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Judicial Review in Emergency Situations: the Relevant Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights
200-218Views:153Emergencies are mostly sudden, and in most cases states need special measures to deal with them. For this reason liberal democracies have standing constitutional or special legal powers to derogate human rights for the sake of order. Those democracies that do not have such powers, use impromptu ones. It is possible for authoritarian governments to abuse emergency powers in order to stay in power, to derogate human rights and to silence the opposition. Therefore it is essential for a liberal democracy to have strict limits for the duration, circumstance and scope of emergency powers. There are human rights regimes (for example: the European Convention on Human Rights) which have to respect the member states’ duty and responsibility in such cases. This article tries to examine this special case law of the European Court of Human Rights. The question is whether a European Human Rights regime is capable of becoming the guardian of human rights in cases of national emergencies, or the sovereignty of states also means that there is very narrow margin to prove legality above security?
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The Constitutional Obstacles before the Promulgation of the Rome Statute
45-59Views:368July 17, 1998, can be considered as one of the most important milestones of the international judicial structure: it is the day when the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was adopted by 120 states out of 148. Article 86 of Statute explicitly states that „States Parties shall […] cooperate fully with the Court in its investigation and prosecution of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court.” As in the case of every international treaty, the principle of pacta sunt servanda enshrined in Article 26 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of the Treaties states applies, which explicitly states that “every treaty in force is binding upon the parties to it and must be performed by them in good faith.” As has been pointed out by the Permanent Court of International Justice, contracting states must make all the necessary internal measures which are required to fulfil its international obligations rising from a binding treaty. One could ask, why is this quite obvious argument important in the case of Hungary? Well, Hungary has ratified the Statute but still has not implemented it in its internal legislation. This can be considered as a serious constitutional omission, since if the Court would require the cooperation of Hungary – e.g. in the case of an arrest warrant – and it would not be able to fulfil it because of the lack of the internal legal norms, it would be considered as international legal responsibility of Hungary. In this article, I try to explore the reasons behind this omission and outline the possible solutions.
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The Importance of Health and Safety in the Liability of Employers for Damages
175-191Views:239Employers are deemed responsible for the health and safety of their employees while they are at work. This study's focus is the exemption from liability based on the foreseeability principle introduced to the Labour Code in 2012. Despite the proclaimed policy change, courts have remained reluctant to grant immunity to employers based on Article 166 of the Labour Code in case of workplace accidents. The uncertainty of interpretation hinders the execution of the new policy and questions the importance of proper health and safety measures implemented by employers to avoid liability. The study focuses on recent case law and employers' practice. The first part analyses the conclusions establishing business decisions of the employers, further investigating the cost performance conduct: pay a fine or spend on safety and health measures. The second part of the study examines cases related to workplace accidents, which are divided into five groups. This group's special attention given to liability in case of extreme weather conditions, third-party accidents, work safety rule violations, accidents, employers' inspection obligations, and other cases.
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Cognitive Sciences and Judicial Decision-Making
109-132Views:480Nowadays, judges are expected not just to administer justice, but to have skills and abilities to realize and be aware of standards and laws which can be discovered and analysed by the so- called cognitive sciences. In case we accept that “judges are human beings as well”, we must also assume that their minds and decision-making processes are subject to generally accepted scientific facts. However, cognitive sciences are less known in Hungary, and by using their fruitful results in legal procedures (e. g. in court trials) a greater level of objectivity can be achieved in adjudication which can lead to more accurate judicial decisions.
