At the Plenary Session of Curia justices held on the 3rd of June 2013 in Budapest, Mr. Péter DARÁK, President of the Curia of Hungary, and Mr. András JAKAB, Director of the Institute for Legal Studies of the Social Science Research Centre at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, signed a co-operation agreement for the purposes of professional co-operation and exchange of experience.
Mr. Péter DARÁK greeted three Curia judges present at the meeting, who had returned from their retirement in 2012.
Mr. Lipót HÖLTZL, Director of the International Relations and European Legal Office of the Curia gave a presentation on the previous year’s activities of the European Court of Human Rights, and emphasised that the year 2012 had brought significant changes and developments to the Strasbourg-based Court: its new President had been elected and, for the first time in fifteen years, it had been able to remarkably reduce its caseload, from 150 000 to 128 000 pending cases. According to the latest forecast, the Court will be able to eliminate the backlog of cases in five years. Mr. HÖLTZL added that, as an interesting development regarding Hungary, the most important decisions of the Court rendered from 2007 on would be translated into Hungarian. In 2012 twenty-seven judgements were passed in respect of Hungary, and, for the time being, approximately 1 800 Hungarian cases are pending before the Court. Mr. HÖLTZL also noted that the Court declares inadmissible or strikes out ninety percent of the applications submitted to it.
Mr. Ambrus MOLNÁR, head of a civil law panel, reported on the adjudicating activities of his panel in connection with attorneys’ malpractice cases. In 2012 his panel delivered among others two court decisions, examining attorneys’ failures to meet procedural time limits, which found that the deprivation of the right of access to a tribunal and of the right to seek judicial remedy resulted in the violation of privacy rights, and, irrespective of whether there could be a successful outcome for the parties to proceedings, the injured parties should be awarded damages for non-pecuniary losses. State liability for damage caused by a court or an administrative body cannot be established, in general, solely on the grounds that the judicial or administrative organ misinterpreted or misapplied the rules of law or evaluated the facts and evidence incorrectly. Liability is limited to cases of manifestly and flagrantly serious misconduct on the part of the civil servants or court employees.
Ms. Kincső TÓTH, head of an administrative law panel at the Administrative and Labour Department, also reported on the adjudicating activities of her panel. In 2012 her panel held forty-nine trial days and examined petitions for judicial review in approximately fifty different types of administrative cases, including matters related to competition, communications, consumer protection, construction, expropriation, alien policing, police administration, transportation, environmental protection, waste management, mining and hunting activities, child protection and social services, land registration, broadcasting, professional chambers and equal treatment of individuals. During the last year her panel managed to significantly decrease the number of pending and protracted cases. In May 2012 the panel had 236 pending cases, including 185 cases with a disposition time of more than sixty days, while it currently has to deal with 176 pending cases, including 115 cases with a disposition time of more than sixty days. Ms. TÓTH also stated that the average disposition time had been reduced from one year to six months.
Mr. Sándor KATONA, head of a criminal law panel at the Criminal Department, reported among others on the circumstances of accident prevention regarding traffic crimes. In addition, he analysed the act of riding an electric bicycle on public road under the influence of alcohol, and pointed out that the issue arising in a case was to decide whether the act should be regarded a traffic infringement or a criminal offence. The proceeding panel decided that it was the latter.
Budapest, the third of June 2013
Press Office of the Curia of Hungary