Law on administrative procedures comes into effect today

The law on administrative procedures, which concerns legal disputes between public administration bodies and private entities, come into effect today. 

The government passed the law which provided for a new administrative court acting as an appeals court in January. But the Constitutional Court ruled that such a change required a two-thirds majority which the government did not have. The resubmitted law re-designated the metropolitan court as the administrative court rather than legislating for a new court. Parliament approved this version of the law in February.

Defending the original draft of the law, Justice Minister László Trocsanyi dismissed claims that the new administrative court would serve political purposes, saying

it was “simply untrue” that the government was seeking to appoint government-friendly judges.

The opposition had complained that the new court would have the power to rule on legal disputes concerning decisions made by the media authority, the National Bank of Hungary, the Public Procurement Arbitration Board and the National Election Committee. A Socialist lawmaker said at the time:

“This is as if the accused were to choose the jury members from among his family members.”

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI