Speech by Dr. Tamás Sulyok on the 35th anniversary of the establishment of the Constitutional Court

Dear Mr Speaker! 

Dear Mr President! 

Ladies and Gentlemen! 

I would like to welcome you all warmly and respectfully to this conference on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Constitutional Court. It was a pleasure to come to this event, with many fond memories, to welcome you and to share some of my thoughts about the extraordinary institution of which I myself was a member and then President. 

This year's conference also represents a form of compensation for me, as five years ago we were eagerly awaiting the conference planned for the 30th anniversary of the Constitutional Court's establishment, when the pandemic intervened. This anniversary is thus even more significant for many of us, as it partially makes up for the event that was previously missed. 

The founding of the Constitutional Court 35 years ago was a celebration of the triumph of the rule of law in the history of Hungary. The rule of law was raised from the ruins by this panel of judges. Its mission, tasks and opportunities we are discussing today, on the occasion of the anniversary. But how did it begin? What happened on 1 January 1990? 

This new national institution was the first to be established at the time of the regime change, before the free parliamentary elections, on the basis of Western European models. It was intended to be nothing less than a permanent guarantee, a kind of conscience, for the emerging rule of law, to preserve and ensure the rule of law over legislation. In so doing, it pointed the way to all that lay ahead for Hungary. The building of a democratic legal system in our country would hardly have been feasible and meaningful without the Constitutional Court. 

The period of regime change was a turbulent time in Hungarian legal history and an important time of identity clarification for the Hungarian nation. These were the final days of the communist dictatorship, which relied on Soviet tanks. However, one had to look far ahead to see the moral foundations of the rule of law. It took vision to revive the elements of our historic constitution, to build a new legal order on solid grounds. The time spent during the decades of dictatorship was so long that the conditions of the free world, the novelty of trust in legal certainty, and the informed and precise legal interpretation of legal matters seemed like a leap into the unknown. The Constitutional Court thus had a very important role to play. 

In the first decade, the focus of their professional work was to dismantle the unconstitutional barriers that remained pervasive in the Hungarian legal system at the time of the regime change, as well as the legacy legislation that was incompatible with the rule of law. During this very intensive period of the panel’s work, the control of the legislator played a central role, primarily in the form of abstract ex post controls. Through its activities, however, the Constitutional Court also fulfilled a further, sublime mission. 

The Constitutional Court has been at the forefront in representing to the country the weight and inviolability of the value of the rule of law. The foundations of Hungary's new constitution were not laid until spring 2011, for lack of the necessary parliamentary majority. Until the fulfillment of our long-standing debt, we carried with us for more than two decades the inherited constitution of 1949, upon which its dark past cast a shadow. The original text of Act XX of 1949 was essentially a translation of the previously effective Soviet model. This was profoundly contrary to the rule of law, and it was also contrary to the development of Hungarian law over a thousand years. With its amendments from time to time, it was merely a patchwork. Its text underwent significant changes during the time of the regime change. In reality, only the year of its publication and the capital of Hungary, Budapest, remained from the original text. However, in its structure and historical significance, it still carried the burden of bad memories. It was like an old Comecon car with a new western engine, new seat covers and new wheels. It worked, but it didn't feel quite like our own. 

Finally, in April 2011, based on the existing parliamentary mandate, the new Fundamental Law was adopted, which clearly set out the nation's core values, creed and the backbone of our constitutional and national identity. With the adoption of the Fundamental Law, Europe's newest constitution was born. The Constitutional Court was entrusted with safeguarding and upholding it. 

With the adoption of the Fundamental Law, the Hungarian constitutional judiciary - following the German example - has acquired the broadest possible powers, primarily in the field of individual fundamental rights protection. The panel can now not only exercise ex post or preliminary abstract or specific reviews of norms, but can also examine the unconstitutionality of judicial interpretation and the application of the law, and annul final judicial decisions that have been applied or interpreted in a manner that is contrary to the Fundamental Law, on the basis of a motion by the party seeking redress. This has been working well in Germany since 1946, and we, following in their footsteps and after several Central European countries, have also – a welcome development - introduced a system of constitutional complaints that provides the most comprehensive protection of individual fundamental rights. 

Thus, the individual decisions of the Constitutional Court have a direct impact on the entire legal system, through the decisions of the judiciary, at the level of day-to-day application of the law. By reviewing the constitutionality of judicial decisions, a new dimension has been opened up to the panel, which has successfully exercised and applied it in all branches of law. 
The structure of the Constitutional Court itself has also been further strengthened; its membership increased from 11 to 15, the judges' term of office was extended to 12 years, and the possibility of re-election was abolished. The president of the panel is directly elected by the National Assembly with a two-thirds majority of all its Members. These are both guarantees of independence and efficiency. 

Its changed potential for the protection of fundamental rights and its solutions to European conflict-of-law issues had already made the Hungarian Constitutional Court one of the most authoritative constitutional courts in the European Union by the end of the 2010s. It has become a national institution that is engaged in an intensive dialogue with constitutional courts of other Member States and the Court of Justice of the European Union. As the German Constitutional Court’s PSPP ruling clearly indicates, the latter is essential to prevent decisions of the EU Court of Justice from becoming arbitrary in the absence of national constitutional control. 

In sharing my thoughts, I have only tried to provide a glimpse of the wide range of tasks that the Hungarian Constitutional Court has been carrying out successfully for 35 years, in a constantly changing environment. It has been a successful guardian of the constitutional order, safeguarding fundamental rights and, as the ultimate limit of power, protecting the democratic rule of law. It represents and upholds the values of the nation as enshrined in its Fundamental Law. It provides direction and a check against new challenges to our society and to our legal system, triggered by the proliferation of extremist ideologies brought about by the explosion of technology. 

The Constitutional Court is not only one of the highest-ranking national institutions, but also an independent judiciary that deserves our respect and appreciation. Ladies and Gentlemen! Whenever I enter the building of the Constitutional Court, or when I think of the institution itself, I always feel a little bit at home, and I look back. But perhaps it is not just me. In spirit, every person with a law degree and every citizen applying the law can feel this way, as this institution is the strongest bastion of the rule of law and its primacy, and it is the primary safeguard of these principles. 

As long as there is law, there can be no dictatorship and no tyranny. Where the law prevails, there is order and consistency. Where there is law, the gates are open to the enforcement of morality and virtue. "There is a homeland only where there is law", declared our poet Sándor Petőfi, who gave his life for the freedom of his country. Today, his dream is reality. 
Our country is an "independent and democratic state governed by the rule of law." 

And we owe this to our Constitutional Court.

God bless and protect the Constitutional Court of Hungary!