Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz

Constitutional Justice under Populism

The Transformation of Constitutional Jurisprudence in Hungary since 2010


From crisis to crisis. Hungarian constitutional review in the European space1

There is good reason to believe that regional or global problems of recent years, such as the pandemic, the migration crisis, the financial crisis, Brexit, the climate crisis, the surrounding war, etc., have had an impact on the practice of constitutional courts. It is clear that in their judgments, constitutional courts have also had to take increasing account of the social and economic context, which is full of obstacles. The legal model of constitutional adjudication, as I explained in the introduction to this volume, is based on a basic state of constitutional democracy, i.e. the experience of the past decades does not necessarily offer well-tested solutions to crises, emergencies, and political and economic constraints, or to the limits within which constitutional principles, rights and values can be enforced in these situations. The question is how constitutional courts can maintain both their identity and their adaptability in this situation, how their function, their tasks, powers and their practice will change, whether they will remain constitutional courts in the classic sense of the word, according to the legal model, or whether crises will also cause fundamental changes in the institutional system. In the following chapter, I will also analyse the functioning of the Hungarian Constitutional Court using a comparative method in order to see whether we are talking about particular problems. What are the European trends in the changes in the practice of the Constitutional Court? What are the benchmarks for Hungary?

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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