Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz

Constitutional Justice under Populism

The Transformation of Constitutional Jurisprudence in Hungary since 2010


The complicated practice of the Constitutional Court1

Even if the two-thirds majority of the governing parties in Parliament meant that the Constitutional Court, rather than Parliament, could have examined the constitutionality of the circumstances surrounding the promulgation of the special legal order (if a constitutional institution with the power to do so had so requested), it could have counterbalanced the exceptional power of the Government, since the Constitutional Court’s operation is not suspended in a state of danger. This idea has been confirmed by the Constitutional Court itself, as reflected in its first declaration, issued in March 2020, immediately after the declaration of the state of danger, according to which “as long as the declared state of danger persists, the members of the Constitutional Court are subject to increased responsibility”. It is important to note that the availability of the Constitutional Court remained unchanged during this period, and its operation was uninterrupted even during periods when it was online and working from home. The case load and the number of completed cases show no difference between 2020 and the years before, meaning that day-to-day operations were stable.

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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