jtiblog

Blogsite of the Institute for Legal Studies

ECtHR clarified standard on minimum space for prisoners

2017. February 26. 21:35
Dániel G. Szabó
Hungarian Helsinki Committee
ECtHR clarified standard on minimum space for prisoners

The European Court of Human Rights (the ‘ECtHR’ or ‘the Court’) has excessive jurisprudence on prison conditions, especially regarding the minimum personal space of inmates. The case law culminated in the recent judgement of Muršić, which was decided last October by the Grand Chamber. In this decision the Court addressed the inconsistencies in its jurisprudence regarding the minimum acceptable space. In the Muršić decision the Court ruled that if the personal space goes below 3 square meters, there is a strong presumption of a violation of Article 3 and the judgement resolves important other contradictions also. It was not totally consistent in the recent practice of the Court whether the decisive space is 3 or 4 m2 or that the personal space below this amount is in itself a violation or not. The origin of the 3 m2 threshold was also not clear from the case law of the Court. In this essay I will review the Court’s pre-Muršić case law on minimum personal space and draw attention to the inconsistencies, then I summarize the findings of Muršić.

International Trade in the Era of Trump

2017. February 17. 18:16
Lukasz Gruszczynski
HAS CSS Institute for Legal Studies / MTA TK Jogtudományi Intézet

The United States has been a champion of free trade and economic globalization for many years. It was one of the architects of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and a founding member of the World Trade Organization. However, the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States has the potential to dramatically change this picture. The new president has repeatedly blamed the current international trade arrangements for destroying jobs in the American industry sector. He promised to redesign the existing trade bargains. But are those plans realistic? How will such moves change the international trade landscape?

International trade agreements captured by domestic politics? Lessons learnt from the CETA case

2016. December 05. 0:28
Balázs Horváthy
Viktor Szép
Lendület-HPOPs Research Group
International trade agreements captured by domestic politics? Lessons learnt from the CETA case International trade agreements captured by domestic politics? Lessons learnt from the CETA case

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between European Union and Canada was nearly to fail after the Wallonia parliament has made steps to  block its domestic ratification in October this year. The obstinate resistance of Wallonia illustrates well, how the legal, political and social context of trade policy have completely changed in the last decades and it gives the Member States a warning that trade agreements no longer can be concluded behind closed doors. 

British exit from the European Union?

2016. May 18. 2:13
Miklós Lojkó
Lendület-HPOPs Research Group
British exit from the European Union?

Today, in the middle of May, with 29% or resondents still undecided, Remain and Leave are head to head in the referendum vote intention poll of polls showing 50-50%. Another poll suggested that 28% of voters will be swayed by “national” considerations, such as migration, while a mere 15% will decide on account of economic reasons.

The ECJ upholds the ECB’s bond buying programme: Preliminary reflections on the judgment of the Court in the Case C-62/14

2015. July 02. 15:32
Darinka Piqani
Lendület-HPOPs Research Group
The ECJ upholds the ECB’s bond buying programme: Preliminary reflections on the judgment of the Court in the Case C-62/14

On 16 June 2015 the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued its much awaited judgment in the Gauweiler case (Case C-62/14). The judgment was expected with great interest for at least two reasons: for the ECJ’s position on the validity of the ECB’s bond buying programme ‘OMT” and the interpretation of the Treaties in that regard, and secondly, for its potential implications for the relation between the ECJ and the German Constitutional Court (GCC) from which the reference originated in January 2014 (Order of 14 January 2014, BvR 2728/13).

The Hungarian life imprisonment regime in front of apex courts II.

2015. June 18. 11:57

The regulation of whole life sentences varies in the Member States, however there seems to be a European consensus on granting some form of a meaningful review for possible conditional release from life imprisonment after the expiry of a long-term period spent in prison. Hungary was among the few Member States of the EU and the Council of Europe to have a sanction regime including whole life sentences without the possibility of review for conditional release, until the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter: ECtHR, Court or Strasbourg court) ruled on the matter and in Magyar v Hungary (Application no. 73593/10, 20 May 2014) declared the Hungarian life imprisonment regime to be in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter: ECHR or Convention). Last week the Kúria, the supreme court of Hungary had to remedy the human rights violation done to the whole life prisoner winning the Strasbourg case. In the review procedure Mr. Magyar was sentenced to life imprisonment with a possibility of conditional release after 40 years the earliest. In the present blog post the judgment will be analyzed in light of the ECHR and the attached case-law.

The Hungarian life imprisonment regime in front of apex courts I.

