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Memory politics in Hungary : political justice without rule of law
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2366-7044
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Verfassungsdebate, 2018, Memory laws, OnlineOnly
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HALMAI, Gábor, Memory politics in Hungary : political justice without rule of law, Verfassungsdebate, 2018, Memory laws, OnlineOnly - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/92658
Abstract
After the 1989-90 democratic transition, Poland and Hungary were the first to introduce the institutional framework of constitutional democracy and of transitional justice. For a number of reasons, including a lack of democratic traditions and constitutional culture, after the 2010 parliamentary elections, liberal constitutionalism became a victim of the authoritarian efforts of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party. The new constitution, called Fundamental Law, systematically dismantles guarantees of the rule of law, leading to measures of ‘bad political justice’, in which politics wins out over justice through ordinary national criminal law. Unlike the 1989 Constitution, the 2011 Fundamental Law of Hungary is rather vocal about the country’s dictatorial past and reveals the intentions of the new constitution-making majority. The preamble, entitled “National Avowal,” opens with the statement, “We deny any statute of limitation for the inhuman crimes committed against the Hungarian nation and its citizens under the national socialist and communist dictatorships”. If “inhuman crimes” refers to war crimes and crimes against humanity, then the denial of a statute of limitations complies with effective international law. However, if it refers to less serious crimes, then the Fundamental Law is in breach of the prohibition on retroactive effect, emphasized in earlier decisions of the Hungarian Constitutional Court.
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Published online: 10 January 2018
This article belongs to the debate 'Memory laws'. How we remember the past is subject to legal regulation in many parts of Europe. We prohibit genocide denial and the glorification of totalitarianism, make historical claims in the preambles of constitutions, prescribe how to teach history in school curricula, and more. How is this done, and which problems with fundamental rights and minority protection arise? A joint symposium of the T.M.C. Asser Institute (The Hague) and Verfassungsblog explores these questions and their constitutional answers.
This article belongs to the debate 'Memory laws'. How we remember the past is subject to legal regulation in many parts of Europe. We prohibit genocide denial and the glorification of totalitarianism, make historical claims in the preambles of constitutions, prescribe how to teach history in school curricula, and more. How is this done, and which problems with fundamental rights and minority protection arise? A joint symposium of the T.M.C. Asser Institute (The Hague) and Verfassungsblog explores these questions and their constitutional answers.