Commission Report 2002 (Hungary)

The judicial system

The Code of Civil Procedure and the Code of Criminal Procedure regulate the jurisdiction and competence of courts.

Under the Constitution, the courts are responsible for the administration of justice, with the Supreme Court exercising control over the operation and judicial procedure of all other courts. There are three levels of courts. First instance jurisdiction in most matters rests with the local courts. Appeals against their rulings may be made to the county courts or to the Budapest Municipal Court, which in addition has first instance jurisdiction in a range of other matters, such as civil law cases with a minimum value of HUF 10 million (EUR 40 000 ) and criminal law cases with a sentence up to life imprisonment. The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal and oversees the uniform application of the law by courts, while the Constitutional Court is in charge of constitutional matters. The Supreme Court also hears appeals against decisions by military courts.

A National Council of Justice makes judicial appointments, except to the Constitutional Court, and prepares each year the proposal for the budget for the administration of the judicial system.

The Constitutional Court is charged with reviewing the constitutionality of laws and statutes brought before it as well as the compliance of these laws with international treaties that the Government has ratified. Parliament elects, by a two-thirds majority, the 11 members of the Constitutional Court, who serve nine-year terms. The Constitutional Court operates to full strength. Citizens may appeal direct to the Constitutional Court if they believe that their constitutional rights have been violated.

Recruitment to the judiciary consists of several stages - clerkship, examinations, and probationary period - leading to final appointment. The President of the Republic appoints judges, on nomination by the National Council of Justice, for three years, after which they may be re-appointed for an indefinite period subject to an evaluation of their performance.

Besides being prevented from joining political parties or engaging in any political activity, judges do not have the right to be involved in business activities or to be members of an arbitration court. Furthermore, members of the Constitutional and Supreme Courts are not allowed to be members of Parliament or to be employed in local government. Since December 2001, judges are required to make asset declarations, which are collected and monitored by the National Council of Justice.

The remuneration of judges has progressively been raised over the years, but increases have remained below the annual inflation rate since 1998, resulting in a decrease in real terms. In order to remedy the situation, the Government has proposed to increase the basic salaries of judges by 50% as of January 2003.

The prosecution system is a centralised body within the judicial system and independent from government. The Prosecutor-General is the leader and supervisor of the system. He is elected by Parliament, on a proposal by the President of the Republic, for a six-year term. The Prosecutor-General is answerable only to Parliament, to which he reports on his activities. One of his tasks is to appoint prosecutors, who may not be members of political parties or pursue any political activity.

Trials are, in general, public. Defendants are in principle entitled to counsel during all phases of criminal proceedings and are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Judicial proceedings are reasonably expeditious. The majority of proceedings at first instance are finished in less than one year.

During the reference period the following new developments can be reported.

In line with the constitutional requirements, a decision was taken in June 2002 to establish five Regional Courts of Appeal. These Courts will hear appeals from the county courts, currently heard by the Supreme Court. The introduction of this new tier of courts should reduce the backlog of cases before the Supreme Court and enable it to concentrate on its main functions, i.e. to guarantee the uniform application of law by courts and provide judicial guidance to lower courts, and to examine applications for the review of final judgements as extraordinary remedy. The five Regional Courts of Appeal will come into operation in July 2003 (Budapest, Pécs and Szeged) or 2004 (Györ and Debrecen). It is estimated that around 6 000 appeal cases will be immediately transferred to the Regional Courts from the Supreme Court. The decision to create a new tier of courts had been taken in 1997, but the Government postponed implementation for budgetary reasons. In November 2001, the Constitutional Court ruled that the failure to establish appeal courts violated the Constitution.

At the level of the Supreme Court new rules for the review of final judgements entered into force in January 2002, following the amendment of the Code of Civil Procedure. The new rules restrict the possibilities for the review of final judgements. Exceptional review may be submitted only if the judgement to be reviewed infringes legal provisions which vitally influenced the merits of the case, and if the case differs from the binding decisions of the Supreme Court on uniformity of interpretation of law, or if it is contrary to current judgement practice. This should reduce the number of requests for judicial review addressed to the Supreme Court, and thereby contribute to reducing the backlog of cases the Supreme Court faces at present.

In the prosecution system, a comprehensive structural reform was implemented during 2001 to address the fight against new forms of crime, in particular organised crime, economic and environmental crime, and corruption. The core elements of this reform were the establishment of a Central Investigation Office at the Budapest Metropolitan Public Prosecution Office, with nation-wide competence to investigate cases of national importance, and an increase of staff. The Chief Public prosecutor had been designated the Hungarian single contact point for EUROJUST.

At the beginning of 2002, a system of predefined distribution of cases was introduced for courts. This makes the order of the distribution of cases public and thus contributes to the transparency of court proceedings.

At the level of courts, the overall number of staff has continued to increase. At the end of the first quarter of 2002 the number of posts for judges was 2 604 (2 599 in April 2001). In addition, there were at that date 345 court secretaries (274 in 2001) and 470 junior clerks (453 in 2001).

The development of the Court Information System, which also provides access to Internet and on-line access to CELEX progressed and is now operational at 18 county courts, the Budapest Municipal Court, the Supreme Court, and the National Council of Justice. The system should be finalised by the end of 2002 and all 152 courts should be connected to the system,

The training of judges in Community law, which started in September 1999 with Community assistance, continued; by March 2002 1 872 of the 2 604 judges had received training and 60 judges had become national trainers.

As regards court infrastructure, technical facilities are still inadequate and judges have to spend a large part of their time on administrative matters connected with their cases. The new profession of ``legal assistants'', created in 2001, should help to improve this situation, but so far there are is not enough well-trained staff available to fill such posts.

Moreover, the budgetary resources of the judicial system remained limited. The annual budget proposal, prepared by the National Council of Justice, requires government approval. Over the last four years the Government regularly reduced the proposals of the National Council of Justice by about 40%; the judicial chapter of the central budget shrank from 2.6% in 1999 to 1.96% in 2002. As a consequence, it has not been possible to invest in buildings and information systems as planned, or to raise the number of judges and court staff in step with the growing caseload. To strengthen the financial independence of the judiciary, the Government has submitted a new law to Parliament in August 2002, which would empower the National Council of Justice to submit its proposal for the 2004 annual budget directly to Parliament.

There remains also room for improvement as regards the citizen`s access to justice in the context of the availability of legal aid (see also under Civil and political rights)

Overall, the constitutional and legislative guarantees of judicial independence are well-established in Hungary and the system of judicial self-administration functions efficiently. The decisions to introduce the Regional Courts of Appeal and to strengthen the judiciary`s financial independence are important steps as regards the improvement of the judicial capacity.

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