A Road Cut through the Law to Get after Orban?

Abstract

Roper: So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law! More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? Robert Bolt, A Man For All Seasons (1960) Act I On 8 April 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (Second Section) gave a judgment in Magyar Keresztény Mennonita Egyház and Others v Hungary (Application nos 70945/11, 23611/12, 26998/12, 41150/12, 41155/12, 41463/12, 41553/12, 54977/12, and 56581/12), a case concerning the registration of churches under the controversial 2011 Churches Act. This is among a number of constitutional and legal changes in Hungary that have caused concern internationally, and was referred to in a letter to the Hungarian Government by the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in December 2011: The US government is deeply concerned that no modifications have been made to the Law on Churches. Outside observers note the rules for religions to gain recognition are prohibitively cumbersome, and the requirement for two-thirds approval by Parliament unnecessarily politicizes decisions surrounding a basic human right.1 I don't think that our European Union membership precludes us from building an illiberal new state based on national foundations,’ Mr. Orban said in a speech earlier this week. He went on to cite Russia, Turkey and China as successful models to emulate, ‘none of which is liberal and some of which aren't even democracies.’