Rule of Law – Comparing Developments of Hungarian and European Union Law

Abstract

The study aims to outline the similarities and differences of the Hungarian and European constitutional developments in the field of the rule of law principle. The first part evaluates the influence of the rule of law on the unwritten constitution of the Hungarian Kingdom before the Second World War on the basis of István Egyed’s work. The rule of law doctrine was revived and reinterpreted by the Hungarian Constitutional Court after the 1989 constitutional transition, thus the second part is devoted to these developments. The third part shifts the focus on the European level, and summarises the essence of the rule of law principle in the case law of the CJEU and refers to the recent strives of the European Commission for the effective implementation of the rule of law requirements in the member states.