Poland’s royal visit and judicial independence | Letters

I feel I have to protest against some outrageous claims by Kate Maltby in her article (Less a royal visit, more a coup for ugly nationalists, 22 July) relating to the recent visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Poland. I would like to emphasise that the decision to visit Gdańsk and the northern part of Poland where Stutthof is located, as well as the other sites in Warsaw, was entirely at Kensington Palace’s discretion. The Polish side was obviously consulted but didn’t wish to nor could impose its suggestions regarding the royal programme.

I don’t deny the author’s right to hold her own views on the political situation in Poland, but playing down the suffering of Stutthof’s prisoners or of the Warsaw uprising’s victims, just to prove the author’s preconceived thesis, is simply disgraceful. Those people deserve as much respect as the other victims of the German Nazi terror. No one’s suffering is better or worse. And certainly both memorials – the Stutthof and the Warsaw Rising Museum – deserved the royal visit, and their victims being commemorated by the duke and duchess.
Arkady Rzegocki
Polish ambassador

• We, as legal scholars, are watching the constitutional events in Poland with concern and sadness. Judicial independence is a central tenet of the rule of law, an ancient principle which is a foundation of European constitutional thought, and whose adoption in the Polish constitution symbolised a step to the other side of the iron curtain. Indeed, judicial independence and impartiality is so fundamental as to be protected as a basic human right by article 6 of the European convention on human rights. It is a fundamental precondition to constitutional accountability of the executive. We strongly voice our support for Polish judges, as well as the protesters and all those otherwise opposing the newly proposed legislation in Poland which threatens judicial independence. We stand by them in this crucial moment in Polish and European constitutional history.
Paul Craig Professor of English law, Law Faculty, University of Oxford
Sandra Fredman Rhodes professor of the British Commonwealth & the United States
Catherine O’Regan Professor and director of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights
Alison Young Professor of public law
Liora Lazarus Associate professor
Tarunabh Khaitan Associate professor
Nicholas Bamforth Fellow in law
Barbara Havelkova Shaw Foundation fellow in law
Law faculty, University of Oxford