Income of Crown Courts Judges

Abstract

Remuneration of Crown Court judges had not been satisfactorily solved by the time when the Crown Court (Tribunal) was being established in 1578. Pursuant to the statute, by virtue of which the composition of that highest court was appointed, the judges (also called deputies) rather than being paid regular salaries were to be ensured interests in the so-called 'tribunal box' to which court fees and penalties imposed on participants of proceedings were transferred. This system, however, even if satisfactory in the first years of the functioning of the Tribunal, had undergone various deformations when the morale was generally low, which consequently led to numerous abuses of the proceeds so raised. The idea of no-fee public service, so popular among the 16th century nobility, had gradually become a meaningless slogan in the 17th century. The crisis of the judiciary coincided with the political crisis (and was also one of its consequences), with the result that it took a century to restore it. It was only in the second half of the 18th century that most organs present in the Republic of Poland had finally undergone a deep reform, and the postulates of the supporters of regular salaries forjudges ad materialised. Remuneration for judges was officially approved to include salaries payable from the Treasury. This had finally eradicated the pathology that had been for long bothering Polish judicial system.