Dismissal of the President of the Hungarian Supreme Court: ECtHR Judgment Baka v. Hungary

Abstract:

The right-wing Hungarian Government has not fully respected the judicial independence since the landslide victory of 2010 which has confirmed many worries and critiques. As it was reported in this journal earlier, many judges were forced to retire by a constitutional amendment in 2012. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) found this to be contrary to EU law especially to the antidiscrimination directive. The new Fundamental Law of Hungary also renamed the former Supreme Court to Kúria and this enabled the dismissal of the President of the Supreme Court who lodged an individual complaint before the ECtHR. The ECtHR found a violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) and Article 6 (the right to access to court) confirming the alleged illegality. Moreover, the case is also of interest to demonstrate the very complex interplay between national and international legal remedies.