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The Hungarian life imprisonment regime in front of apex courts II.

2015. June 18. 11:57

The regulation of whole life sentences varies in the Member States, however there seems to be a European consensus on granting some form of a meaningful review for possible conditional release from life imprisonment after the expiry of a long-term period spent in prison. Hungary was among the few Member States of the EU and the Council of Europe to have a sanction regime including whole life sentences without the possibility of review for conditional release, until the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter: ECtHR, Court or Strasbourg court) ruled on the matter and in Magyar v Hungary (Application no. 73593/10, 20 May 2014) declared the Hungarian life imprisonment regime to be in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter: ECHR or Convention). Last week the Kúria, the supreme court of Hungary had to remedy the human rights violation done to the whole life prisoner winning the Strasbourg case. In the review procedure Mr. Magyar was sentenced to life imprisonment with a possibility of conditional release after 40 years the earliest. In the present blog post the judgment will be analyzed in light of the ECHR and the attached case-law.

The Hungarian life imprisonment regime in front of apex courts I.

2015. June 18. 11:42

The regulation of whole life sentences varies in the Member States, however there seems to be a European consensus on granting some form of a meaningful review for possible conditional release from life imprisonment after the expiry of a long-term period spent in prison. Hungary was among the few Member States of the EU and the Council of Europe to have a sanction regime including whole life sentences without the possibility of review for conditional release – until the the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter: ECtHR, Court or Strasbourg court) ruled on the matter and declared the Hungarian life imprisonment regime to be in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter: ECHR or Convention). As a response to the judgment, the legislative introduced a novel Pardon Committee proceeding that could have been scrutinized by the Hungarian Constitutional Court, but it missed this opportunity. A brief analysis of Hungary’s obligations flowing from the Strasbourg judgment and the new Pardon Committee proceeding will be offered in this blog post.

EU-Russia Relations and the crisis in Ukraine: how to proceed?

2015. June 15. 9:20

Peter Van Elsuwege

Lendület-HPOPs Research Group

EU-Russia Relations and the crisis in Ukraine: how to proceed?

A certain level of engagement with the EAEU seems unavoidable, but the parallel development of good and differentiated bilateral relations with individual EAEU member countries remains important. Together with the full implementation of the Association Agreements with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, this is a key priority for the EU in the years to come.

Article 7 TEU is a nuclear bomb – with all its consequences?

2015. May 05. 10:22

Changes in Hungarian public law and the adoption of the Tavares Report have stirred up the debate surrounding Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). The present piece of writing analyses whether the “nuclear bomb” metaphor can be applied to Article 7, by resorting to legal economics, criminal law theory and game theory; and represents these findings by focusing on a possible typology of international organisations and on the Hungarian Fundamental Law and its fifth amendment.

Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union – is it really a nuclear weapon?

2015. April 13. 14:48

The Treaty of Amsterdam (1998) made it possible for the European Union to impose legal (and not only political) sanctions on a Member State in case of violating the fundamental values of the Union. This practice, which initially connected legal consequences only to the serious and persistent violation of EU values, has been modified by the Treaty of Lisbon (2007) through adding the notion of ‘risking’ these values. Even though this Article has been part of the EU public law for two decades now, it only came to the centre of the Hungarian public attention in the last couple of years, mainly due to the continuous debates about the political turn of 2010 and about the new Hungarian constitution.

UK House of Lords report - The EU and Russia: before and beyond the crisis in Ukraine

2015. March 15. 12:52

On 20 February the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, more precisely its EU Sub-Committee on External Affairs, issued a report which can be seen as a thorough evaluation of the Ukraine crisis and the recent developments of EU-Russia relations. The report entitled ‘The EU and Russia: before and beyond the crisis in Ukraine’ does not handle either the EU or Russia with kid gloves, but its criticisms are constructive and contain viable suggestions for the future.

