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• New attempts in EU law for the improvement of the consular protection of EU citizens in third countries

  9-23

  Adrienn Becánics

  Views:

  123

  The right of EU citizens to consular protection in third countries, where their Member State is not represented, is one of the most significant rights attached to the European citizenship. With the existing legal basis laid down in the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the right to consular protection of EU citizens has all the conceivable chances to be established uniformly by union actions and under the supervision of the European Court of Justice. The aim of the Council Directive (EU) 2015/637 is to lay down the cooperation and coordination measures necessary to further facilitate consular protection to unrepresented citizens of the European Union. Nevertheless the directive does not affect consular relations between Member States and third countries. The present paper focuses on the actions had been taken in this field from the treaty establishing the European Economic Community until the achievements of the Treaty of Lisbon and the aforementioned Council Directive.

• Access to higher education and right to free movement in the case-law of the CJEU

  134-156

  Ildikó Bartha

  Views:

  130

  This 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.

• The Role of Non-Governmental Organisations in the Enforcement of Environmental Liability

  113-127

  Attila Pánovics

  Views:

  266

  Public participation is an essential part of the mechanism of dealing with environmental problems. Both the Aarhus Convention and Union law stipulate that citizens and environmental NGOs should be guaranteed access to justice that includes providing legal standing for environmental NGOs individuals and directly affected by a breach of environmental law. In accordance with the Environmental Liability Directive, persons adversely affected by environmental damage are entitled to ask the competent authorities to take action. However, there are major chellenges to the implementation of environmental legislation, faced by environmental NGOs in obtaining standing to bring legal challenges on environmental issues. 

• Reflections from the Viewpoint of Legal History on the Muslims in Hungary

  11-23

  Gábor Hamza

  Views:

  100

  The Islamic religion, on the basis of Act No. XVII promulgated in 1917 in the Kingdom of Hungary, was given the status of a „recognized” religion i.e. religious community (in Hungarian: „elismert felekezet”, in Latin „licita religio”). By virtue of this act the Islamic religion received the same legal status as the Baptist church in 1905. It has to be pointed out that according to the census taken in 1910 in the Kingdom of Hungary, including Croatia-Slovenia which enjoyed a large degree of autonomy, there were only as many as 757 citizens belonging to the Islamic religious community. In this study we examine the legal status of the Muslim Community in Hungary until the end of World War I. As a main conclusion it can be stated that the law of Muslims (ius personarum) had never became a part of the legal system of Hungary, and that Islamic law never confronted the ius patrium.

• The role of Community Work in Decreasing Prison Population: the Finnish Experience

  81-96

  Ferenc Sipos

  Views:

  165

  A major part of the endeavours in recent punitive policy is to find alternatives for imprisonment. By a well-thought-out application of alternative sanctions and especially community work, criminal policy may greatly affect the proportion of the imposed sentences of imprisonment. One of the good examples can be seen in Finland, where the prison population of 200 convict per 100.000 citizens could be decreased to the quarter in a few decades. This study endeavours to present this process, hoping that such a short review may be usefully edifying also for Hungarian criminal policy.

• Risks and Adverse Effects: Decisions of the Italian Constitutional Court on the Compulsory COVID-19 Vaccination

  102-127

  Attila Horváth

  Álmos Ungvári

  Views:

  203

  In recent years, several judicial and constitutional court decisions have been handed down worldwide on the legality and constitutionality of the fundamental rights restrictive measures (including compulsory vaccination) imposed during the pandemic. Aside from Austria, Italy has imposed compulsory vaccination more widely than any other European country; moreover, the lack of vaccination has made it impossible for citizens to live their daily lives to such an extent that some scholars have even written of de facto compulsory vaccination. In December 2022, the Italian Constitutional Court ruled in three judgments against the petitions related to compulsory vaccination. After outlining the legal context and the scholars’ positions on mandatory Covid vaccination, this paper examines these decisions, focusing on the arguments on which the Court saw justification for compulsory vaccination.

• The Problem of Defining Criminal Norms Precisely. The „Clarity of Norms” Doctrine in the Decisions of the Hungarian Constitutional Court and in Judicial Practice

  37-59

  Krisztina Ficsor

  Views:

  324

  The principles of legality in criminal law determine numerous requirements both for the legislator creating criminal statutes and for judges as well who decide criminal cases. One of the most important demands of legality is the principle of maximum certainty according to which the state must establish a system of criminal law in which the wording of the statutes are clear, precise and understandable for the citizens; and judges are able to interpret criminal rules without making arbitrary decisions. In the Hungarian legal system the demands of maximum certainty are represented by the principle of nullum crimen sine lege. This principle is called the „clarity of norms” doctrine in the practice of the Constitutional Court of Hungary (HCC) which is entitled to strike down criminal statutes which do not meet its requirements. The aim of this paper is to argue for the claim that the „clarity of norms doctrine” and the concept of certainty in criminal law is based mostly on considerations about the plain meaning of words and texts and lack a coherent theoretical background in the decisions of the HCC and in judicial practice as well. The author offers a more complex and coherent conception of certainty stating that its requirements relate not only to linguistic considerations but also to thinking over the moral and political values of criminal law as well.

• 60th Anniversary of the European Social Charter: Some Proactive Dilemmas

  29-42

  József Hajdú

  Views:

  298

  The European Social Charter is a human rights treaty of the Council of Europe. For 60 years, the Charter has been protecting the social and economic rights of citizens across Europe. During these years, the Charter has been revised and new rights have been included to take into account the challenges facing our modern societies. But the Charter has remained at the heart of the Council of Europe’s statutory goals: human rights, rule of law and democracy, which cannot be realised without respect for social rights. However, sixty years after the adoption of the Charter, and thirty years after the adoption of the Turin Protocol of 1991 reforming the supervisory mechanism, the Convention has yet to realise its full potential. In this article the Charter’s two supervisory mechanisms are analysed and some proactive dilemmas and possible solutions are outlined.