The Innocuous Impact of Pan-European General Principles of Good Administration on Hungarian Law and Legal Practice

Author(s):  
Petra Lea Láncos

This chapter discusses the influence of the pan-European principles of good administration in the Hungarian legal system. It discloses that while the impact and role of these pan-European principles, in particular that of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, are growing in Hungarian legislation and jurisprudence, clear traces of them are still difficult to discern. It also finds that, despite some influence stemming from the Council of Europe (CoE) in the codification concepts underlying recent procedural reforms, the full potential to that effect is far from being realized. In particular, reliance on soft law instruments of the CoE remains problematic, in part due to legal formalism inherited from the country’s socialist past.

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-404
Author(s):  
Silvia Borelli

The undeniable impact of the European Convention on Human Rights on the legal systems – and the wider society – of Member States of the Council of Europe would not have been possible without its unique monitoring system, centred around the European Court of Human Rights and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The present article assesses the extent to which the European Court's judgments that have found violations of the procedural obligations under Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention to investigate unlawful killings, disappearances, acts of torture or other ill-treatment have, in fact, led to an improvement in the capability of the domestic legal systems of states parties to ensure accountability for such abuses. On the basis of four case studies, it is concluded that the European Court's judgments, coupled with the supervisory powers of the Committee of Ministers, have the potential to make a very great impact on the capability of domestic legal systems to deal with gross violations of fundamental human rights, and have led to clear and positive changes within the domestic legal systems of respondent states. Nevertheless, this is by no means always the case, and it is suggested that, in order for the Convention system to achieve its full potential in the most politically charged cases, the European Court should adopt a more proactive approach to its remedial powers by ordering specific remedial measures, to include in particular the opening or reopening of investigations.


Author(s):  
Nadja Braun Binder ◽  
Ardita Driza Maurer

This chapter is dedicated to exploring the impact on Swiss administrative law of the pan-European general principles of good administration developed within the framework of the Council of Europe (CoE). The chapter claims that the standards stemming from the European Convention on Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights have been adopted in an exemplary way by Swiss authorities. The influence was especially strong in the 1980s and 1990s. The same cannot be said regarding other documents of the CoE, whose impact remains disparate because many aspects of the pan-European general principles of good administration were already part of the national written law. The chapter concludes that despite the exemplary integration of CoE instruments heated debates on the content of these instruments are not excluded from Switzerland.


Author(s):  
Marco Macchia ◽  
Claudia Figliolia

This chapter discusses the impact of the pan-European principles of good administration on Italian administrative law. The chapter presents the main finding that the Italian legal system is generally in line with these principles. The case law of the European Court of Human Rights has played a particularly strong role in national administrative law (especially in the context of administrative sanctioning and lengthy court proceedings). At the same time, some limitations to full reception of the said principles remain, the most notable of them being the resistance of constitutional jurisprudence to give ‘generalized’ execution to the pan-European principles and the low degree of recognition of the importance of the Council of Europe’s recommendations and conventions (other than the ECHR) for the development of these principles in national administrative law. The chapter concludes by stressing the (sometimes) contradictory nature of Italy’s acknowledgement of the pan-European scope of these principles.


Author(s):  
Lara Redondo Saceda

El presente trabajo pretende analizar el sistema de restricciones al ejercicio de los derechos previsto en los artículos 8 a 11 del Convenio Europeo de Derechos Humanos. Así, el objetivo principal es reflexionar sobre la incidencia de estas cláusulas de restricción, su desarrollo jurisprudencial por parte del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos y su significado en la construcción del sistema de derechos humanos del Consejo de Europa.This paper is intended to analyse the system of restrictions on the exercise of rights provided by articles 8 to 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Thus, the principal aim is reflecting on the impact of these restriction clauses, their case-law development by the European Court of Human Rights and their meaning on the construction of the Council of Europe Human Rights System.


Author(s):  
Rui Tavares Lanceiro

This chapter explores the impact on Portuguese administrative law of the pan-European principles of good administration developed within the framework of the Council of Europe (CoE). It highlights that ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights has helped to deepen democracy and safeguard the protection of fundamental rights, not only in the direct aftermath of the democratic revolution of 25 April 1974 which brought down the dictatorship of the “Estado Novo” regime but up to today. The chapter further argues that numerous cases at the European Court of Human Rights have resulted in reforms to the Portuguese legal system, especially concerning fair trial requirements. At the same time the influence of other CoE conventions and recommendations remains somewhat limited. The chapter concludes that the overall impact of the pan-European principles of good administration has not been properly studied and, thus, complete evaluation thereof is not possible.


