Certain Significant Decisions of the Constitutional Court between 1 July and 31 December 2019

Abstract

The Constitutional Court (hereinafter: CC) made 253 decisions in the second semester of 2019. From these, 65 decisions were on the merits. In the competences of norm control the CC has declared the unconstitutionality of four legal regulations, it declared three constitutional requirements and four legislative omissions. The mostly practiced competence of the CC is still the constitutional complaint procedure, mainly the one against judicial decisions.
In its competence, the Court annulled sixteen judicial decisions in the second semester of 2019.
The Article summarises six significant decisions of the CC from the second semester of the year. The CC has established certain principles that are important from the viewpoint of the freedom of press and the protection of images [CC decision 23/2019. (VII. 18.) AB]. Also CC decision 26/2019. (VII. 23.) protects the freedom of press, and extends the measure used for the public persons also to the people who do not bear public power but still have some influence on political life. In CC decision 20/2019. (VI. 26.) the CC declared a legislative omission and called upon the lawmaker to ensure a criminal law procedural guarantee under the rule of law. CC decision 29/2019. (XI. 4.) has made an important decision protecting free speech and the criticism of public figures. CC decision 3294/2019. (XI. 18.) annulled a decision of the Curia (Supreme Court) which applied a legal regulation in a discriminatory manner in case of an officer whose disciplinary procedure was ceased. CC decision 34/2019. (XI. 29.) declared the unconstitutionality of a provision of the Act on Revenues as it violated the prohibition of discrimination.