Europeanization through judicial activism? the Hungarian constitutional court's legitimacy and the "return to Europe"

Spreading Democracy and the Rule of Law?: The Impact of EU Enlargement on the Rule of Law, Democracy and Constitutionalism in Post-Communist Legal Orders

Volumn , Issue , 2006, Pages 263-280

  Boulanger, Christian ^a  

^a FREIE UNIVERSITÄT BERLIN   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 79959720557     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.1007/1-4020-3842-9_12     Document Type: Chapter

References (65)

1. See, for example, Andrew Evans, "Voluntary Harmonisation in Integration Between the European Community and Eastern Europe", European Law Review, 22(1997), pp. 201-220
2. and, for a socio-legal analysis of "legal harmonization", Armin Höland, "EU-Recht auf dem Weg nach Osten: Rechtssoziologische Fragen", in C. Boulanger (ed.), Recht in der Transformation (Berlin: Berliner Debatte Wissenschaftsverlag 2002), pp. 79-102.
3. For a "holistic" concept of the constitution, see Alec Stone Sweet, Governing With Judges. Constitutional Politics in Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2000).
4. See Darina Malová and Tim Haughton, "Making Institutions in Central and Eastern Europe, and the Impact of Europe", West European Politics, 25(2002), pp. 101-120
5. and Heather Grabbe, "How does Europeanization affect CEE governance? Conditionality, Diffusion and Diversity", Journal of European Public Policy, 8(2001), pp. 1013-1031 for the effects on institution-building.
6. Philip Selznick, "Legal Cultures and the Rule of Law", in M. Krygier and A. Czarnota (eds.), The Rule of Law After Communism: Problems and Prospects in East-Central Europe (Aldershot: Ashgate/Dartmouth 1999), pp. 21-38;
7. Rett R. Ludwikowski, "Constitutional Culture of the New East-Central European Democracies", The Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, 29(2000), p. 1.
8. Jan Stankovsky, Fritz Plasser and Peter A. Ulram, On the Eve of EU Enlargement. Economic Developments and Democratic Attitudes in East Central Europe (Wien: Signum 1998).
9. Georg Brunner, "Rechtskultur in Osteuropa: das Problem der Kulturgrenzen", in Politische und ökonomische Transformation in Osteuropa (Berlin: Arno Spitz 1996), pp. 91-112.
10. See for case studies and comparative analyses Herman Schwartz, The Struggle for Constitutional Justice in Post-Communist Europe (Chicago: Chicago University Press 2000)
11. Radoslav Procházka, Mission Accomplished: On Founding Constitutional Adjudication in Central Europe (Budapest: Central European University Press 2002)
12. and Wojciech Sadurski (ed.), Constitutional Justice, East and West. Democratic Legitimacy and Constitutional Courts in Post-Communist Europe in a Comparative Perspective (The Hague: Kluwer Law International 2002).
13. Kim Lane Scheppele, "The Accidental Constitution", paper presented at the conference Contextuality and Universality: Constitutional Borrowings on a Global Scale, March 20-21, 1998, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
14. Lee Epstein and Jack Knight, The Choices Justices Make (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly 1998);
15. Tom Ginsburg, Judicial Review in New Democracies: Constitutional Courts in Asian Cases (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 2003);
16. Georg Vanberg, The Politics of Constitutional Review in Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2005).
17. Max Weber, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr 1988), p. 252.
18. Compare this, for example, to what happened to the Slovak, Russian, or Kazakh court. See Herman Schwartz, "Defending the Defenders of Democracy", Transition, 4(1997), pp. 80-85.
19. Kim Lane Scheppele, "Democracy by Judiciary (Or Why Courts Can Sometimes Be More Democratic than Parliaments)", paper presented at the Conference on Constitutional Courts, 1-3 November 2001, Washington University of Saint Louis, p. 16.
20. The only monograph on the court in English so far is Cathrine Dupré, Importing the Law in Post-Communist Transitions. The Hungarian Constitutional Court and the Right to Human Dignity (Oxford: Hart Publishing 2003);