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Public Hearing as a Safeguard of Fair Trial in Criminal Proceedings
46-61Views:186The primary aim of my paper is to examine the questions related to the institute of public hearing. As we know, publicity is one of the most important safeguards of fair trial in criminal procedure. In my opinion, it is necessary to examine these procedural questions in a scientific depth in the light of both the case decisions of the High Courts and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. The study examines one of the important pledges of a fair trial, the effectiveness of the basic principle of publicity in the criminal procedure. It explores the principle from a dogmatic point of view, and also in the light of both the European standards and the regulations currently in force. It mentions the limitation and exclusion of publicity, and the legal consequences of violating publicity in a great detail. Classic legal institutes are shifted into new dimensions by the technical improvements of the modern world and the media broadcasts from courts, and the paper points it out that for the sake of having an undisturbed court hearing and verification, some modifications on certain legal regulations may be justified. The study also mentions the standpoints of legal literature regarding the notion of publicity in detail, and by summarizing them it attempts to define the notion of the given basic principle as per aspects of law science, considering the characteristics of the 21st century. After the establishment of law theory principles, besides introducing the regulation in force and touching upon court practice, my paper analyzes questions that are more and more current, especially due to the reports by the electronic media, which sometimes cannot only disturb the order of the court, but also the procedure of verification. So, after the examination of basic hypotheses and the legal institute, it draws the conclusion that the development of the legal institute justifies the modification of the procedural law in the future, especially in connection with informing the press.
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Judging Homicide Cases: Legal Rules and Practice of the Regional Court of Appeal of Debrecen
113-130Views:117The Autor examined the sentencing practice of the Regional Court of Appeal of Debrecen in homicide cases. The conclusion of his paper is, based on the examination of relevant case law, that courts regard the medium of the custody range as a basis for sentencing in homicide cares. This practice is independent of the relevant requirements provided by the General Part of the Criminal Code. The author also states, according to the examination mentioned above, that a life impissonment without the possibility of parote, is only exceptionally in the recent practice.
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Rest Periods in EU Labour Law
Views:107The paper aims to approach the dilemmas of EU working time rules from the novel perspective of rest periods. It examines the functions and nature of rest periods in EU law, with special regard to the ECJ’s recent judgment in the MÁV-Start case (C-477/21). The analysis tackles the question whether rest periods should be regarded as a right or an obligation of the worker and visits the issue of the possible role of a separate right to disconnect. The analysis ends with some conclusions.
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Access to higher education and right to free movement in the case-law of the CJEU
134-156Views:149This article examines the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) concerning the right of EU citizens to gain access to higher education in other EU Member States. The case-law plays an important intermediary role between various EU policies, often contributing to their more effective implementation in this way. The paper presents an obvious example for that as legal principles developed by the Court in free movement and antidiscrimination cases essentially facilitate the promotion of student mobility that is one of the fundamental objectives of the Bologna Process and the Union‘s education policy. At the same time, free student mobility may go against national education policies and interests and Member States are often reluctant to accept that the rulings, despite the limited competencies conferred upon the EU to take measures in the education sector, set narrow boundaries for national actions. The analysis also seeks to indicate those factors which have an influence on the Court‘s sensitivity towards interests and policy autonomy of the Member States in the field of higher education.
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The Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Cultural Identity in the Case-law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
145-163Views:272The present paper examines the protection of cultural identity in the case-law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), where this question has primarily been dealt with in connection with the rights of indigenous peoples. Although not expressly guaranteed in the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), the right to cultural identity is found to be protected in the treaty due to the IACHR’s evolutionary interpretation of the right to life and the right to property, as well as other first-generation human rights contained in the ACHR. Issued in the Spring of 2020, the IACHR decision in the case Lhaka Honhat vs Argentina puts into a new perspective the protection of the right to cultural identity. Unlike before, it was clearly established that cultural rights are autonomous and judicially enforceable under Article 26 of the ACHR. At the same time, the ICHR’s revolutionary approach provides new opportunities for the judicial protection of environmental rights claims based on Article 26 of the ACHR as well.
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The right to strike in the case-law of the ECtHR
115-133Views:242The right to strike has been long recognized as an important labour right in the European countries protected by constitutions and international conventions on labour and social rights. However, these international conventions mainly contain mere declarations to only pursue the right to strike and do not have an effective protection mechanism. Nevertheless, in the last few decades a human rights perspective on labour law gained ground and thus international organizations and international courts started to derive labour rights like the right to strike from civil and political rights and therefore some of these labour rights enjoy the same level of protection as the first generation human rights. In its recent judgements, the European Court of Human Rights stated that the right to strike is protected under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights and developed a case law on the requirements of a lawful strike action, secondary strike actions and the restrictions of the right to strike.
