How Not to Use History in Constitutional Interpretation : The Aborted Resurrection of the Historical Constitution in Hungary

Szente, Zoltán (2022) How Not to Use History in Constitutional Interpretation : The Aborted Resurrection of the Historical Constitution in Hungary. In: Comparative Constitutional History : Volume Two: Uses of History in Constitutional Adjudication. Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, Boston, pp. 311-331. ISBN 9789004437050

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Abstract

Legal history can influence the application of law and jurisprudence in a number of ways. One of these is the use of the historical method in constitu- tional interpretation, which relies on the legal facts, concepts, and institutions of the past in order to help resolve contemporary legal disputes. Within the various legal cultures, there are a number of traditional and well-embedded approaches to the historical interpretation of constitutional texts, which are well- known in the academic literature and form part of constitutional dis- course. In the last decade, however, a new and unprecedented form of histori- cal method has emerged, which is little-known in international constitutional scholarship. Since 2010, profound changes have taken place in the political and consti- tutional system of Hungary, involving also the adoption of a new constitution. Within this framework, it was intended to resurrect the ancient, unwritten constitution of Hungary, which had previously been in force before the Second World War. In this way, a new kind of claim has emerged regarding the use of history within constitutional jurisprudence, which is worth exploring more closely, precisely due to its novelty and the fact that it is unknown.

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