Speech by Dr Tamás Sulyok, President of Hungary, on Courts Day

Honourable Presidents, Honourable Judges, Ladies and Gentlemen!

As a lawyer by profession and, by virtue of my office, as Head of State, I greet you all with love and respect on Courts Day. A special day launched to show our appreciation for the work of the courts, judges and court officials. 
Being a judge and running the court system well is a challenge. It requires competence and responsibility, wisdom and expertise, empathy and precision. 

Its well-functioning judiciary is an essential component of the Hungarian constitutional system. It is an independent branch of power, the immune system of any state governed by the rule of law. I may not be well received when using the following simile, but if a two times 45-minute football match cannot be played without a football referee, because tempers can easily get out of control, then how could we organise the enforcement of laws in a society, or resolve tough disputes without judges or courts? 

The court system, the people who work in it, have to face many tests. I do not want to talk about the politicised theoretical debates on the rule of law, or about the need for faster proceedings, or about other institutional and professional issues. Rather, I would like to talk about the most beautiful aspects of the judicial profession. The fact that being a judge, exercising the independent power of the judiciary, is not just a prestige and a responsibility.

For when a judge hands down a judgment, they are not only administering the rule of law, but also serving justice itself. On their scale, the judge not only measures the case and its circumstances, but behind the law on which the decision is based, moral justice is becoming apparent as well.

Being a judge is therefore not only a prestigious vocation, but also a noble one. I understand that such an approach to the service of truth can easily seem lofty and philosophical. In the 21st century, we live in an age when our fundamental values are relativized, the boundaries of law are blurred, obligations are obscured and the true meaning of exact concepts is twisted. Despite all this, the work of the judge, which is bound by paragraphs, by procedures, and which is about following the rules, serves an abstract and sublime ideal, i.e. the pursuit of justice.

Article 28 of the Fundamental Law stipulates that when interpreting legislation, it must be presumed that the legislation serves a moral and profitable purpose in accordance with common sense and the common good. The functioning of the courts in our country has guarantees dating back to the 19th century. These are independence, impartiality and immovability. In reality, all these are merely tools. They are the means to ensure that the rule of law, the enforcement of the law, can be ensured by the judges through their work. However, they are also a means of ensuring that the service of the rule of law is always backed up by the service of the good, the protection of the person and property of citizens, and the strengthening of social morality.

As Ulpian once said, Ius est ars boni et aequi - Law is the art of the good and the just. My predecessor in office, Professor Ferenc Mádl, who researched the relationship between morality and law, used to quote Georg Jellinek's statement, i.e. that law is the minimum of morality. He also warned that a society that is not bound by moral values is doomed to destruction. In other words, law is much more than the professional knowledge and enforcement of paragraphs, procedures and legal customs, the objective determination of facts and the decision on legal consequences. Law is about the good, order, justice and the appreciation of the moral life. Judges serve and uphold these, and this is the beauty of their profession.

This is perhaps the greatest challenge of their careers, as they have to represent these permanent values in a way that they repeatedly see and experience their absence. Even though they read indictments, meet with victims, conduct matrimonial proceedings, and deal with crimes against property and persons on a daily basis, they have to live in a world of values, of norms protected by law. It is they, you, who show that the law is there to protect people. That is why I believe that, alongside impartiality and independence, persistent optimism needs to be the shield of judges, so that, in the face of the turmoil in the world, they represent, rather than bitterness, the moral foundations that guide us to behave as human beings in the noble sense of the word. 

Allow me, as someone who is somewhat familiar with your activities and your profession, to express my personal appreciation for your work. My appreciation is based on the experience I have gained concerning judicial decisions in decades of working as a lawyer and then as a constitutional judge. It is based on my experience that I have continued confidence in the courts and judges. It is well-known that as the President of Hungary, I can exercise my right of individual clemency. However, I would like to stress that I regard this power as an additional and exceptional power, which should in no way be used to overrule the decision of the court. I affirm that any pardon must be consistent with society's sense of justice and must not depart from the general principles of penal policy.

Ladies and Gentlemen! 

You have taken the oath of allegiance to Hungary and its Fundamental Law. You have pledged to exercise your office, to serve the rule of law, for the benefit of the Hungarian nation. Unfortunately, sometimes those more elusive phrases, such as „for the benefit of the Hungarian nation”, are shoved to the background or start to ring hollow. I am convinced that the more we think about what we can do, how we can exercise our profession and shape our everyday lives for the benefit of the Hungarian nation, the more this commitment, which is also expressed in the text of the oath, will open up, and manifest itself as rich thoughts and proposals. 

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Courts Day is a day dedicated to the most distinguished judges and the most distinguished court officials. My warmest congratulations to all those who are being honoured today for their effective service to their country. I wish you all strength, good health and unbroken optimism in your future work. 

Thank you very much!