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Unfair Termination Review During Probationary Period: The Case of Iraq in Light of New Judiciary Trends
75-89Views:272Probation is a trial period to test a new employee for a particular position. It is commonplace for many employers to stipulate that the contract begins with probation based on a mutual agreement with the employee. During the probationary period, more flexible standards are given to review unfair termination. Notwithstanding, a degree of protection insofar as it safeguards employees from the risk of unfair termination shall be granted. Article 37 in the Iraqi Labour Code No. 37 of 2015 permits the employer to test the employee for a maximum of three months if the latter has no professional certificate. The same article empowers the employer to terminate the contract if the employee has failed in the suitability test without setting any standards for such a test. In reviewing cases arising on the basis of unfair termination claims, the judiciary in some developed countries has come up with basic standards of the suitability test. This paper, therefore, attempts to examine Article 37 in the Iraqi Labour Code in light of the new judiciary trends and finally suggests redrafting the mentioned article to be more compatible with the rights of contractual parties.
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Groundwater protection in the light of a judgment of the Supreme Court of Hungary
178-191Views:253In the study the author analyses a judgment of the Supreme Court of Hungary, in which a progressive judicial interpretation is included concerning the obligation of fact-finding in connection with the protection of groundwaters. Before this, the author presents the legal doctrine regarding groundwater regulation. The regulation is not only drawn up on the national level, but also on the level of European Union. After the detailed presentation of the case, the author makes some conclusions.
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The Practice of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights concerning the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, with special regard to the Ogoni Case
127-143Views:185The aim of the current article is to analyse the protection of indigenous peoples’ rights offered by the African human rights mechanism by introducing its institutional framework and jurisprudence. The author has the opinion that the African mechanism has followed in the footsteps of the Inter-American system and has interpreted the already existing substantial norms in an evolutive manner; thus achieving tremendous results in the acknowledgement and protection of indigenous rights. They did so with such success that now the “master” – namely the Inter-American Commission on Human rights – is quoting the student. It follows from the above mentioned lines that – according to the firm opinion of the author – the African mechanism worth the attention both present time, both in the future, due to the simple fact that new trends regarding indigenous rights may arise from the practice of the African Commission.
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Disclosure of the Data of State-owned Companies in Hungary and Germany: Similarities and Differences
83-101Views:73The article analyses in a comparative manner the way the publication of data works in Hungary and Germany in the case of state-owned companies. The subject of the analysis is furthermore how the transparency of public property is compatible with the functioning of the market and the protection of trade and business secrets. The article devotes special attention to the issue of the relationship between the request for data in the public interest and trade secrets, and, whether the disclosure of such data may be refused on the basis of avoiding potential business damage. Given that the disclosure of data with public interest and its accessibility are inseparable from the freedom of information, the relevant laws in the countries subject to analysis are also presented. The article highlights the exemplary solutions of the German legal system and, finally, compares the similarities and differences in the regulatory concepts of the two legal systems.
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The Client and Authority Proceedings in the Digital Era
74-101Views:193The study examines the digital transformation of Hungarian administrative procedure and the advance of automation. Based on statistical data, the study highlights that in connection with digital public administration procedures, the importance of customer-focused services appears as the standard of digital public administration. Digitalization is dominated by electronic contact options, online information and submission of electronic requests, rather than complete automation of administrative procedures. The study focuses on digital authority procedures from the point of view of how this manifests itself primarily for the client: how to satisfy the need for information, how to contact the authorities and how to initiate the procedure. In addition to the legal bases, this part primarily focuses on the possibilities. After that, the consequences of digital solutions (automation) for making substantive decisions from the customer's point of view are discussed; this part of the study therefore concentrates more on the normative side of the processes and finally analyzes this. As a result, it states that automatic decision-making is mainly used in case of registrative acts based on official records and decisions embodied in decision-type documents, but there are already examples of the automation of the decision-making mechanism in connection with the production of facts. Although more complex automation is just spreading its wings, in connection with the rapid technical development and innovations of recent years, the legal system must keep up with digitalization and not give in to it.