Wojciech Sadurski

Wojciech Sadurski (born 5 June 1950) is a Polish and Australian scholar of constitutional law. As of 2020, he is Challis Professor in Jurisprudence at the University of Sydney and Professor in the Centre for Europe in the University of Warsaw.

Academic career

Sadurski was born on 5 June 1950 in Warsaw; his father was a peasant farmer. Sadurski emigrated to Australia in 1981 and holds dual citizenship. According to Associated Press, Sadurski is "a law professor of international renown". He has written several books on constitutional law and has served as a visiting professor at Yale Law School, New York University Law School, Cardozo Law School, and University of Trento. He first gained tenure at the Department of Jurisprudence at the University of Sydney, then under Alice Erh-Soon Tay. From 1999 to 2009 he was a professor at European University Institute in Florence and, from 2003 to 2006, the dean of the Faculty of Law of the European University Institute. As of 2020, he is Challis Professor in Jurisprudence at the University of Sydney and Professor in the Centre for Europe in the University of Warsaw.

Sadurski is on the editorial board of ''European Law Journal'', ''Politics, Philosophy and Economics'', and ''Law and Philosophy Library''. Since 2011, he chairs the academic advisory board of Community of Democracies.

Criticism of the Polish government

Sadurski is a vocal critic of the Law and Justice (PiS) party in Poland, which he describes as autocratic and authoritarian. In 2019, he published a book with Oxford University Press titled "Poland's Constitutional Breakdown". The book was translated into Polish by Anna Wójcik; the Polish edition was published in October 2020. Three cases have been brought against him by the ruling party and those affiliated with it. According to Sadurski, the cases "are totally and unambiguously politically motivated. Further, I believe that they are coordinated and syncronised." PiS has also brought libel cases against other critics of the government.
*A member of the disciplinary panel of the Polish supreme court opened an investigation against Sadurski at Warsaw University because he called the members of the disciplinary panel "losers".
*The party sued because Sadurski called it an "organized criminal group" that associated itself with neo-Nazis, in relation to the 2018 National Independence Day march which had significant far-right participation. Sadurski commented, "the ruling party enjoys almost unlimited power and very wide material benefits. It lacks only one thing—the privilege of silencing its critics. This lawsuit is an attempt to seize this privilege." He stated that "I used the term ''organized crime group'' as a metaphor to describe activities that require synchronization and coordination of the actions of various political and state entities which, according to the constitution, should be separated from each other, but which, in my opinion, led to coordinated actions leading to the transformation of the democratic system into an authoritarian one." He also argued that if he lost the case, "paradoxically, it would confirm the correctness of my diagnosis". Dozens of journalists, members of the opposition, and human rights activists were present at the trial. The case was dismissed by a first instance court, but the party appealed the verdict.
*The third case involves Sadurski's reference to "Goebbelsian" media after the assassination of Paweł Adamowicz. Although not named by Sadurski, the state-owned media company Telewizja Polska brought both criminal and civil suits for defamation. As of October 2020, the case is scheduled to be heard in December 2020. (According to Reporters Without Borders' 2020 assessment, "Partisan discourse and hate speech are still the rule within state-owned media, which have been transformed into government propaganda mouthpieces.")

Responses

Hundreds of law professors signed a letter in support of Sadurski, stating that there was "a coordinated harassment campaign by the Polish ruling party against a well-known and respected academic who has clearly struck a nerve with his powerful critique of the situation in his native country". According to the open letter, the cases have little chance to succeed if appealed to the European Court of Human Rights or an EU court, because freedom of speech is guaranteed by treaties to which Poland is a party. Questions about Sadurski's case have been raised in the European Parliament and Dutch Parliament. The Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association also called for charges against Sadurski to be dropped. Former Australian High Court judge Michael Kirby commented: "Poland’s citizens, including Professor Sadurski, must always have the ability to criticise the government without fear of retribution or imprisonment." Scholars at Risk characterizes the prosecution of Sadurski as "apparent retaliation for the peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression" and states that state crackdowns on free expression cause "a chilling effect on academic freedom and undermine democratic society generally".

Works

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References

Further reading

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External links

Blog

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sadurski, Wojciech
1950 births
Living people
Scholars of constitutional law
University of Warsaw faculty
University of Sydney faculty
20th-century Polish lawyers
21st-century Polish lawyers
People from Warsaw