Author(s):  
Ulrich Stelkens ◽  
Agnė Andrijauskaitė

This chapter examines the sources of the pan-European principles of good administration developed by the Council of Europe (CoE). It maps the degree of concretization these principles have reached, and how far they have spread concerning the classical and modern topics of administrative law. It scrutinizes the Statute of the CoE, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the (relevant) case law of the European Court of Human Rights, other CoE conventions (such as the CoE Convention on Data Protection, the Convention on Access to Official Documents, and the European Charter of Local Self Government), and the recommendations and other soft law on good administration of the Committee of Ministers and other institutions of the CoE. The chapter concludes that the principles deriving from these sources should not be considered as a loose bundle of various rules in administrative matters but instead form a ‘coherent whole’.


Author(s):  
Guliam Umid

An analysis of the international legal bases of implementation of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights to the national legislations of the member states of the Council of Europe is carried out. Such implementation takes various forms, and in general there is no single implementation mechanism. At the same time, the importance of implementing decisions of the European Court of Human Rights lies in the state's fulfillment of its obligations both to the world community of states and to its own citizens. Forms and methods that ensure the progressive development of national law, taking into account the practice of international courts, are considered. The synthetic research method determines the impact of ECtHR decisions on the structure of national law, which stimulates the transformation of its entire branches. It is demonstrated, how the ECtHR promotes the formation of progressive legal institutions in legal systems, exerting organizational and civilizational influence on the legal systems of states. It is emphasized, that the principle of legal certainty, by which the international court assesses vague and insufficiently clear provisions of national law, is fundamental for the implementation of the case law of the ECtHR into national laws. With this influence, the ECtHR determines the nature of lawmaking and law enforcement in a country. As a result, it is concluded, that the most effective mechanism for implementing the principle of legal certainty in a state is the adoption of general measures, contained in the pilot decisions of the ECtHR. The second important mechanism is the application of the rules of law by national courts, taking into account the case law of the ECtHR, which ensures the interpretation of human rights rules in a way that is most acceptable to the national legal system


Author(s):  
Barbara Grabowska-Moroz ◽  
Marek Wierzbowski

This chapter explores the influence on Polish administrative law of pan-European principles of good administration stemming from the Council of Europe (CoE). It reveals that membership of the CoE can be perceived as an element of the democratization process that has had a direct influence on Poland, especially through the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. It furthermore establishes that Polish administrative law generally follows the CoE standards even if at the same time they are overshadowed by the standards flowing from the EU. In addition, the unwillingness of the Polish courts to refer to non-binding CoE standards of conduct which are not strongly founded in statutory law is another obstacle precluding full reception of the said principles.


2014 ◽  
pp. 13-31
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Grzelak-Bach

Following a brief introduction of article 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the author begins by analyzing case law from the European Court of Human Rights regarding the legal reasoning in judicial proceedings. The main premise of this paper is to present a formula for preparing legal reasoning in administrative court proceedings. The author draws attention to the role of judges who, in the process of adjudication, should apply creative interpretation of the rules of law, when they see errors or omissions in legislative provisions, or blatant violations of the European legal order. The conclusion of those deliberations finds, that the process of tailoring the approach to meet Strasbourg’s requirements should, on a basic level, be at the discretion of judges rather than the legislators.


ICL Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-69
Author(s):  
Eszter Polgári

AbstractThe present article maps the explicit references to the rule of law in the jurisprudence of the ECtHR by examining the judgments of the Grand Chamber and the Plenary Court. On the basis of the structured analysis it seeks to identify the constitutive elements of the Court’s rule of law concept and contrast it with the author’s working definition and the position of other Council of Europe organs. The review of the case-law indicates that the Court primarily associates the rule of law with access to court, judicial safeguards, legality and democracy, and it follows a moderately thick definition of the concept including formal, procedural and some substantive elements. The rule of law references are predominantly ancillary arguments giving weight to other Convention-based considerations and it is not applied as a self-standing standard.


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