In his essay, Szabolcs Pogonyi examines the increasing critique against multiculturalism from both a normative and empirical standpoint. He shows that the critique misleadingly cast in the language of liberalism is normatively unsupported, while in fact often refers to state of affairs where multiculturalism has never even been tried, like Germany or France. He argues that multiculturalism is theoretically consistent with fundamental human rights of the individual. Also, the author sees reason for moderate optimism on the basis of the few empirical studies on inter-cultural relations and integration in societies where multiculturalism has indeed been introduced.
In this issue we publish a commentary to John Rawls: The Basic Liberties and Their Priorities, which was originally held as Tanner lecture at the University of Michigan on April 10, 1981. The text later became part of Rawls' Political Liberalism, as the 8th lecture of Part III. published in 1993 by Columbia University Press. The commentator has been Zsolt Krokovay, the Hungarian editor and translator of Rawls' works.
In the first of the two interviews in this issue Gábor Halmai asked Andrew Arato, professor of the New School for Social Research in New York about the impact of the new Hungarian Basic Law to the post-sovereign constitution-making process in Hungary started after the regime change in 1989. From the point of view of constitutionalism Arató assesses the new constitution as a counter-revolutionary act.
The second interview was conducted by Gábor Polyák, a well known media lawyer with Krisztina Rozgonyi, another respected lawyer of the field, and previous president of the National Communication Authority. The two experts discuss the forthcoming negative consequences of the new media regulation to the entire Hungarian media system.
The editors in February this year asked three constitutional scholars to respond to a few questions concerning the new Hungarian constitution in preparation that time. After the essays had been sent to us, Parliament enacted the Basic Law of Hungary on the 18th of April. Thereafter we asked the authors to revise their views if necessary.
The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe dealt with the new Hungarian Basic Law in its plenary session of 17th-18th June. Hungarian constitutional scholars edited and submitted an amicus brief on the Basic Law to the Venice Commission for consideration before issuing its opinion.
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In this column we publish András Hanák's petition to the Constitutional Court concerning the amendment of the constitution in October 2010 curtailing the competences of the Court. Hanák claims that the amendment violates the constitution. The Court in its practice has never yet declared a constitutional amendment unconstitutional.
In this column we publish summaries of the recent judgments of European Court of Human Rights and the Hungarian Constitutional Court. In addition, an overview of the jurisprudence of the French Constitutional Council in the recently introduced preliminary constitutional question (QPC) proceeding is presented. ■
Visszaugrás
