In his essay, Tamás Győrfi discusses the weak form of judicial review in its broader sense. He argues that there is a link between the historical and sociological attributes of a given country and the institutionalization of the weak form of judicial review.
Ágnes Kovács challenges the view that the weakening of legal guarantees in Hungary's constitutional structure should be seen as the emergence of a different constitutional approach, that of political constitutionalism, rather than a clear backslash in constitutionalism in general.
Jan-Werner Müller argues that populism has often been understood as inherently hostile to institutions, procedures, and most concepts and values commonly associated with constitutionalism, or, even, that populism favors democracy struggle between liberalism and democracy. The article demonstrates, through examples from Hungary and Latin America that this is a misconception.
Through the analysis of the ideology of two parties typically considered as populist, Zsolt Enyedi's essay investigates how elitism can be integrated into an overall populist appeal. The two parties, Fidesz and Jobbik, are shown to offer two different formulae to the challenge that affects many authoritarian populist movements, but they both exhibit features of paternalist populism and illiberal elitism.
Zoltán Szente's article provides an overview of the academic debate around the Fundamental Law of Hungary, arguing that the dichotomy of 'apologetic' and 'destructive' interpretations cannot adequately capture the differences between the various approaches.
The contributions of Attila Antal, Kálmán Pócza, Zoltán Miklósi, and Zoltán Balázs analyse questions -and preliminary questions - on how the current state of Hungarian constitutionalism can be described. They address important questions of methodology, relation of models and historical givens, tensions within and between elites, and responsibility to the future.
Gábor Mészáros's commentary deals with the laws enacted in September by the Hungarian Parliament, which entitle the government to declare a state of emergency. The author criticizes the laws which violate both the Fundamental Law of Hungary and international treaties.
In his article Viktor Zoltán Kazai analyses two Hungarian cases concerning the freedom of expression of MPs who exercised their right during the plenary session and were sanctioned for gravely disrupting the order of the House. The author focuses on the possible reasons which could explain why were the cases referred to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights.
In this column summaries of some of the recent decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, and the Hungarian Constitutional Court are presented.
Péter Sólyom reviews Christian Boulanger's book on role of constitutional courts in the democratization in Germany and Hungary. ■
Visszaugrás