2015. June 18. 11:42

 

The regulation of whole life sentences varies in the Member States, however there seems to be a European consensus on granting some form of a meaningful review for possible conditional release from life imprisonment after the expiry of a long-term period spent in prison. Hungary was among the few Member States of the EU and the Council of Europe to have a sanction regime including whole life sentences without the possibility of review for conditional release – until the the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter: ECtHR, Court or Strasbourg court) ruled on the matter and declared the Hungarian life imprisonment regime to be in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter: ECHR or Convention). As a response to the judgment, the legislative introduced a novel Pardon Committee proceeding that could have been scrutinized by the Hungarian Constitutional Court, but it missed this opportunity. A brief analysis of Hungary’s obligations flowing from the Strasbourg judgment and the new Pardon Committee proceeding will be offered in this blog post.

EU-Russia Relations and the crisis in Ukraine: how to proceed?

2015. June 15. 9:20
Peter Van Elsuwege
Lendület-HPOPs Research Group
EU-Russia Relations and the crisis in Ukraine: how to proceed?

A certain level of engagement with the EAEU seems unavoidable, but the parallel development of good and differentiated bilateral relations with individual EAEU member countries remains important. Together with the full implementation of the Association Agreements with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, this is a key priority for the EU in the years to come. 

Article 7 TEU is a nuclear bomb – with all its consequences?

2015. May 05. 10:22

 

    

Changes in Hungarian public law and the adoption of the Tavares Report have stirred up the debate surrounding Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). The present piece of writing analyses whether the “nuclear bomb” metaphor can be applied to Article 7, by resorting to legal economics, criminal law theory and game theory; and represents these findings by focusing on a possible typology of international organisations and on the Hungarian Fundamental Law and its fifth amendment.

Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union – is it really a nuclear weapon?

2015. April 13. 14:48

 

 

​The Treaty of Amsterdam (1998) made it possible for the European Union to impose legal (and not only political) sanctions on a Member State in case of violating the fundamental values of the Union. This practice, which initially connected legal consequences only to the serious and persistent violation of EU values, has been modified by the Treaty of Lisbon (2007) through adding the notion of ‘risking’ these values. Even though this Article has been part of the EU public law for two decades now, it only came to the centre of the Hungarian public attention in the last couple of years, mainly due to the continuous debates about the political turn of 2010 and about the new Hungarian constitution.

UK House of Lords report - The EU and Russia: before and beyond the crisis in Ukraine

2015. March 15. 12:52

 

 

 On 20 February the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, more precisely its EU Sub-Committee on External Affairs, issued a report which can be seen as a thorough evaluation of the Ukraine crisis and the recent developments of EU-Russia relations. The report entitled ‘The EU and Russia: before and beyond the crisis in Ukraine’ does not handle either the EU or Russia with kid gloves, but its criticisms are constructive and contain viable suggestions for the future.

Where will it end? Economic protectionism and exclusionarism in the regulation of the 2015 Hungarian state budget

2015. February 20. 13:53

 

 

 Key pieces of legislation adopted in the run up towards the close of the autumn session of the Hungarian Parliament – which has traditionally been the period for the adoption of the state budget for the forthcoming year – reinforce the impression that the reigning Hungarian government is actively pursuing a policy of restructuring certain segments of the national economy based on ideas of economic protectionism and exclusionarism. 

Keeping separate what belongs together? Opinion 2/13 of the EU Court of Justice on the accession of the European Union to the European Convention of Human Rights

2015. February 20. 12:19

 

 

After 1996 (2/94), the Court of Justice was again given the opportunity to make a legal assessment of the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights. Although under Article 6(2) TEU the constitutional basis of the accession has fundamentally changed, the Court of Justice again decided against the legal permissibility of the accession. On the basis of the numerous substantive and legal hiatuses found by the Court of Justice, it was the legal preparation of the accession which suffered from serious deficits. 

Writing a PhD – A Journey

2015. February 12. 8:23

Are you about writing a PhD, or considering it? If yes, this blog post might be of interest to you. It deals with the process of writing a PhD thesis. The aim is to provide you with some general advice how to approach, start, continue and in the end – hopefully – finish your thesis (and possibly book).

Túlsúly mint fogyatékosság – A Bíróság C-354/13. sz. ügyben hozott ítélete

2015. February 11. 17:46

 

2014. december 18-án az Európai Unió Bírósága (EuB) egy dán bíróság által elé terjesztett kérdésekre válaszul kimondta, hogy habár sem az alapszerződésekben, sem az Európai Unió Alapjogi Chartájában nincsen védve a túlsúly, mint hátrányos megkülönböztetési alap, az EU fogyatékosságként értelmezve védi az adott személyt, ha az a túlsúlyából kifolyólag korlátozva van a teljes, hatékony és más munkavállalókkal a szakmai életben való egyenlő szerepvállalás tekintetében.

