After the first lessons and experiences — cases concerning Hungary before ECJ (2004–2007)

Abstract

The essay attempts to give an overview on the cases relating to Hungary before European Court of Justice in the period between 2004–2007, which are classified into four categories. The first part of the article analyses eleven procedures concerning petitions for preliminary rulings, illustrating the bearings of the cases and pointing out the importance as well as consequences from the point of view of the Hungarian legal order. The essay refers to the fact that activity of Hungarian courts to apply preliminary ruling procedures is exceptionally high comparing with the other nine Member States acceded to EU in 2004 and in almost each cases concerned, the references were profoundly considered by the Hungarian court. The second category described in this paper includes cases, in which Hungarian individual persons participate as litigants (including the cases before Civil Service Tribunal). The experiences of these procedures on the basis of direct complaints indicate the conclusion that in several cases, the attorneys representing the plaintiff before ECJ involve not enough responsibilities to avoid bringing obviously inadmissible actions. In the third part of the paper the reader can get an insight into the cases in which the Republic of Hungary appears as litigant. Finally the fourth category embraces cases with indirect interest relating Hungary. These are referred but not deeply examined in the article.