Orban’s New Judicial Overhaul Prompts Rule-of-Law Concerns Again

(Bloomberg) -- Concerns over the erosion of the rule of law in Hungary amid a European Union probe are resurfacing less than a month after Prime Minister Viktor Orban backed down from a controversial plan to create a new top court under his government’s influence.

Orban’s government this week filed a 200-page amendment in a sweeping judicial overhaul that proposes to broaden the role of the Constitutional Court, widely considered to be the most politicized bench, in public administration cases that include sensitive rulings over elections and corruption.

The government had appeared to backpedal in October on several of the issues at the center of the EU probe as well as another deliberation by the European People’s Party, the biggest political umbrella group in Europe, which is weighing whether to expel Orban’s Fidesz party. Concessions -- which followed Orban’s biggest electoral setback in more than a decade -- included scrapping a plan for a public administration top court under the justice ministry’s oversight.

“The government appears to have decided that instead of placing public administrative courts under a minister, it’s instead opened the door to be able to channel politically sensitive cases to the Constitutional Court, which has already come under government influence,” Amnesty International said in a statement on Friday.

The amendment would allow government and public agencies to appeal court rulings directly to the Constitutional Court, which may interpret cases more broadly because of the sometimes looser wording of the constitution, according to Amnesty.

The Constitutional Court is considered more politicized than other courts because its members are elected directly by parliament, where Orban’s lawmakers have had a supermajority since 2010, ensuring that Fidesz’s picks are approved.

The latest addition to the Constitutional Court is Tunde Hando, the wife of a ruling party European Parliament lawmaker who previously headed the judicial administration system. The body of judges supervising her had previously recommended her impeachment for the abuse of her powers over court appointments.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zoltan Simon in Budapest at zsimon@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, James Amott, Bruce Stanley

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