Latest posts

Tagcloud

alapjogok európai bíróság európai bizottság tagállami mozgástér ttip diszkrimináció európai központi bank fogyasztóvédelem tisztességtelen szerződési feltétel jogállamiság belső piac alkotmánybíróság európai parlament előzetes döntéshozatali eljárás gazdasági és monetáris unió demokrácia kúria állami támogatás jogegységi határozat versenyjog uniós értékek eu alapjogi charta szociális jog irányelvek átültetése euró kásler-ítélet eusz 7. cikke arányosság elve választás nemzeti érdek oroszország közös kereskedelempolitika european convention of human rights brexit fizetésképtelenségi rendelet nemzeti bíróságok ultra vires aktus német alkotmánybíróság kötelezettségszegési eljárás európai parlamenti választások európai bizottság elnöke adatvédelem wto bankunió magyarország energiapolitika devizakölcsön fogyatékosok jogai btk alkotmányjog fővárosi közgyűlés közös kül- és biztonságpolitika strasbourgi bíróság szankció ukrán válság migráció szolidaritás egységes piac russia ukraine crisis compliance fundamental rights eu sanctions bevándorlás európai integráció környezetvédelem fenntartható fejlődés menekültkérdés ceta polgári kezdeményezés trump nafta tpp ecthr prison conditions surrogacy human trafficking human rights közigazgatás panpsychism personhood syngamy environment civil törvény irányelvek legitimáció kikényszerítés szociális deficit letelepedés szabadsága kiskereskedelmi különadó központi bankok európai rendszere hatáskör-átruházás elsőbbség elve adatmegőrzési irányelv közerkölcs európai unió alapjogi ügynoksége magyar helsinki bizottság vesztegetés hálapénz vallásszabadság első alkotmánykiegészítés obamacare születésszabályozás hobby lobby büntetőjog jogos védelem áldozatvédelem külkapcsolatok hatáskörmegosztás tényleges életfogytiglan új btk. szabadságvesztés lojális együttműködés végrehajtás gazdasági szankciók állampolgárság nemzetközi magánjog családi jog öröklési jog uniós polgárság alapjogi charta személyek szabad mozgása európai jog európai emberi jogi egyezmény uniós jog sérthetetlensége uniós jog autonómiája infrastruktúrához való hozzáférés versenyképesség adózás gmo-szabályozás gmo-mentesség european neighbourhood policy ukraine uk report európai szomszédságpolitika brit jelentés excessive deficit exclusionarism protectionism national courts consumer protection single market retaliation hungary european court of justice autonomy of eu legal order inviolability of eu legal order european values article 7 teu rule of law democracy reklámadó verseny szabadsága halálbüntetés schuman-nyilatkozat alapító atyák juncker bizottság energiahatékonysági irányelv energiaunió eurasian economic union dcfta european central bank german constitutional court omt görögország pénzügyi válság államcsőd likviditás menekült fal dublin iii 1951-es genfi egyezmény strasbourgi esetjog európai bíróság elnöke lenaerts hatékony jogvédelem franciaország németország értékközösség érdekközösség ügynökprobléma közbeszerzés környezetvédelmi politika áruk szabad áramlása egészségvédelem ártatlanság vélelme törökország történelmi konfliktusok uniós válságkezelés európai tanács válság szíria lengyel alkotmánybíróság jogállamiság normakontroll eljárási alkotmányosság beruházásvédelem szabályozáshoz való jog jog és irodalom erdély konferencia law in literature law as literature lengyel alkotmánybíróság lengyelország jogállamiság-védelmi mechanizmus eu klímapolitika kvótakereskedelem kiotói jegyzőkönyv adójog európai politikai pártok; pártfinanszírozás európai politikai közösség politikai pártok kohéziós politika régió székelyföld mulhaupt ingatlanadó-követelés nyilvános meghallgatás kommunikáció datafication internet platformtársadalom adókövetelés fizetésképtelenségi eljárás sokszínű európa kisebbségek sokféleség fizetésképtelenség; jogharmonizáció; csődjog; többségi demokrácia; olaszország népszavazás common commercial policy egyenlő bánásmód emberi méltóság ebh szülő nők helyzete peschka jogelmélet parlament véleménynyilvánítás szabadsága média országgyűlés sajtószabadság muršić european court of human rights dajkaterhesség egyesült királyság közigazgatási perrendtartás általános közigazgatási rendtartás egyesülési jog velencei bizottság civil felsőoktatás lex ceu közjogtudomány zaklatás szegregáció

Archive