (then the Civil and Administrative Chamber), the Criminal Chamber, the Labour and Social Security Chamber and the Military Chamber. Supreme Court judges were appointed by the State Council for a 5-year term of office with the option of reappointment. The majority of SC judges were members of the PZPR, and successive terms of office were in fact dependent on the political assessment made by the central organs of the communist party. SC judges swore to safeguard the then political system and social property. They could be dismissed by the State Council, including before the expiry of their term of office. The Supreme Court also issued guidelines for the judiciary and judicial practice, which, under the slogan of maintaining the uniformity of jurisprudence, limited judicial independence. Moreover, the drafts of a number of them were prepared outside the Supreme Court, facing criticism within the legal community.

The ‘Solidarity Revolution’ of 1980 also reached the Supreme Court. Despite the obstacles posed by the state authorities and the attacks by the First President, in October 1980, following the initiative of SC judge Stanisław Rudnicki, the first ‘Solidarity’ trade union organisation was established in the Supreme Court, which was joined by 82 employees. However, among these were only three active SC judges (Stanislaw Rudnicki as the chairman, as well as Zofia Wasilkowska and Konrad Zieliński). In the subsequent months, a ‘Solidarity’ project for the organisation of the judiciary and the Supreme Court was drafted, which provided for the departure from the term of office and political affiliation of the Supreme Court, including the abolition of the issuing of judicial guidelines. Following the imposition of martial law on 13 December 1981, a declaration of loyalty was demanded from SC judges involved in the Solidarity movement. The judge Stanislaw Rudnicki refused to submit such a declaration. Consequently, on the motion of the First President, he was dismissed from his judicial position in the Supreme Court by a decision of the State Council of 14 January 1982. The judge Konrad Zieliński resigned from his office, while the judge Maria Matuszyńska was dismissed from her secondment in the Jurisprudence Office. In turn, SC judge Tomasz Majewski, who had worked on the draft of the judiciary reform, was not appointed for another tenure in 1982. After leaving the judiciary, Stanisław Rudnicki and Tomasz Majewski both became registered advocates and practised at the Bar Association in Grójec.

In April 1982, the Council of State amended the resolution on the presentation of candidates for the next term of office in the Supreme Court by essentially increasing the role of its First President, which in practice resulted in even stronger party affiliation of SC judges. For the fifth tenure of the Supreme Court (1982-1987), 110 judges were appointed, including its First President and five Presidents.

In 1984, a new Supreme Court Act was enacted, Article 1 of which provided that ‘the Supreme Court shall safeguard the political and socio-economic system of the Polish People’s Republic, protect the achievements of the working class, social property as well as the rights and legally protected citizens’ interests’. For the 1987-1992 term of office, which turned out to be the last one, the Council of State appointed 118 judges to the Supreme Court, which included 99 PZPR members. In total, 246 judges sat in the Supreme Court in the PRL period.

The Third Republic of Poland

The Supreme Court of the PRL was abolished in December 1989. The tenure of the previous Supreme Court judges was limited to 30 June 1990. The new composition of the Supreme Court was made on 4 June 1990 by former communist dictator Wojciech Jaruzelski, who became President of the PRL as a result of political arrangements. On the motion of the National Council of the Judiciary (163 candidatures were submitted, including 106 judges of the Supreme Court of the sixth term of office, interrupted by the constitutional act) 57 judges were appointed to the four chambers of the Supreme Court, including 22 from the previous, term-limited composition of the court (over 38% of the new composition). Majority of newly appointed judges used to be members of either the communist party or its two allied parties. At the same time, several advocates became judges of the Supreme Court, and judges Stanisław Rudnicki and Tomasz Majewski, who had been dismissed during martial law, also returned to the Supreme Court. Stanisław Rudnicki became President of the Supreme Court on 1 July 1990, heading the Civil Chamber, while Tomasz Majewski was employed in the Jurisprudence Office. On the basis of a resolution of the Sejm of 22 June 1990, Adam Strzembosz was appointed the First President of the Supreme Court, as of 1 July 1990, shortly after his resignation from the office of Deputy Minister of Justice in Tadeusz Mazowiecki’s government.

