The
knowledge of the legal systems, when translating legal documents, e.g., judicial
decisions, includes also familiarity with the hierarchy of courts. And here, we
can spot considerable differences between civil and common law.
The Polish
administration of justice consists of courts and tribunals[1].
While the Polish Constitution (Chapter VIII) distinguishes only two tribunals:
Constitutional Tribunal and the Tribunal of State, the structure of the court system is of much more complexity. The Constitution of the
Republic of Poland enlists four major kinds of courts:
The administration of justice in the Republic of
Poland shall be implemented by the Supreme Court, the common courts,
administrative courts and military courts.
[The
Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 2nd April 1997;
art.175(1)][2]
More often than not, legal documents that translators
work with are issued by or for the common courts, and therefore, we will focus
on them, leaving administrative and military courts perhaps for another blog post?
As far
as the common courts are concerned, at the top of the hierarchy[3] of
these courts there is the Supreme Court (Sąd
Najwyższy), it is the highest instance court in Poland and has its seat in Warsaw. The court handles cassations, i.e. appeals
from sentences or decisions of the courts of second instance. It does not
consider cases but examines whether the judgments are compliant with the law.
The court consists of twelve judges and a chairman. The courts of
appeal, second instance courts (Sądy
apelacyjne II instancji) are next below in the hierarchy, then there are
regional courts, first/second instance courts (sądy okręgowe I albo II instancji), district courts, first instance
courts (sądy rejonowe I instancji)
and at the very bottom are municipal courts (sądy grodzkie).
This greatly simplified presentation of the Polish
common courts structure can be juxtaposed with the English courts in the Civil
Division. The House of Lords, however different from Sąd Najwyższy, is the highest court in England; hence it can serve
as its counterpart, although these terms are never (and should not be) used as
equivalents by translators. The House of Lords, together with the Court of
Appeal, which occupies a lower position in the hierarchy, deals exclusively
with appeals, although the House of Lords is concerned only with ‘matters of
law of general public importance’ (Alcaraz & Hughes 2002:53). The Court of
Appeal hears the cases passed on from the High Court, which is a court of lower
instance or in special circumstances from the county courts (translated as sądy okręgowe).
One of my previous posts
shows the full structure of the English court system; it is presented in
English as well as in Polish to provide some suggestions for the translation of
the courts’ names.
Resources:
Alcaraz, Enrique; Hughes,
Brian. Legal Translation Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome
Publishing,
2002.
Jopek-Bosiacka, Anna. Przekład prawny I sądowy. Warszawa:
Wydawnictwo Naukowe
PWN, 2006.
The Constitution of the
Republic of Poland.
The hierarchy of English courts of Her Majesty’s
Court Service
The Hierarchy of English
courts in Polish http://ec.europa.eu/civiljustice/org_justice/org_justice_eng_pl.pdf
[1]
‘Tribunal’ does not seem to be congruent with the Polish ‘Trybunał’, although Polish institutions use these terms as
equivalents on their official websites
(cf. http://www.trybunal.gov.pl/eng/index.htm). Trybunał is a court of higher instance than the Supreme Court (Sąd Najwyższy) (Jopek-Bosiacka 2006:220), whereas English tribunals are the
lowest courts in the hierarchy of the justice system (see: Table 2 below). This
terminological incongruity shows how important the knowledge of the courts
hierarchy is, especially in the translation of court names.
[2]
Source: the Polish Parliament’s web page:
http://www.sejm.gov.pl/prawo/konst/angielski/kon1.htm
[3] Based on Table 7.5A and 7.5B in Jopek-Bosiacka
(2006:220-221)
