Effective international enforcement of employee rights? Challenging Hungarian ‘unorthodox’ laws

Abstract

International courts have become a crucial element of protecting employee rights in recent decades. The ‘unorthodox’ 1 measures of the Hungarian Orbán government have provided a unique opportunity to test the effectiveness of international courts, since these national measures have been defying various legal principles in general, but in particular in the field of employment, since acquiring a two-thirds parliamentary majority in 2010. The article analyses the most important of these employment laws, their objectives, problematic legal nature and the responses of the Hungarian Constitutional Court (hereinafter CC), the Court of Justice of the European Union (hereinafter CJEU), and the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter ECtHR). 2 Are these national and international courts able to ensure effective protection against such policies when they adversely affect workers’ fundamental rights, and if so, on what legal basis? Conclusions regarding unorthodox employment laws, such as termination without cause, the compulsory retirement of judges, a retroactive 98% tax on severance pay, and/or the nationalisation of private pension funds, might be useful to other countries with similar legislative tendencies. The article focuses on the question of whether international courts are able to block and efficiently remedy such national measures and tendencies in employment law.