Name of the act/s*

2020. évi LVII. törvény a veszélyhelyzet megszüntetéséről / Act no. LVII of 2020 on the termination of the state of danger

282/2020. (VI. 17.) Korm. rendelet a 2020. március 11-én kihirdetett veszélyhelyzet megszüntetéséről / Government Decree no. 282/2020 (VI. 17.) on the termination of the state of danger declared on 1 March 2020

2020. évi LVIII. törvény a veszélyhelyzet megszűnésével összefüggő átmeneti szabályokról és a járványügyi készültségről / Act no. LVIII of 2020 on the transitional provisions related to the termination of the state of danger and the on the state of medical emergency

283/2020. (VI. 17.) Korm. rendelet a járványügyi készültség bevezetéséről / Government Decree no. 283/2020 (VI. 17) on the introduction of the medical state of emergency

478/2020. (XI. 3.) Korm. rendelet a veszélyhelyzet kihirdetéséről / Government Decree no 478/2020 (XI. 3.) on the introduction of the state of danger

T/13571. számú törvényjavaslat a koronavírus világjárvány második hulláma elleni védekezésről /Bill no. T/13571 on the defense against the second wave of the pandemic

Subject area

state of danger, special legal order, pandemic, COVID-19

Brief description of the contents of the act

Upon the request of the National Assembly, the Government termination the state of danger – a form of special legal order – which had been in force since 11 March (see the previous contribution on the Act no. XII of 2020 on the containment of coronavirus). The National Assembly also adopted another act to clarify the legal consequences of all the decrees adopted by the Government during the state of danger. In addition, the act introduced another form of quasi special legal order, namely the medical state of emergency, delegating a very broad legislative power to the Government to regulate a great variety of issues related to the pandemic. The Government immediately took this opportunity and introduced a state of medical state of emergency in June.

Despite the broad competences enjoyed by the Government ever since the introduction of the medial state of emergency, in the beginning of November the Government decided to have recourse of Article 53(1) of the Fundamental Law of Hungary and declare a state of danger again. During the state of danger, the government is authorized to temporarily suspend the enforcement of certain laws (including parliamentary acts), depart from statutory regulations and implement additional extraordinary measures by decree.

In order to extend the competences of the Government, the National Assembly adopted an act of authorization on 10 November. The authorization act will remain in force for 90 days. During this period the Government has the right to extend the force of its own decrees adopted on the basis of the special legal order provision of the constitution.

Comment

The Government is heavily criticized for making the text of emergency decrees publicly available only in the very last minute, very often just a couple of hours before their entry into force. This style of hasty of lawmaking seriously endangers legal security and legal certainty.

In addition, the Government used the declaration of the state of emergency as an opportunity to introduce very controversial legislative measures in parliament, including:

-        the Ninth Amendment to the Fundamental Law of Hungary,

-        the amendment to the electoral law, and

-        the amendment to the regulation on adoption.

Secondary sources/ doctrinal works (if any)

Gábor Halmai, Gábor Mészáros, Kim Lane Scheppele: From Emergency to Disaster. How Hungary’s Second Pandemic Emergency will Further Destroy the Rule of Law, Verfassungsblog, 30 May 2020, available at: https://verfassungsblog.de/from-emergency-to-disaster/

Csaba Győry, Nyasha Weinberg: Emergency powers in a hybrid regime: the case of Hungary, The Theory and Practice of Legislation, published online on 2 November 2020, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20508840.2020.1838755

András Kádár: In its Nature—How Stealth Authoritarianism Keeps Stealing Along During the Pandemic, and How Can it be Stopped?, Journal of Human Rights Practice, published online on 10 October 2020, available at: https://academic.oup.com/jhrp/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jhuman/huaa034/5920410

Kriszta Kovács: Democracy in Lockdown, Social Research: An International Quarterly, Vol. 87, No. 2 (2020), available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/764866

See also the previous contribution on the Act no. XII of 2020 on the containment of coronavirus.

*Act citation /year and number

Act no. LVII of 2020 on the termination of the state of danger

Government Decree no. 282/2020 (VI. 17.) on the termination of the state of danger declared on 1 March 2020

Act no. LVIII of 2020 on the transitional provisions related to the termination of the state of danger and the on the state of medical emergency

Government Decree no. 283/2020 (VI. 17) on the introduction of the medical state of emergency

Government Decree no 478/2020 (XI. 3.) on the introduction of the state of danger

Bill no. T/13571 on the defense against the second wave of the pandemic

Enacted by

National Assembly, Government of Hungary

Official link to the text of the act

http://njt.hu/cgi_bin/njt_doc.cgi?docid=220119.384678, in English: http://njt.hu/translated/doc/J2020T0057P_20200618_FIN.pdf  

http://njt.hu/cgi_bin/njt_doc.cgi?docid=220123.384684, in English: http://njt.hu/translated/doc/J2020R0282K_20200618_FIN.pdf

http://njt.hu/cgi_bin/njt_doc.cgi?docid=220120.390527

http://njt.hu/cgi_bin/njt_doc.cgi?docid=220124.384686, in English: http://njt.hu/translated/doc/J2020R0283K_20200618_FIN.pdf

http://njt.hu/cgi_bin/njt_doc.cgi?docid=222556.391006, in English: http://njt.hu/translated/doc/J2020R0478K_20201104_FIN.pdf

https://www.parlament.hu/irom41/13571/13571.pdf