Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz

Constitutional Justice under Populism

The Transformation of Constitutional Jurisprudence in Hungary since 2010


The role of the “constitutional tradition” in the identity of the Fundamental Law

The Constitutional Court’s interpretative practice is primarily shaped by the text of the Fundamental Law. The new Fundamental Law, which entered into force on 1 January 2012 refers to constitutional traditions in a number of places; we have seen this in the case of the principles of interpretation. In Hungary, after the establishment of the Constitutional Court on 1 January 1990, the most important yardstick developed by the Constitutional Court and adopted from foreign and international constitutional judicial practice was the so-called necessity-proportionality test, with which the Constitutional Court constantly examined the constitutionality of legal restrictions on rights, more or less along the lines of the case law of the German Federal Constitutional Court. This approach was codified in the Fundamental Law in Article I (3) of the Fundamental Law.1 However, the other important general rule on constitutional interpretation is Article R) (3) of the Fundamental Law, which provides that the provisions of the Fundamental Law shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with, inter alia, the National Avowal and the achievements of our historic constitution. Paragraph (4) of the same Article states that “the protection of the constitutional identity and Christian culture of Hungary shall be an obligation of every organ of the State.”2

Constitutional Justice under Populism

Tartalomjegyzék


Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2024

ISBN: 978 963 454 971 0

In Hungary’s 2010 parliamentary elections, Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance and its coalition partner, the Christian Democratic Party won a landslide victory and the newly formed populist Orbán-government gained a two-thirds constitution-making parliamentary majority, which it has kept for four consecutive terms (so far). In the spring of 2011, the National Assembly adopted Hungary’s new Fundamental Law, which has since been amended twelve times. The transformation of the Hungarian Constitutional Court and constitutional jurisprudence has played a significant role in cementing the new regime. The changes can be followed in a chronological order in this book. The author starts with the explanation of the concept of constitutional adjudication, she then reviews the procedural-institutional developments and the critical doctrinal junctures of the past thirteen years with regard to the general assessment of the change in constitutional justice. Finally, the volume offers a reading of how the scholarly experiences and factual results of the thirteen years spent under populism compare to the ideal of constitutional-court-made constitutional justice.

Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz is research professor at the Institute for Legal Studies, HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences and professor of constitutional law at ELTE Law School, Budapest. She worked as law clerk at the Hungarian Constitutional Court in different positions between 2003 and 2013. She has published extensively on different aspects of constitutional law, including the practice of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, the impact of different contemporary challenges to constitutional adjudication, as well as the rule of law resilience of Hungarian legal system.

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/gardos-orosz-constitutional-justice-under-populism//

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