21. László Sólyom and Georg Brunner (eds.), Constitutional Judiciary in a New Democracy: The Hungarian Constitutional Court (Ann Arbour: University of Michigan Press 2000)
22. For a sympathetic reading of the Solyom court's activity see Schwartz, The Struggle for Constitutional Justice in Post-Communist Europe (Chicago: Chicago University Press 2000), Chapt. 4.
23. Martin Shapiro, "Some Conditions for the Success of Constitutional Courts: Lessons from the U. S. Experience", in W. Sadurski (ed.), above n. 6, pp. 37-59.
24. Rodney Barker, Legitimating Identities. The Self-Presentation of Rulers and Subjects (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 2001), pp. 7-29.
25. E. Lambert, Le gouvernement des juges et la lutte contre la legislation sociale aux Etats-Unis. L'experience américaine du contrôle judiciaire des constitutionalité de la loi (Paris: Giard 1921);
26. for the vast literature on the subject see Mauro Cappelletti, "Repudiating Montesquieu? The Expansion and Legitimacy of "Constitutional Justice", in M. Cappelletti (ed.), The Judicial Process in Comparative Perspective (Oxford: Clarendon 1989), pp. 182-211.
27. Wojciech Sadurski, "Constitutional Justice, East and West: Introduction", in W. Sadurski (ed.), above n. 6, pp. 1-18.
28. See for a generally positive assessment Schwartz, op. cit. n. 6. One of the very few critical voices was Stephen Holmes, "Back to the Drawing Board", East European Constitutional Review, 3(1993), pp. 21-25.
29. Béla Pokol, "The Constitutionality of Legislation", in V. Gessner, A. Höland and C. Varga (eds.), European Legal Cultures (Aldershot: Dartmouth 1996), pp. 451-454;
30. András Sajó, "How the Rule of Law Killed Hungarian Welfare Reform", East European Constitutional Review, 5(1996), pp. 31-41, which is an abbreviated translation of an originally Hungarian, widely circulated manuscript.
31. Seymour Martin Lipset, "Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy", American Political Science Review, 53(1959), p. 68.
32. Max Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft: Grundriß der verstehenden Soziologie (Tübingen: Mohr 1980), p. 16.
33. C. Neal Tate and Torbjörn Vallinder (eds.), The Global Expansion of Judicial Power (New York: New York University Press 1995).
34. Robert A. Dahl, "Decision-Making in a Democracy: The Supreme Court as a National Policy-Maker", Journal of Politics, 6(1957), pp. 279-295, p. 2.
35. Jon Elster (ed.), Rational Choice (Oxford: Blackwell 1986).
36. Lee Epstein, Jack Knight and Olga Shvetsova, "The Role of Constitutional Courts in Establishment and Maintenance of Democratic Systems of Governments", Law and Society Review, 35(2001), pp. 117-164.
37. Nicos Alivizatos, "Judges as Veto-Players", in H. Döring (ed.), Parliaments and Majority Rule in Western Europe (New York, 1995), pp. 566-592.
38. Füzér, K., "Wirtschaftlicher Notstand: Konstitutionalismus und Okonomischer Diskurs im Postkommunistischen Ungarn", in Christian Boulanger (ed.), Recht in der Transformation (Berlin: Berliner Debatte Wissenschaftsverlag 2002), p. 188.
39. John W. Schiemann, "Explaining Hungary's powerful Constitutional Court: A Bargaining Approach", Archives européennes de sociologie, 42(2001), pp. 357-390.
40. T́ibor Horváth, "Abolition of Capital Punishment in Hungary", Journal of Constitutional Law in Eastern and Central Europe, 3(1996), pp. 155-160.
41. Péter Paczolay, "Judicial Review of the Compensation Law in Hungary", Michigan Journal of International Law, 13(1992), pp. 806-831.
42. Elemér Hankiss, "Die Zweite Gesellschaft", in S. Kurtán (ed.), Vor der Wende (Wien: Böhlau 1993), pp. 83-104.
43. Gábor Halmai and Kim Lane Scheppele, "Living Well is the Best Revenge: The Hungarian Approach to Judging the Past", in A. J. McAdams (ed.), Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law in New Democracies (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press 1997).
