The sweeping reconfiguration of the Hungarian self-government structure by a set of recently adopted laws, along with the centralization of public education and the dismantling of several crucial social services, signals a devaluation of the ideals of self-determination and self-governance. Meanwhile, many local governments have gone bankrupt or are unable to fulfill their basic obligations. Is this a good-enough reason to abandon the constitutional principle of self-governance?
We asked leading experts of the field to comment on the recent developments. Tamás M. Horváth analyses changes in the local public sector, Zoltán Szente focuses on the reorganisation the self-government structure, Zsolt Balogh writes about local rights protection, András Vigvári about the indebted local governments, Gábor Bernáth about the failure of local equality policies, Ágota Scharle about options for local employment policies, Gábor Péteri about local finances, Péter Mihályi on how local government's rights pertaining to the health care system have been limited, and Géza Finszter provides an assessment of the option of community policing.
Zsolt Körtvélyesi and Balázs Majtényi interview Máté Szabó, commissioner for fundamental rights about his views on the new constitutional system, and the critical role the institution led by him plays in promoting constitutionalism.
György Gajdschek evaluates the reform of the Hungarian self-government system. The author argues that the legislative changes lead clearly to the reduction of the autonomy of self- governments and point to strengthening state hierarchy.
Zsuzsa Kerekes's study describes the modification of the statutory regulation in the field of freedom of information, also referring to the negative impacts of these amendments. Flóra Fazekas analyses the most recent wave of Venice Commission opinions on Hungarian cardinal laws. Gábor Halmai comments on the recent decision of the Constitutional Court concerning judicial independence. He concludes that the Court provided important guidelines for the legislature, but with the timing of its decision failed to give legal remedy for the judges who initiated the procedure.
Bernadette Somody analyses the practice of the ombudsperson concerning abstract norm control petitions to the Constitutional Court. She concludes that however the ombudsman interprets his competence relatively broadly, this interpretation hasn't been approved yet by the Constitutional Court.
In this column summaries of some of the recent decisions of the Hungarian Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights are presented. ■
Visszaugrás
