The realisation of the constitutional principles - the right to good administration and the right to legal remedy - in Hungary

Abstract

The paper aims to present the realisation of two procedural principles – the right to good administration and the right to legal remedy – regulated also in the Fundamental Law of Hungary, which entered into force on 1st January 2012. The right to legal remedy has been a constitutional principle since the change of regime (in 1989) and the right to good administration has been constitutionally named only by the Fundamental Law of Hungary. The actuality of the paper is the fact that in Hungary from the 1st of January 2018 completely new codes regulate the general public administrative procedures and the administrative justice. Based on these Acts, a new legal remedy system has been introduced regarding administrative decisions in which the judicial review procedures became – instead of the internal administrative appeal procedures – in most of the cases the firstly used legal remedy possibility regarding administrative decisions. After a short overview of the new legal remedy system which has been introduced regarding administrative decisions, the paper presents the constitutional basis of the right to good administration and the right to legal remedy. Finally, we analyse in detail the latest and most relevant decisions of the Constitutional Court of Hungary and some cases of the Curia of Hungary about the practice of the direct enforcement of the constitutional principles: the right to good administration and the right to legal remedy regarding administrative decisions.