The panel addresses the question whether the increased presence of various threats to national security and the legal responses has challenged the commonly accepted notions of the rule of law, democracy and human right standards in Europe, and most particularly in Hungary. Recently, problems have called for and resulted in the establishment of different crisis...
Human rights, national identity, public security and sovereignty – Constitutional questions on the conception of the EU‘s compulsory quota system
In 2015 approximately one million asylum seekers arrived in member states of the European Union, influencing and raising constitutional questions upon human rights, unity, public security, national identity and sovereignty. The Schengen system is known for its open borders, but in the last two years, the flow of migrants has caused some member states to...
Hungarian Regulation from the View of Strasbourg
The Hungarian regulation on secret information gathering was subject of the ECtHR (Szabó and Vissy v. Hungary, no. 37138/14., 12/01/16) in which two activists of an NGO complained that they might have been subjects of secret information gathering. The decision that stipulated the infringement of Article 8 of the Convention settled essential criteria both concerning...
Hungary‘s response to security challenges – regulatory background
Starting from 2015 the increased number of asylum seekers triggered a set of legislative changes in Hungary, which situated on the so-called Balkan-route has become a transit country for the asylum seekers arriving in Greece. The measures implemented by Hungary, such as the border-fence on the border with Serbia and Croatia, the introduction and constant...
Security challenges and public law – lessons learned from Hungary
This paper collects lessons learned from Hungary concerning security challenges. The populist rhetoric, the non-transparent functioning of the state can legally and politically legitimize governmental actions that are detrimental to democracy (referenda, billboard campaigns, popular consultations) and the rule of law (unconstitutional emergency situation), and are also potentially restrictive to fundamental rights. Rules on emergencies...