Where will it end? Economic protectionism and exclusionarism in the regulation of the 2015 Hungarian state budget

2015. February 20. 13:53

Key pieces of legislation adopted in the run up towards the close of the autumn session of the Hungarian Parliament – which has traditionally been the period for the adoption of the state budget for the forthcoming year – reinforce the impression that the reigning Hungarian government is actively pursuing a policy of restructuring certain segments of the national economy based on ideas of economic protectionism and exclusionarism.

Keeping separate what belongs together? Opinion 2/13 of the EU Court of Justice on the accession of the European Union to the European Convention of Human Rights

2015. February 20. 12:19

After 1996 (2/94), the Court of Justice was again given the opportunity to make a legal assessment of the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights. Although under Article 6(2) TEU the constitutional basis of the accession has fundamentally changed, the Court of Justice again decided against the legal permissibility of the accession. On the basis of the numerous substantive and legal hiatuses found by the Court of Justice, it was the legal preparation of the accession which suffered from serious deficits.

Writing a PhD – A Journey

2015. February 12. 8:23

Are you about writing a PhD, or considering it? If yes, this blog post might be of interest to you. It deals with the process of writing a PhD thesis. The aim is to provide you with some general advice how to approach, start, continue and in the end – hopefully – finish your thesis (and possibly book).

Túlsúly mint fogyatékosság – A Bíróság C-354/13. sz. ügyben hozott ítélete

2015. February 11. 17:46

2014. december 18-án az Európai Unió Bírósága (EuB) egy dán bíróság által elé terjesztett kérdésekre válaszul kimondta, hogy habár sem az alapszerződésekben, sem az Európai Unió Alapjogi Chartájában nincsen védve a túlsúly, mint hátrányos megkülönböztetési alap, az EU fogyatékosságként értelmezve védi az adott személyt, ha az a túlsúlyából kifolyólag korlátozva van a teljes, hatékony és más munkavállalókkal a szakmai életben való egyenlő szerepvállalás tekintetében.

Trafikügy a strasbourgi Emberi Jogok Európai Bírósága előtt – A széttartó alapjogvédelem tanulságai

2015. February 11. 17:44

A hazai alkotmányos és az Emberi Jogok Európai Bírósága által nyújtott alapjogvédelem kapcsolata az elmúlt években a nemzetközi szabályrendszerbe beágyazottan működő hazai jogvédelem és az emberi jogok nemzetközi védelmének a viszonyrendszerét meghatározó párhuzamos alkotmányosság kifejezés helyett egyre inkább széttartó mozgással írható le.

Az EU szerződés 7. cikke - valóban atomfegyver?

2015. February 11. 17:43

Az Amszterdami Szerződéssel (1998) vált először lehetővé, hogy az Európai Unió közjogi – nem csak politikai – értelemben is szankciókat alkalmazhasson valamelyik tagállamával szemben, ha az megsérti az Unió legalapvetőbb értékeit. Noha e cikk már közel két évtizede része az EU közjogának, az az elmúlt években került az európai és a hazai közvélemény érdeklődésének fénykörébe, leginkább a 2010-ben Magyarországon bekövetkezett politikai fordulat és az új alkotmány megítélésről szóló folyamatos viták miatt. E rövid írás a 7. cikk bemutatásával és értékelésével ahhoz szeretne hozzájárulni, hogy a véleményformálók és a közvélemény is részletesebb képet e sajátos EU jogi instrumentumról.

Külön marad, ami összetartozik? Az Európai Bíróság 2/13 véleménye az Európai Unió az Európai Emberi Jogi Egyezményhez történő csatlakozásáról

2015. February 11. 17:40

1996-ot követően az Európai Bíróság ismét lehetőséget kapott arra, hogy kifejthesse jogi véleményét az Európai Unió az Európai Emberi Jogi Egyezményhez (Egyezmény) történő csatlakozását illetően. Bár az EUSZ 6. cikk 2. bekezdése által a csatlakozás alkotmányos háttere alapjaiban megváltozott, a Bíróság ismételten a csatlakozás jogi meg nem engedhetősége mellett foglalt állást.