Polish court systems

Hello everyone. I am fairly new here. I am taking a class at the University in Detroit Michigan on Polish language. A few things came up recently that led me to wonder about the court systems in Poland. One, was being summoned for jury service and the other was a Polish movie that we watched. I had a couple of questions that I was wondering if anyone could answer for me? In the movie (The Savior's Square), it appeared that there were multiple judges on the bench, is this normal? Also, in the movie the defendant had the opportunity to question the witnesses herself. Is this true, or was this added for the dramatics of the movie? Another thing that seemed odd about the movie was that the lawyers seemed to sit at the same table and the defendant did not sit with her lawyer. Is this the way that it is in all criminal cases? (I could be mistaken about these couple of details since I saw the movie a month ago.) Also, I was wondering if Poland had a jury system? And if they had anything similar to the Miranda rights that we in the US have? (I had plenty of time on my hands sitting and waiting in the courtroom doing my homework!)

Thank you,
Ania

nope. court provides the experts and the defendant has to prove them wrong. you're also basically assumed to be guilty until proven otherwise so there is no need to Miranda.

yes to the bench of judges, that's how it works there. juries.. never heard of one.

My understanding is that Poland, much as with the rest of the EU, follows the system of continental, i.e. Roman/Napoleonic law, compared with the UK, Canada and the US, which follow British Common Law.

To the best of my knowledge, Poland has no juries in the American sense. Don't know if they prefer professional juries as in Germany and certain other countries.

i think the 'jury' is a panel of judges... pretty much in all cases. my grandpa used to do that so maybe these 'juries' are 'professional.'

Yep, sounds just like Germany. There, they're called 'Schoeffen', composed mainly of jurists.

oh, these 'juries' may also be made up of elders as gramps only did it when he was older - close to retirement or after, as far as i know.

In Gemany, at least, there IS a firmly enforced legal retirement age for all public service professions, among them, professional jurors-:)!!

I'd be similarly curious about the Polish court system.

Who can use these powers? Where is the EU heading?


telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/10/06/do0604.xml

well, at least EU still has Habeas Corpus, eh? :D

Thank you so much for answering my questions. I greatly appreciate it.

"At least the EU has habeus corpus....

......which we in the US are slowly trying to get rid of, thank you Justice Alito et al!!!