Polish Constitutional Tribunal Under PiS: From an Activist Court, to a Paralysed Tribunal, to a Governmental Enabler

The dramatic changes in Poland after the 2015 presidential and parliamentary elections took many by surprise, both because of the speed and the depth of the changes, paralysing the Constitutional Tribunal and transforming it into a “positive enabler” of the government. This article discusses the structural characteristics of this revolutionary transformation, focusing first on the structural characteristics of the change and the anti-constitutional dimensions of the transformation. It continues with some hypotheses about the causes of this worrying phenomenon and concludes with a concise discussion of the resources that liberal democracy still has in Poland, thus supporting some optimism about the future.