At the invitation of Prof. Dr. András Zs. Varga, President of the Curia, Prof. Dr. Georg Kodek, President of the Supreme Court of Austria, and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rassi, Vice-President of the Supreme Court, paid a three-day official visit to Hungary between 28 and 30 October 2024, which added fresh impetus to the intensive Hungarian-Austrian supreme judicial relations dating back several decades.
At the professional meeting in the Mailáth Hall of the Curia, the senior judicial leaders discussed the structure, competences and functioning of their institutions. The meeting provided an opportunity to compare the legal systems and case law of the two countries, and to exchange mutual experiences. The Hungarian side gave a detailed presentation on the limited precedent system, the Curia’s activities to ensure the uniform application of law, as well as its case allocation order, while the Austrian partners presented the division of competences between their own supreme judicial fora and the Supreme Court’s prominent role in the court system, and gave an overview of the Austrian model of court administration without a national judicial council and of issues related to the anonymization and searching of court decisions. During the meeting, they also touched upon the operations of the chief adviser system within the framework of Judge Royal Werbőczy István Research Institute.
During its stay in Hungary, the delegation led by the President of the Austrian Supreme Court also held talks at the Constitutional Court, the Office of the Prosecutor General, and the Regional Appellate Court of Budapest.
The leaders of the Hungarian-Austrian supreme judicial fora regarded the meeting as an important step in their cooperation and intend to continue exchanging views in 2025, this time in Vienna.
Budapest, 31 October 2024
The Communications Department of the Curia of Hungary
