The Legal Status of Minorities in Hungary

Kovács, Péter (2002) The Legal Status of Minorities in Hungary. Acta Juridica Hungarica, 43 (3-4). pp. 207-217. ISSN 1216-2574

Preview

Text ajur.43.2002.3-4.1.pdf Download (83kB) | Preview

Abstract

The Article gives a general overview of the Hungarian constitutional and legal framework for the participation of national minorities in the decision-making. The relatively low number of people belonging to national minorities in Hungary as well as the scattered patterns of their settlement and some aspects of the Hungarian legal traditions underlie the choice of the so called personal autonomy approach. The minorities can establish via a special electing mechanism local and national self-governments enjoying consultative and truly public law type rule-making and administrative competences. Having given the proper interpretation of the relevant article of the Constitution, the Constitutional Court also contributed to the birth of the Act on the Rights of Minorities. The basic reason behind the creation of a very complicated, multilevel institutional complex is that in this way, educational and cultural needs of minorities of different scale can be represented in a relatively coherent manner. This does not exclude at all the possibility of bringing modifications to the legal text in the light of a decade's experience.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item