Disabling the constitution

Journal of Democracy

Volumn 23, Issue 3, 2012, Pages 138-146

  Bánkuti, Miklós ^a   Halmai, Gábor ^b,c   Scheppele, Kim Lane ^c  

^a PRINCETON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY   (Hungary)

^c PRINCETON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84864060341     PISSN: 10455736     EISSN: 10863214     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jod.2012.0054     Document Type: Article

References (15)

1. Among these parties were the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), the biggest winner of the 1990 elections, and the Alliance of Free Democrats (SzDSz), the most successful of the liberal parties since the transition. By 2010, both were near complete collapse.
2. Gábor Halmai, "The Hungarian Approach of Constitutional Review, " in Wojciech Sadurski, ed., Constitutional Justice, East and West, Democratic Legitimacy and Constitutional Courts in Post-Communist Europe in a Comparative Perspective (The Hague: Kluwer International, 2002), 189-211.
3. Amendment to Law XX of 1949 on the Constitution of the Republic of Hungary, 5 July 2010, Magyar Közlöny, Issue 113 (2010).
4. Hungarian Constitutional Court, Decision 184/2010 (X. 28), Magyar Közlöny, Issue 165 (2010).
5. Law CXIX of 2010 on the amendment to Law XX of 1949 on the Constitution of the Republic of Hungary, Magyar Közlöny, Issue 177 (2010).
6. "Human Rights Court Inundated with Hungary Complaints, " EurActive. com, 16 January 2012, available at www.euractiv.com/future-eu/human-rights-court-inundatedhungary-complaints-news-510155.
7. Law CIV of 2010 on the Freedom of the Press and the Fundamental Rules of Media Content and Law CLXXXV of 2010 on Media Services and Mass Media. The laws are translated at the website of the Center for the Study of the Media at Central European University at https://cmcs.ceu.hu/node/26249.
8. Center for Media and Communication Studies, Central European University Hungarian Media Laws in Europe: An Assessment of the Consistency of Hungary's Media Laws with European Practices and Norms (2011), available at https://cmcs.ceu.hu/sites/ default/files/field_attachment/news/node-27293/Hungarian_Media_Laws_in_Europe_0. pdf. The criticism of the new media laws is collected at the website of the Center for the Study of the Media at Central European University at https://cmcs.ceu.hu/node/26249.
9. Hungarian Constitutional Court, Decision 165/2011 (XII. 20), Magyar Közlöny, Issue 155 (2011).
10. See Expertise by Council of Europe Experts on Hungarian Media Legislation: Act CIV of 2010 on the Freedom of the Press and the Fundamental Rules on Media Content and Act CLXXXV of 2010 on Media Services and Mass Media, 11 May 2012, available at www.coe.int/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=fbc88585.
11. The new Hungarian Basic Law is available in translation at http://lapa.princeton. edu/hosteddocs/hungary/Hungarian%20Constitution%20English%20final%20version.pdf.
12. For more detail on the state of the judiciary under the new laws, see Kim Lane Scheppele, "First Let's Pick All the Judges" at Paul Krugman's blog, Conscience of a Liberal, http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/first-lets-pick-all-the-judges, 10 March 2012.
13. Joshua Rozenberg, "Meet Tünde Handó: In Hungary, One Woman Effectively Controls the Judiciary, and She Happens to be Married to the Author of Its Constitution, " Guardian, 20 March 2012, available at www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/mar/20/tunde-hando-hungarian-judges.
14. Scheppele, "First Let's Pick All the Judges. "
15. European Commission for Democracy Through Law (Venice Commission), Opinion on Act CLXII of 2011 on the Legal Status and Enumeration of Judges and Act CLXI of 2011 on the Organisation and Administration of Courts of Hungary, 19 March 2012, available at www.venice.coe.int/docs/2012/CDL%282012%29104-e.pdf.