44. Füzér, "Wirtschaftlicher Notstand: Konstitutionalismus und Okonomischer Diskurs im Postkommunistischen Ungarn", in Boulanger (ed.), Recht in der Transformation (Berlin: Berliner Debatte Wissenschaftsverlag 2002), pp. 173-195.
45. András Sajó, "Educating the Executive: The Hungarian Constitutional Court's Role in the Transition Process", in J. J. Hesse, G. F. Schuppert and K. Harms (eds.), Verfassungsrecht und Verfassungspolitik in Umbruchsituation (Baden-Baden: Nomos 2000s), pp. 229-242.
46. Schwartz, "Defending the Defenders of Democracy", Transition, 4(1997), pp. 80-85.
47. Frank Schimmelfennig, "International Socialization in the New Europe: Rational Action in an Institutional Environment", European Journal of International Relations, 6(2000), pp. 109-139.
48. Alexander Schmitt, "Die Rolle der Verfassungsgerichte im verfassungspolitischen Transformationsprozess in Polen, Ungarn und Russland", Jahrbuch für Ostrecht, 43(2002), pp. 31-52.
49. See Karel Vodicka, "Das Slowakische Verfassungsgericht im Transformationsprozess", in C. Boulanger (ed.), Recht in der Transformation (Berlin: Berliner Debatte Wissenschaftsverlag 2002), pp. 195-216.
50. Agnes Zsidai, "Legitimität Kraft Legalität. Funktionswandel des Rechts in Ungarn", Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie, 17(1996), pp. 249-258.
51. Georg Brunner and Herbert Küpper, "Der Einfluß des Deutschen Rechts auf die Transformation des Ungarischen Rechts nach der Wende durch Humboldt-Stipendiaten: Das Beispiel Verfassungsgericht", in Holger Fischer (ed.), Auswirkungen der deutsch-ungarischen Wissenschaftsbeziehungen, forthcoming.
52. Antal Orkény and Kim Lane Scheppele, "Rules of Law: The Complexity of Legality in Hungary", International Journal of Sociology, 26(1997), pp. 76-94.
53. Klaus Ziemer, Polens Weg in die Krise: eine politische Soziologie der "Ara Gierek" (Frankfurt am Main: Athenäum 1987), p. 414.
54. see J. Higley, J. Pakulski, and W. Wesolowski (eds.), Postcommunist Elites and Democracy in Eastern Europe (London: MacMillan 1998).
55. See, for example Gyorgy Ranki and Attila Pok (eds.), Hungary and European Civilization (Budapest: Akademiai Kiado 1989)
56. and Gyorgy Borsanyi et al., "Zwischen Zwei Ufern: Wandlungen des Ungarischen Europabildes", in Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (ed.), Europabilder in Mittel- und Osteuropa (Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung 1996), pp. 139-156.
57. See the well-known essay by Timothy Garton Ash, "Mitteleuropa? ", in S. R. Graubard (ed.), Eastern Europe... Central Europe... Europe (Boulder: Westview Press 1991), pp. 1-22.
58. Elemér Hankiss, "Imponderabilia. The Formation of Social Conscience and the Government", in C. Gombár, E. Hankiss, L. Lengyel and G. Várnai (eds.), Balance. The Hungarian Government 1990-1994 (Budapest: Korridor 1994), p. 35.
59. see Dora Husz, "Intezmenyek preszt́izse 1989 es 1998 kozott", in S. Kurtan, P. Sandor and L. Vass (eds.), Magyarorszá gevtizedkonyve, 1988-1998 (Budapest: Demokracia Kutatasok Magyar Kozpontja Alaṕitvany 1998), pp. 821-829.
60. But the same is true for the Slovak case, see Martin Butora and Thomas W. Skladony (eds.), Slovakia 1996-1997. A Global Report on the State of Society (Bratislava: Institute for Public Affairs 1998).
61. On the concept of "charisma" applied to "law", see C. Boulanger, "The Charisma of Law in Times of Transformation. Max Weber's Relevance for Understanding Institutional Change", paper presented at the conference Law and Society Association and ISA RCSL Joint Meeting, July 4-7, Budapest.
62. Hans H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (eds.), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (London: Routledge 1948), p. 280.
63. See, for unfavourable comparisons of the "Németh"-court with the previous one, K. L. Scheppele, "The New Hungarian Constitutional Court", East European Constitutional Review, 8(1999), pp. 81-87
64. Laurence Whitehead, "Geography and Democratic Destiny", Journal of Democracy, 10(1999), pp. 74-79.
65. See also Jeffrey S. Kopstein and David A. Reilly, "Geographic Diffusion and the Transformation of the Post-Communist World", World Politics, 53(2000), pp. 1-37.