At the end of 1990, the Supreme Court was composed of 59 judges as well as 4 presidents and the first president. The Supreme Court consisted of four chambers: the Civil Chamber, the Administrative Camber, the Labour and Social Security Chamber, the Criminal Chamber and the Military Chamber.

Following the change of the judicial system of 1 October 1990, the review of appeals against judgments of provincial courts issued in the first instance was taken over by the courts of appeal. Thus, the Supreme Court was no longer the second instance court (with the exception of the Military Chamber).

At the end of 1989, the National Council of the Judiciary (NCJ) was established in order to safeguard judicial and court independence, to decide on candidates for the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court, Supreme Administrative Court, common courts and military courts, as well as to submit proposals for their appointment to the President of the Republic of Poland. Its first meeting was held in February 1990. Candidates for judges were selected and presented to the NCJ by the assemblies of judges of relevant courts. This solution for appointing judges, which existed in Poland in the years 1917-1939, was also present in the projects of judicial reforms drafted at the time of the ‘Solidarity Revolution’. In the case of the Supreme Court, this led to a situation where in fact the competition procedure took place before the Assemblies of Judges of the Chamber and the General Assembly of the Supreme Court, which considered applications and only a maximum of two candidates were presented to the NCJ. Initially, the NCJ’s resolutions were not subject to judicial review. In 2008, the ability to appeal to the Supreme Court against an NCJ’s resolution to present a candidate to the President of the Republic of Poland for appointment to the office of a judge of the Supreme Court was introduced. However, this did not change the co-optation model of selecting judges in the Supreme Court. The change in this respect was only introduced by an act in 2017 that transferred the entire procedure for judicial appointment to the NCJ.

The Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997 confirmed that the Supreme Court is the supreme judicial body exercising judicial supervision over the activities of common and military courts. However, the procedure for the appointment of the First President of the Supreme Court was changed, introducing a six-year term of office as well as the principle that the First President is appointed by the President of the Republic of Poland from amongst candidates presented by the General Assembly of Judges of the Supreme Court (Article 183). The introduction of a two-instance administrative judiciary caused that administrative cases, previously heard in the review procedure, were no longer examined in the Supreme Court. At that time, work on a new Supreme Court Act was started.

On 1 January 2003, the Supreme Court Act of 23 November 2002 came into force. It divided the Supreme Court into four Chambers: the Civil Chamber, the Criminal Chamber, the Labour, Social Security and Public Affairs Chamber and the Military Chamber. The act transferred to the General Assembly of Judges of the Supreme Court the competence to determine the internal organisation of the Supreme Court, the detailed division of cases between the chambers and internal procedures, which had previously been determined by the President of the Republic of Poland by decree. Consequently, on 1 December 2003, the General Assembly of Judges of the Supreme Court adopted the Rules of the Supreme Court. Since 2017, the Rules of the Supreme Court have again been issued by the President of the Republic of Poland by decree.

The operation of the judiciary in the Third Republic of Poland has been the cause of a number of social controversies. They found their expression in the results of the 2015 parliamentary elections, when political parties promising fundamental changes to the administration of justice came to power. Among stormy disputes and political twists and turns, the new Supreme Court Act was finally adopted on 8 December 2017 and entered into force on 3 April 2018.

The Supreme Court Act of 2017 abolished the Military Chamber, as had been requested for years. The Chamber of Labour, Social Security and Public Affairs was also abolished, and the Labour and Social Security Law Chamber was established in its place, with the previous judicial composition. Public affairs were transferred to the jurisdiction of the newly established Extraordinary Review and Public Affairs Chamber, which was also entrusted with reviewing extraordinary complaints – a tool for examining the constitutionality of final acts of the judiciary and complementary to the existing constitutional complaint. The Disciplinary Chamber was also established, which was granted extensive organisational autonomy, a separate budget, and higher remuneration (40%) than other SC judges. The establishment of this chamber was reasoned by the need to ensure the proper functioning of the disciplinary liability system. Since the very beginning, the Disciplinary Chamber in this shape raised particular controversy and objections in legal circles. It also triggered a profound political and legal dispute, which subsequently was transferred to the European Union and the Council of Europe. The tensions resulted in the abolishment of the Disciplinary Chamber on 15 July 2022 and the establishment of the Professional Liability Chamber in its place, with 11 judges nominated by the President of Poland for a five-year term of office from among 33 judges who are drawn from amongst all Supreme Court judges.

