#62021CJ0521CJEU Grand Chamber Judgment (C-521/21): Polish Judicial Independence — KRS-Appointed Judges and the Right to a Lawfully Established Tribunal

The Court of Justice of the European Union (Grand Chamber) ruled on 24 March 2026 in Case C-521/21 (MJ v AA) that EU law — specifically Article 19(1) TEU and Article 47 of the Charter — precludes national legislation and case-law that forbids courts from examining whether a judge was lawfully appointed or whether the body that appointed them was genuinely independent. The case arose in Poland, where judicial appointments to ordinary courts were processed through the reformed Krajowa Rada Sądownictwa (KRS), a body the CJEU had previously found to lack the independence required by EU law. The Court held that a judge hearing a recusal application must be permitted — and is in fact obliged — to assess whether the judge subject to recusal constitutes a 'tribunal previously established by law' within the meaning of Article 47 of the Charter. Polish legislation that categorically prohibited such scrutiny was found incompatible with EU law, as it effectively shielded structurally defective appointments from any meaningful judicial review. Crucially, the CJEU confirmed that judges appointed through a procedure tainted by the KRS's lack of independence, where candidates had no effective remedy to challenge the appointment process, do not satisfy the requirement of being an 'independent and impartial tribunal previously established by law.' As a consequence, national courts have the authority — and duty — to remove such a judge from a panel when warranted by the circumstances. This judgment reinforces the EU's rule-of-law framework, affirms the primacy of EU law over conflicting national rules, and provides concrete procedural guidance for Polish courts navigating recusal and panel-composition challenges arising from the post-2018 judicial reform era.

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