Protecting the constitution

This is a short study about the Hungarian model of constitutional review as it exists from 1990 to the end of 2011. It also aims to describe the constitutional framework (or background) of the judicial review (judicial control) of administrative acts, as the judicial control over legislation and the executive play an unconditional role in the process during which “[t]he constitutional state becomes a reality.” This could only happen “when the Constitution is truly and unconditionally given effect. (…) Not only the regulations and the operation of the state organs must comply strictly with the Constitution but the Constitution's values and its „conceptual culture“ must imbue the whole of society. This is the rule of law and this is how the Constitution becomes a reality. The realization of the constitutional state is a continuous process.”[1] The book is mainly based on the Country Report I presented to the conference Constitutional Courts, Human Rights, Democracy and Development (Konrad Adenauer Stiftung & Max-Planck-Institut, Heidelberg, 12-13 November 2009) but I amended the text with a short analysis on the constitutional framework and reasoning on the judicial control of the administrative acts. In this short book I intend to describe the Hungarian model of constitutional review as it existed in its original form, before the jurisdiction of the Court and the electoral process of the members had been changed in 2010, although these modifications, even the restrictions upon the jurisdiction, have not altered the model completely. However, they forecasted a more serious change: the introduction a new model. After the enactment of the new Hungarian Constitution (The Basic Law of Hungary, entering into force on the 1st of January 2012) it seem definite that a new (or at least a modified) model of constitutional review and is probable that a different system of judicial review will start their operation. I deemed it important to summarize the main characteristics of the two. Before the Change.