One of the new arrangements, introduced in the Supreme Court by the act of December 2017, is the participation of the social factor in the Supreme Court adjudication, i.e., lay judges of the Supreme Court. From 2018 until the abolition of the Disciplinary Chamber (in July 2022), the lay judges adjudicated in disciplinary cases. They are now involved in the adjudication of extraordinary complaints (a bench composed of 2 professional judges and 1 lay judge or 5 professional judges and 2 lay judges), and in certain categories of cases in the Professional Liability Chamber (a bench composed of 2 professional judges and 1 lay judge or 3 professional judges and 2 lay judges).

In the interwar period, beginning in 1922, the anniversaries of the Polish judiciary, including the Supreme Court, were celebrated in autumn. Particularly important were the celebrations in October 1937. During the People’s Republic of Poland, no reference was made to the tradition of the Supreme Court of the Second Republic of Poland, and anniversaries of the establishment of the institution in the communist state were celebrated instead. The tradition of celebrating the anniversary of the establishment of the Supreme Court in 1917 was restored in 2007. On that occasion, an anniversary book and a commemorative medal as well as badges were issued. In 2010, the 20th anniversary of the restored Supreme Court was celebrated.

Particularly important was the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Supreme Court in 2017. The main ceremonies took place on 28 September 2017 at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, which were preceded - as in 1917 - by a Mass celebrated at St John’s Arch-Cathedral in Warsaw, and they were accompanied by an exhibition dedicated to the history of the Supreme Court.

First Presidents of the Supreme Court

The Second Republic of Poland

1. Stanisław Pomian-Srzednicki, 1 September 1917 - 28 February 1922
2. Franciszek Nowodworski, 1 March 1922 - 3 August 1924
3. Władysław Seyda, 22 September 1924 - 17 January 1929
4. Leon Supiński, 17 January 1929 -1939/1945

The People’s Republic of Poland

1. Wacław Barcikowski, 28 February 1945 - 12 November 1956
2. Jan Wasilkowski, 12 December 1956 - 22 May 1967
3. Zbigniew Resich, 23 May 1967 - 21 January 1972
4. Jerzy Bafia, 21 January 1972 - 1 April 1976
5. Włodzimierz Berutowicz, 1 April 1976 - 14 May 1987
6. Adam Łopatka, 14 May 1987 - 30 June 1990

The Third Republic of Poland

1. Adam Strzembosz, 1 July 1990 - 17 October 1998
2. Lech Gardocki, 17 October 1998 - 18 October 2010
3. Stanisław Dąbrowski, 14 October 2010 - 9 January 2014 (died during his term of office)*.
4. Małgorzata Gersdorf, 30 April 2014 - 30 April 2020 (first female First President of the Supreme Court)**
5. Małgorzata Manowska, 26 May 2020 - 26 May 2026
6. Zbigniew Kapiński, since 27 May 2026

* During the period from 9 January 2014 (death of Stanisław Dąbrowski) until the appointment of Małgorzata Gersdorf on 30 April 2014, the responsibilities of the First President were performed by Lech Paprzycki, President of the Supreme Court.

** After the expiry of Małgorzata Gersdorf's term of office, the responsibilities of the First President were carried out by SC judges: Kamil Zaradkiewicz (1-14 May 2020) and Aleksander Stępkowski (15-25 May 2020).

The author would like to thank the following persons
for their consultation and valuable comments:
Prof. Adam Lityński and Prof. Arkadiusz Bereza
as well as Wiesław Kozielewicz, Supreme Court Judge.

Prof. dr hab. Adam Redzik, Supreme Court Judge

➔ Metryczka