Kovács, Kriszta; Scheppele, Kim Lane --- "Hungary’s post-socialist administrative law regimes" [2017] ELECD 1089; in Rose-Ackerman, Susan; Lindseth, L. Peter; Emerson, Blake (eds), "Comparative Administrative Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 119

Book Title: Comparative Administrative Law

Editor(s): Rose-Ackerman, Susan; Lindseth, L. Peter; Emerson, Blake

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781784718657

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Hungary’s post-socialist administrative law regimes

Author(s): Kovács, Kriszta; Scheppele, Kim Lane

Number of pages: 18

Abstract/Description:

Hungary has experienced two major regime changes in the last 25 years, each associated with a transition in the system of judicial review. The 1989 Constitution stipulated that there should be judicial review of administrative decisions; and it was a Constitutional Court decision that introduced administrative review into the legal system. While the Constitutional Court attempted to expand judicial review, however, judicial and political practice did not follow. The system of administrative review therefore had structural problems from the very beginning of democratic governance. The 2011 Fundamental Law has not fixed the errors, it has merely exacerbated the problems. The shortcomings of administrative review are maintained, but the independence of the ordinary judiciary and the powers of Constitutional Court have been weakened. In Hungary now executive action is subject to very little meaningful judicial control. But because Hungary is an EU Member State, it must retain some judicial review of administrative decisions, at least for those subject areas in which the Hungarian law is subsidiary to EU law. This has created a two-track process in which administrative rights have one meaning when the lawmaker is in Brussels and a different meaning when the lawmaker is in Budapest.