Principal investigators:

Viktor Olivér Lőrincz and Fruzsina Gárdos-Orosz 

In response to the current pandemic, the Centre for Social Sciences Institute for Legal Studies has launched a new research project. Funded by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office and in affiliation with the ongoing The Responsiveness of the Hungarian Legal System 2010-2018 (FK129018) project, it is entitled Epidemiology and Law.

Project description

 

Results

 

Blog Entries

 

Lőrincz Viktor Olivér: A koronavírus kihívásai és a jogtudomány: bevezetés

Hungler Sára: A koronavírus kihívásai és a jogtudomány: az álláshelyek megőrzése válság idején

Mátyás Bencze, Krisztina Ficsor : Challenges of the coronavirus and legal scholarship: questions of judicial application of the offence of “scaremongering” (A koronavírus kihívásai és a jogtudomány: a rémhírterjesztés tényállásának jogalkalmazási kérdései)

The blogpost analyses the recently amended text of the offence „scaremongering” (propagating fake news that is suitable to cause public turbulence) with regard to the possible problems of judicial application of it. The aim of the amendment adopted by the Hungarian Parliament was to provide effective protection against presentation of false statements which can cause panic amongst the members of the community in duration of the pandemic.

The authors discover some possible problems raised by the interpretation of the amended text and conclude that some expressions used by the legislator are too vague which can bring unpredictability in the application of the amended law. These problems of interpretation can lead to the violation “nullum crimen sine lege” principle and can have a negative impact on the exercise of freedom of speech (chilling effect, self-censorship).

Lőrincz Viktor Olivér: A koronavírus kihívásai és a jogtudomány: a rövidített munkaidő francia modellje

Petra Bárd, Erik Uszkiewicz​ : Hate Crimes in Hungary During the Coronavirus Outbreak

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic does not only take human lives, but it overburdens the healthcare system, jeopardizes the economy, and leads to the virulence of rumours and fake news. At the same time, we are also witnessing the spread of hatred. Bias motivated incidents and crimes against people with South-East Asian descent are spreading in Europe, and hate crimes occur against Europeans and Americans in Africa. Elderly people who are said to be the most vulnerable from the virus and those who are sick are also stigmatized and harassed.

Lukasz Gruszczynski: The Covid-19 Pandemic and International Trade

The Covid-19 pandemic is not only a public health crisis but also a serious challenge for international and domestic politics and for the global economy. The official data shows that the pandemic, as of April 17th, 2020, has already claimed more than 145.000 lives among 2,2 million confirmed cases (for up-to-date information see here). While so far most of the governments have seen an increase in popular support (for example, the approval rating for Giuseppe Conte has gone up by 27%, while for Angela Merkel by 11%, for addition details see here), this trend may soon revert when the economic and social effects of the pandemic will become more apparent. Most of the experts expect to see a deep recession in 2020. For example, the International Monetary Fund, in its latest World Economy Outlook, forecasts that the global economy will shrink by 3%, making the current situation the worst recession since the Great Depression. The advanced economies will be the most affected, with an average contraction of 6.1%, including 5.9% in the United States and 7.5% in the Euro Zone.

Mónika Papp:  Cooperation agreements between undertakings in the field of health products: violating EU competition rules? (A koronavírus kihívásai és a jogtudomány: vállalkozások együttműködése az egészségügyi termékek piacán - EU versenyjogba ütközik?)

The post deals with the coordination of market behaviour between undertakings to tackle the shortage of health products and services created by the COVID-19 outbreak. The provision of masks, ventilators, medicines and tackling supple shortages is in the interest of the entire society. On the other hand, EU and national competition rules require undertakings to act independently in the market. The Statement adopted by the European Competition Network and the Temporary Framework of the European Commission clarified that in case of doubt some of the competition problems created by the firm’s coordination will not be subject to their enforcement priorities.

Ádám Boóc: Remarks on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the Hungarian contract law

It can be asserted as a fact that the coronavirus (COVID-19) as a pandemic, namely a disease originated from an epidemic occurring worldwide, generated an entirely new type of danger for mankind probably not known before. At the time of writing there is no suitable remedy for this danger, neither medical, nor by any other means.

Hollán Miklós: A koronavírus kihívásai és a jogtudomány: a járvány vége és a büntetőjog

Péter Marton, Tamás Hoffmann: The Responsibility to Protect Principle and State Negligence in Disease Prevention of International Concern

In the context of the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 epidemic, over the course of the last several months, individual states and the World Health Organization expressed varying opinions about what constitutes good practice and responsible conduct in handling a pandemic of this kind. As World Health Organization (WHO) Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated in his daily press briefing on March 16, 2020: “Countries must test. They can't fight this blindly. They need to find cases and isolate them. (...) They must be able to test all suspected cases.” That is exactly what many countries either fail to do or do not even strive to accomplish, even as they are already relaxing restrictive measures aimed at curbing the epidemic.

