Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz

Constitutional Justice under Populism

The Transformation of Constitutional Jurisprudence in Hungary since 2010


The Constitutional Court of the Fundamental Law. The beginnings1

When the commentary2 of the regime-changing Constitution3 was published in 2009, the authors outlined the role played by the Constitutional Court in the system of constitutional institutions during its nearly twenty years of operation.4 They presented a significant institution which, despite valid criticisms, was able to serve as an adequate safeguard in Hungary against the emergence or resurgence of dictatorship and managed to explain and enforce the new democratic rules of the Constitution.5 History has shown that the regime-changing states of the region had been able to stabilise their new institutions in the two decades after 1990. There have been attempts in Hungary to have a constituent majority decide on some fundamental issues of democracy, constitutionalism or fundamental rights, but these efforts have been mostly unsuccessful.6 However, the decisions of the Kelsen-type Constitutional Court7 were mostly accepted by the constitutional institutions,8 and the Court enjoyed broad support in society.9 In the field of legal development, even with its inconsistencies, it arguably marked out an approach that broadly corresponded to the mainstream expectations of liberal (constitutional) democracy.10 However, by the time of the 2011 constitution-making process, some important changes were already in the making, with the constitutional majority setting the direction for a repositioning of the institution.11 The new arrangements for the Constitutional Court were developed in several steps, the first of which date back in 2010. Shortly after its inaugural session, the Parliament elected in 2010 adopted the “Amendment of the Constitution of 5 July 2010”, which abolished the parity committee nomination of the constitutional court judges by amending Article 32/A (4) of the Constitution, replacing it with a committee based on the standard representation of the MPs in Parliament.12 The functional restructuring of the Constitutional Court had already begun in the context of the preparations for the new Fundamental Law (the new constitution).

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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