Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 27th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Panel: The Rule of Law & Public Administration Author(s) Kitti Pollak Ludovika University of Public Service Budapest Hungary Title The Rule of Law and Administrative Justice in Hungary File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract The rule of law is a well-established state of public administration. Article B of the Fundamental Law of Hungary states that Hungary shall be an independent, democratic rule-of-law State. Administrative justice is part of the concept of modern definition of rule of law. The objective of this paper includes a general presentation of the current regulation of administrative procedure law and administrative justice in Hungary with a special focus on the realisation of individual rights in administrative procedures. As part of the Public Administration Reform in Hungary in 2016 a new Code on the General Rules of Administrative Proceedings and the first time in history a Code of Administrative Justice were accepted. These codes entered into force on the 1st January 2018. In view these facts the first part of the paper is devoted to present the most important rules regarding administrative procedures with a special focus on individual rights in the new Code on the General Rules of Administrative Proceedings. Secondly, the paper presents the current legal remedy system of Hungary. These news codes includes fundamental changes in the regard of the legal remedy system too, in which not the appeal procedures, but the judicial review procedures over the adminsitration decisions became the mostly used legal remedy tool regarding the protection of individual rights in administrative cases. Moreover the paper aims to examine the realisation of administrative justice in Hungary in three aspects: first, the organisation of administrative justice in Hungary. Hungary is still facing big changes in this aspect. The Hungarian Fundamental Law already mentions:”Courts are the ordinary and the administrative courts. Ordinary courts shall decide on criminal matters, civil disputes and other matters specified in an Act. The supreme organ in the ordinary court system shall be the Curia; the Curia shall ensure the uniformity of the application of law by ordinary courts, and shall make uniformity decisions which shall be binding on the ordinary courts Administrative courts shall decide on administrative disputes and other matters specified in an Act. The supreme organ in the administrative court system shall be the Administrative High Court; the Administrative High Court shall ensure the uniformity of the application of law by administrative courts, and shall make uniformity decisions which shall be binding on the administrative courts.” The Hungarian administrative courts system (the Administrative High Court and the administrative courts) is currently under realisation. Secondly the powers of administratives courts will be discussed. Thirdly, the paper mentions the general rules of the judicial review procedures over the adminsitration decisions. Lastly, we present some of the latest practice of the administrative courts regarding the protection of individual rights in administrative cases. We believe that the legal regulation of the administrative procedures in terms of the rule of law is only relevant if the respect of the procedural rules is placed under the control of the administrative courts. With this in mind, the realisation of an independent administrative court system is indispensable in a modern, XXI. century rule- of- law state.
