New Hungarian Constitution under Scrutiny by Hungarian Constitutional Court and Court of Justice of the EU: Absence of Dialogue and Limits of Union's Influence

Abstract

The article deals with review of the judicial reform in Hungary performed by the Hungarian constitutional court and the Court of Justice of the EU. It compares argumentation of both courts that resulted in judgements declaring a segment of the judicial reform reviewed (decrease of mandatory retirement age for judges and public prosecutors from 70 to 62 years) to contradict the Hungarian constitutional order and the EU law, respectively.

Using both cases, the article demonstrates limits of dialogue between the Hungarian court and the Court of Justice as well as limits of the EU law instruments dealing with structural elements of the judicial power in the EU states.

Keywords

• Hungary
• constitutional reform
• Fidesz
• Hungarian constitutional court
• Court of Justice of the EU
• European Commission
• conditionality
• judicial independence
• ban of discrimination
• democracy
• human rights.