The American Bar Association is concerned that Hungary’s creation of a parallel court system
The American Bar Association is concerned that Hungary’s creation of a parallel court system overseen by a politically appointed justice minister threatens to further erode that country’s judicial independence. The independence of the Hungarian legal system has been undermined by the Hungarian Parliament’s Dec. 12, 2018, decision to remove matters involving elections, taxation, the police and public institutions from the Supreme Court’s oversight of public administration law and to delegate responsibilities for those matters to a new court system overseen by the justice minister.
Absent a guarantee of autonomy and independence, transferring key public administration decisions from the courts to a separate administrative judiciary threatens judicial independence in Hungary.
The formation of the new court system, which will start hearing cases in 2020, violates Hungary’s commitment to an independent judiciary, as reflected in its agreement to adhere to the U.N.’s Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary. Granting a political appointee authority over hiring, promoting and disciplining judges effectively gives him authority over rulings on protests, strikes, data privacy, construction and more—issues that are no longer under the supervision of the Supreme Court.
The strength of any democracy rests on the ability of its judges to impartially interpret and apply the law. As a central component of the rule of law in any country, the judiciary must be independent of political influence, free from interference from other branches of government and tasked with equitably applying the law in all matters.
The ABA urges the government of Hungary to respect its obligations to the rule of law, to halt its efforts to create a parallel, politically controlled court system and to restore to the Supreme Court oversight of the public administrative court system.
About the American Bar Association
With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is one of the largest voluntary professional membership organizations in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law. Follow the latest ABA news at www.americanbar.org/news and on Twitter @ABANews.
Source: American Bar Association – Press release
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2 Comments
The ABA should better focus it’s observations on the EC European Commision and how it’s been operating alone without National input or following the EU treaty laws and rules for all member states and for EU in general. Specifically with respect to illegal immigration, working collectively against EU citizen with the UN to draft new stupid illegal immigrant proposals and treaties, financing of programs already established but using it as a weapon against countries with a conscience, firing waste of everyone’s time ‘infringement proceeding’ against again countries not swallowing their (EC) soup. Countries widely now using media to try to destabilize victim countries, many in EU and other places. ABA, get off your asses and do something meaningful instead of bitching and whoahing other nations legal systems. You got a lot in your own yard to clean up first!! Hungary has a majority 3rd term Government in office, you don’t. You just have a joker running around loose!!
My comment to the ABA is that the existence of a parallel system is likely based on the observation that the existing system is corrupt beyond redemption. To ignore this reality is disingenuous. In the current climate (2022) I would hope that parallel systems in government, law, education, finance, and health would emerge as the existing systems are not working and have been highjacked by nefarious interests.