During the public health emergency and the initial stages of the post-COVID period, states rendered several far-reaching restrictions of fundamental rights justified by the overarching interest for the protection of human life and public health. Various stakeholders looked for efficient remedies against the allegedly unconstitutional violation of their fundamental rights, amongst the available legal instruments, constitutional complaints played a crucial role. However, interested stakeholders faced also with additional difficulties to access the judiciary during the public health emergency due to the postponement of trials and the holding of remote hearings. Our contribution defines the admissibility of constitutional complaints as a special factor of access to justice and will explore, whether the admissibility criterion could be interpreted during emergencies in such a way which might outweigh certain barriers of access to justice.
According to our hypothesis, constitutional courts should show some flexibility under special legal order to be able to assess the merits of as much constitutional complaints as possible. An important reason behind this argumentation derives from the marginalized situation of vulnerable social groups during the public health emergency, which was also acknowledged amongst others by the Constitutional Courts of Germany and Slovenia. During emergency periods, vulnerable social groups face with cumulative disadvantages as regard exercising their fundamental rights and seeking redress against the unconstitutional measures of the authorities. The harm caused for these layers might be litigated through constitutional complaints, however, strict reading of the admissibility criterion justifies the dismissal of most submissions.
Felkért hozzászóló: Chronowski Nóra, DsC, tudományos főmunkatárs, TK JTI
A kéziratvita magyar nyelven zajlik.
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