About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


12 Italian J. Pub. L. 204 (2020)
The Fall of the Rule of Law in Hungary and the Complicity of the EU

handle is hein.journals/itajpul12 and id is 207 raw text is: THE FALL OF THE RULE OF LAW IN HUNGARY AND THE COMPLICITY OF THE EU Gdbor Halmai* Abstract Hungary was one of the first and most thorough political transitions after 1989, which due the negotiated 'rule of law revolution'1 provided all the institutional elements of liberal constitutional democracy: rule of law, checks and balances and guaranteed fundamental rights. Hungary also represents the first, and probably the model case, of backsliding to an illiberal system dismantling the rule of law. The current Hungarian state of affairs was made possible by the governing Fidesz party's 2010 electoral victory, called by Prime Minister and party leader Viktor Orbdn as a 'revolution of the ballot boxes.' As I will argue in this paper the European Union is also complicit in tolerating the first authoritarian member state of the European Union TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. The Rule of Law 'Counter-Revolution' of 2010..........................205 2. EU Attempts to Cope with the Rule of Law Situation in Hungary.....................................................................208 3. Counterarguments to Value Conditionality...............................218 4. Conclusion........................................................................................221 * Full Professor and Chair of Comparative Constitutional Law, European University Institute, Department of Law, Florence. 1 See the term used by the first Constitutional Court in its decision 11/1992. (III. 5.) AB.