Hungarian Constitutional Court: Transparency and Business Activities of the State

Szilágyi, Emese (2016) Hungarian Constitutional Court: Transparency and Business Activities of the State. VIENNA JOURNAL ON INTERNATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, 10 (3). pp. 339-351. ISSN 2306-3734

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Abstract

The Constitutional Court of Hungary recently delivered two important decisions concerning freedom of information. In both cases, the National Assembly attempted to curtail the transparency of the Central Bank and the Hungarian Mail, and the President of the Republic requested for an ex ante constitutional review. The decisions contain pivotal arguments concerning legal certainty and freedom of information, and can be read as proof that in the most crucial cases the Constitutional Court of Hungary still stands up against the majority of the parliament. However, it is worth mentioning that in the more straightforward case – the decision about the modification of the Act on the Central Bank of Hungary – there was a wide professional consensus on the unconstitutionality of the new rules. This consensus was supported by the opinion of the National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of In- formation. The reasoning of the other decision which examines the new rules of the Postal Service Act could arguably be read two different ways, as will also be elaborated in this paper.

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