Hungarian civil procedure law’s response to the Covid challenge

Abstract

Civil procedural law had to react quickly to the Covid-19 pandemic to ensure that litigants had access to the court system despite the closure of court buildings. In Hungary, e-trials were made possible by special government decisions, which were interpreted by the Supreme Court (Kúria) to help lower courts to develop uniform case law. As a result of the Digital Courts Programme launched in 2018, the computerisation of courts and judges was in a good state at the time of the outbreak, which helped greatly to address the situation. The paper examines changes in Hungarian civil procedure law during the first three waves of the pandemic in a chronological manner. In its conclusions, it takes stock of the changes that can enhance access to the justice system and legal entities, even after the epidemic.