Hungarian administrative courts under pressure: can EU law save judicial review in Hungary?

By the late 2010s, courts of law, in particular administrative courts acting in judicial review competences, came to represent the last remaining component of what had been left of the system of check and balances established in transitioning Hungary in the 1990s. It was therefore unsurprising - also taking into account similar developments in other EU Member States in CEE - that the reigning government's attention turned to the administrative justice system and its role played in constraining the otherwise fairly unconstrained executive. Pursuing different strategies over the years, administrative courts in Hungary have become exposed more and more to the influence of politics. However, EU law, as has been recognised in previous academic writing, seems to offer a possible solution for saving independent judicial review in Hungary. Hungarian administrative courts, especially at supreme court level, have been proactive users of EU substantive law as well as the preliminary ruling process, which may suggest that willing administrative judges and judicial chambers may find an excuse for continuing to exercise their powers in their obligations as national courts under EU law. In this paper, we examine the evidence relating to the use of EU law by Hungarian administrative courts in exercising their competences in judicial review, in particular the use of EU law provisions governing access to courts and judicial protection, and aim to establish on that basis whether EU law has played and may likely to play in the future a decisive role in judicial review in Hungary.