 

Working Papers

 

Ambrus István: A koronavírus-járvány és a büntetőjog

Hollán Miklós: Bolyongás a járvány (büntetőjogi) fogalma körül

Szente Zoltán: A 2020. március 11-én kihirdetett veszélyhelyzet alkotmányossági problémái

Tímea Drinóczi: Hungarian Abuse of Constitutional Emergency Regimes – Also in the Light of the COVID-19 Crisis
This paper belongs to a wider project I have been conducting with Professor Agnieszka Bień-Kacała on illiberal constitutionalism. Therefore, this paper has two distinct but interrelated and unevenly discussed focuses: how the emergency power can be abused even in a constitutionally well-equipped emergency regime (primary focus), and whether the actual abuse and misuse of these powers have effectuated any changes in Hungarian illiberal constitutionalism until 30 April 2020 (consequential result). The constitutions of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, including the Hungarian Fundamental Law, exemplify a judicial or constitutional model for emergencies and emergency powers. This paper claims that Hungary could exemplify how to be constitutionally well equipped to deal with emergencies and still able to abuse them. It concludes that the abuse and misuse of constitutional emergency regimes, in Hungary, have two layers: the actual abuse of emergency powers, be those extra-constitutional (the “crisis situation caused by mass migration” since 2015) or (partially) non-constitutional (COVID-19 crisis, 2020), and the abusive regulation of emergencies and powers (2015, 2016, 2020) by bypassing constitutional procedures and resorting to secrecy, including the non-transparency of decisions and vague drafting. The paper holds the view that – as long as we do not see what the Government does at the end of the COVID-19 crisis and how all the emergency measures and other illiberal actions taken in and before 2020 add up – Hungary continues with its illiberal constitutionalism.

Czebe András: Az európai szervezett bűnözés alakulása a COVID-19 járvány okozta krízishelyzet tükrében

Gábor Mészáros: Carl Schmitt in Hungary: Constitutional Crisis in the Shadow of Covid-19
There is an emergency model which can be called ‘autocratic’ emergency model in which the government’s main aim is to create an emergency regime without a real threat. In this model, which can be discernible in the Hungarian regime, the so-called threat is not present or even real instead the government tries to maintain some kind of fear in the society in order to make the extra-legal measures more acceptable. That was the case in Hungary before 2020, but as the new coronavirus flourished the Hungarian constitutionalism and the rule of law withered. In Hungary the fictitious emergencies were simply tools in the hand of the Government. The first step was the new category of ‘mass migration crisis’, which enabled the use of extra-legal measures in the ordinary legal order. The second step was the sixth Amendment of the Fundamental Law of Hungary which supplemented the Special Legal Orders chapter with the ‘Emergency Response to Terrorism’. Finally, by the year 2020 it became evident that, regardless of the strict state of emergency regulations, the Government uses the emergency measures as blank cheque in order to gain more and more political power. As the article asserts the declaration of the state of danger was unconstitutional because human epidemic is not involved in the listing of the constitution. The constitutional concerns have become even more complicated after the acceptance of the “Enabling Act” which gave unconstrained power for the Government. The spirit of Carl Schmitt’s theory of the sovereign is again emerged. As the coronavirus and its immediate effect necessitated extra-legal measures, the threshold between the rule of law and exceptionalism was fading swiftly and legal constitutionalism became a pleasant memory.

Fekete Balázs: „Az emberekből előbukkant az empátia…” Mikro-antropológiai kutatás a társadalmi távolságtartás szabályainak működéséről

 

Publications of the members

Lukasz Gruszczynski: The COVID-19 Pandemic and International Trade: Temporary Turbulence or Paradigm Shift?
This article argues that although some of the short-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for international trade may be serious, they do not appear to be unmanageable. From this perspective, one could expect that once the pandemic disappears (or is at least under control), international trade will go back to business as usual. However, in a different time frame, the potential impact of the pandemic can be more profound than initially anticipated, leading to structural changes in the process of economic globalisation. While the seeds of such a process were sown some time ago, the COVID-19 pandemic may exacerbate existing tendencies for states to turn inwards and compete more openly for economic and political dominance in the world. Whether this actually happens will greatly depend on the length and severity of the current pandemic. The bigger its impact, the greater are the chances that we will see the paradigm shift in international trade relations and governance.

Csaba Győry: Fighting Fake News or Fighting Inconvenient Truths?

 

Media

 

Sára Hungler in A tudás (és a) hatalom [knowledge and power] - Radio Tilos 

István Ambrus' working paper quoted by Index.

Sára Hungler's blog entry quoted in Pesti Hírlap

Viktor Olivér Lőrincz's introduction quoted by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal)

Sára Hungler's blog entry quoted by szakszervezetek.hu

The project in Belügyi Szemle

The project on birosag.hu's Szakirodalmi Ajánló

Mátyás Bencze's and Krisztina Ficsor's blog entry on 444.hu

Mátyás Bencze in Klubrádió