The parliamentary margin of movement for strengthening the role of historical dimensions in interpretation and law-making: The case of Hungary

Abstract

When the historical dimension of the Hungarian public law is assessed, usually the analysis of the constitutional court case law is highlighted; however the Parliament might have an equally important weight. Article R) of the Fundamental Law provides two crucial references to the historical constitution: the clause of paragraph (3) which mentions the achievements of the historical constitution, and paragraph (4) which imposes the duty on all bodies of the Hungarian state to protect the constitutional identity of Hungary laid down in 22/2016. (XII. 5.) ruling of the Hungarian Constitutional Court. These two provisions are also binding for the Parliament to take into account the historical development of the current legal system during all of its legislative activities. In our view, this duty is more extensive than the examination of certain historical laws; the whole historical development of a legal field should be considered as regard the content of laws; the circumstances of their enactment, their special meaning during each historical period. In our contribution, those already known examples are enumerated, when the Hungarian Parliament relied explicitly on the achievements of the historical constitution, and how broad is the parliamentary space of manoeuvre in this regard. Our focus is to identify such alternative legal instruments, which could strengthen the role of historical arguments in the parliamentary practice. Certain elements of the legislative process will be considered (committee meetings; impact assessment of laws, the potential second chamber), while certain components of the laws will be also assessed (preambles, reasonings of laws, parliamentary resolutions).