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2019 |
Osservatorio sulle fonti / Observatory on Sources of Law ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section: Sources of Law in the EU member States HUNGARY By Viktor Zoltán Kazai, Central European University, Budapest |
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Name of the Act/s |
Act no. LXI of 2019 on the postponement of the entry into force of the Act on administrative courts / 2019. évi LXI. törvény a közigazgatási bíróságokról szóló törvény hatálybalépésének elhalasztásáról |
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Date of entry into force of original text |
10 July 2019 |
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Date of Text (Adopted) |
2 July 2019 |
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Type of text |
Parliamentary act / törvény |
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Enacted by |
Hungarian National Assembly |
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Reference to the Constitution (art) |
Article 25. cikk (8) (qualified majority requirement) The English version of the Fundamental Law is available at: https://hunconcourt.hu/uploads/sites/3/2018/11/thefundamentallawofhungary_20181015_fin.pdf |
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Subject area |
organization of the judiciary, administrative court system, judicial independence |
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Comment |
The extraordinarily short law (only 4 articles), introduced by the Hungarian government, simply repeals Act no. CXXXI of 2018 on the entry into force of the act on administrative courts and certain transitional rules (hereinafter: administrative court reform law). In practical terms, it means that the entry into force of the administrative court reform law is postponed for an indefinite period of time. The administrative court reform plans of the Hungarian government have met strong criticism articulated by representatives of academia, human rights NGOs and European monitoring bodies. For further information, see the previous contribution related to Act no XXIV of 2019 on additional guarantees of the independence of administrative courts. According to the official explanatory memorandum of the bill, its aim is to put an end to the “disputes about the unfounded criticisms concerning the Rule of Law in Hungary” in order to guarantee the progress of the administrative judicial system reform. Gergely Gulyás, Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office said at a hearing held in the European Parliament’s Justice Committee on 18 June that the establishment of independent administrative courts, characterized by him as a “major step in the direction of a liberal rule of law”, was sidelined due to criticism from abroad. He added that the appellate system would not be compromised as a result, however, and while the postponement “has resulted in some uncertainty,” the planned date for the introduction of a two-tier administrative court appeal system continues to remain 1 January 2020. Human rights NGOs operating in Hungary, such as the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and Amnesty International, remain worried about the independence of the judiciary. |
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Available Text |
In Hungarian: http://njt.hu/cgi_bin/njt_doc.cgi?docid=214947.370138 In English: |
- Viktor Zoltán Kazai
- Hungary