The Procedural Autonomy of Hungarian Administrative Justice as a Precondition of Effective Judicial Protection

Krisztina F Rozsnyai

doi:10.17951/sil.2021.30.4.491-503

Abstract

<p>The article is aimed at showing the hesitant and slow developments whereby the Hungarian administrative justice should be approached to the dualistic model of administrative justice. After 40 years of almost total monism, and 25 years of transition, one decisive step was made with the promulgation of the Code of Administrative Court Procedure. The article investigates why its concept taking form in the declaration of the principle of autonomy of administrative court procedure rules is crucial for providing effective legal protection against administration in Hungary, and what safeguards the Code contains to foster this autonomy, and by this, the strengthening of a functional administrative justice.</p>

Highlights

In Hungary, the creation of administrative justice after the fall of the Wall in 1989– 1990, just as in the 19th century, was not an easy undertaking
In the legal-political and scientific discourse, the primary question was that of constitutional jurisdiction and the extrajudicial control mechanisms of the administration; no great importance was attached to administrative jurisdiction, the Hungarian Constitutional Court already at the dawn of democracy obliged the legislature to create a constitutional framework for the judicial control of administrative decisions
C administrative court procedure was regarded to be a special civil procedure and civil judges were proceeding in administrative court cases

Summary

INTRODUCTION

In Hungary, the creation of administrative justice after the fall of the Wall in 1989– 1990, just as in the 19th century, was not an easy undertaking. Until 1949, on the contrary, the administrative judiciary was following the dualistic model, as the Hungarian Royal Administrative Court was set up based on the Austrian system, but solutions from other countries influenced the very singular system which was set up in 1896. In addition to the organisational situation, other elements of independence play an important role for this typology, so a partial separation, i.e. the creation of administrative courts at least on one instance, or even the mere separation of judicial bodies proceeding in administrative court procedures within the courts can be observed in several countries and serve as a characteristic of categorisation. U istrative justice in Europe over the past few decades.3 These can very briefly be summarized as the creation of independent administrative court procedure codes, the expansion of the possibility of judicial review as well as an organisational approximation of most national administrative jurisdictions to the German kind of dualistic system. Current Tendencies of Judicial Review as Reflected in the New Hungarian Code of Administrative Court Procedure, “Central European Public Administration Review” 2019, vol 17(1)

First step

Arriving at the dualistic model

Ensuring effective judicial review

Functions of administrative justice to be activated

Why does procedural autonomy matter?

Findings

Literature