The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the names of persons who will act as ad hoc judges at the European Court of Human Rights. (ECHR) in 2018-2020. They include Dr hab. Michał Kowalski from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University.
The European Court of Human Rights is an international judicial body which rules on individual or state applications alleging violations of rights listed in the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its additional protocols. The court was established in 1959 and is based in Strasbourg.
The European Court of Human Rights is made up of 47 judges, one from each member state of the Council of Europe. Poland is currently represented by Prof. Krzysztof Wojtyczek from the Chair of Constitutional Law of the JU Faculty of Law and Administration.
An ad hoc judge is appointed to the European Court of Human Rights if one of the national judges is unable to fulfil their duties, withdraws him- or herself from a case, is dismissed, or there is no such judge. To consider a case, an ad hoc judge must be chosen by the ECHR President from a list provided by the ECHR member state. Three other Polish lawyers were appointed as the ECHR ad hoc judges from 1 June 2018: Prof. Elżbieta Karska, Prof. Janusz Szymonides, and Prof. Michał Balcerzak.
Dr hab. Michał Kowalski specialises in international public law. He graduated and obtained PhD degree from the JU Faculty of Law and Administration, where he is currently employed at the Department of International Public Law. He is a member of the (Polish) Refugee Council, as well as the Committee for Legal Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Advisory Legal Committee at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. Dr hab. Michał Kowalski has received scholarship from the Tokyo Foundation and the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung at the Max-Planck Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, Heidelberg. He also sits on the Board of the Polish Group of the International Law Association and is a member of the European Society of International Law.
