Hungary 2011 Constitution (reviewed 2016)

FOUNDATION

Article A

The name of OUR COUNTRY shall be Hungary.

Article B

1. Hungary shall be an independent, democratic rule-of-law State.
2. The form of government of Hungary shall be a republic.
3. The source of public power shall be the people.
4. The power shall be exercised by the people through elected representatives or, in exceptional cases, directly.

Article C

1. The functioning of the Hungarian State shall be based on the principle of division of powers.
2. No one shall act with the aim of acquiring or exercising power by force, or of exclusively possessing it. Everyone shall have the right and obligation to resist such attempts in a lawful way.
3. The State shall have the right to use coercion in order to enforce the Fundamental Law and legal regulations.

Article D

Bearing in mind that there is one single Hungarian nation that belongs together, Hungary shall bear responsibility for the fate of Hungarians living beyond its borders, and shall facilitate the survival and development of their communities; it shall support their efforts to preserve their Hungarian identity, the assertion of their individual and collective rights, the establishment of their community self-governments, and their prosperity in their native lands, and shall promote their cooperation with each other and with Hungary.

Article E

1. In order to enhance the liberty, prosperity and security of European nations, -Hungary shall contribute to the creation of European unity.
2. With a view to participating in the European Union as a Member State and on the basis of an international treaty, Hungary may, to the extent necessary to exercise the rights and fulfil the obligations deriving from the Founding Treaties, exercise some of its competences set out in the Fundamental Law jointly with other Member States, through the institutions of the European Union.
3. The law of the European Union may stipulate a generally binding rule of conduct subject to the conditions set out in Paragraph (2).
4. For the authorisation to recognise the binding force of an international treaty referred to in Paragraph (2), the votes of two-thirds of the Members of the National Assembly shall be required.

Article F

1. The capital of Hungary shall be Budapest.
2. The territory of Hungary shall consist of the capital, counties, cities and towns, as well as villages. The capital, as well as the cities and towns may be divided into districts.

Article G

1. The child of a Hungarian citizen shall be a Hungarian citizen by birth. A cardinal Act may specify other cases of the origin or acquisition of Hungarian citizenship.
2. Hungary shall protect its citizens.
3. No one shall be deprived of Hungarian citizenship established by birth or acquired in a lawful manner.
4. The detailed rules for citizenship shall be laid down in a cardinal Act.

Article H

1. In Hungary the official language shall be Hungarian.
2. Hungary shall protect the Hungarian language.
3. Hungary shall protect Hungarian Sign Language as a part of Hungarian culture.

Article I

1. The coat of arms of Hungary shall be a vertically divided shield with a pointed base. The left field shall contain eight horizontal bars of red and silver. The right field shall have a red background and shall depict a base of three green hills with a golden crown atop the central hill and a silver patriarchal cross issuing from the middle of the crown. The Holy Crown shall rest on top of the shield.[image]
2. The flag of Hungary shall feature three horizontal bands of equal width coloured red, white and green from top to bottom as the symbols of strength, fidelity and hope respectively.[image]
3. The anthem of Hungary shall be the poem Himnusz by Kölcsey set to music by ERKEL Ferenc.
4. The coat of arms and the flag may also be used in other historical forms. The detailed rules for the use of the coat of arms and the flag, and state decorations shall be defined by a cardinal Act.

Article J

1. The national holidays of Hungary shall be:
   1. the 15th day of March, in memory of the 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence,
   2. the 20th day of August, in memory of the foundation of the State and King Saint Stephen the State Founder, and
   3. the 23rd day of October, in memory of the 1956 Revolution and War of Independence.
2. The official state holiday shall be the 20th day of August.

Article K

The official currency of Hungary shall be the forint.

Article L

1. Hungary shall protect the institution of marriage as the union of a man and a woman established by voluntary decision, and the family as the basis of the survival of the nation. Family ties shall be based on marriage and/or the relationship between parents and children.
2. Hungary shall encourage the commitment to have children.
3. The protection of families shall be regulated by a cardinal Act.

Article M

1. The economy of Hungary shall be based on work which creates value and freedom of enterprise.
2. Hungary shall ensure the conditions for fair economic competition, act against any abuse of a dominant position, and shall defend the rights of consumers.

Article N

1. Hungary shall observe the principle of balanced, transparent and sustainable budget management.
2. The National Assembly and the Government shall have primary responsibility for the observance of the principle referred to in Paragraph (1).
3. In performing their duties, the Constitutional Court, courts, local governments and other state organs shall be obliged to respect the principle referred to in Paragraph (1).

Article O

Everyone shall be responsible for him- or herself, and shall be obliged to contribute to the performance of state and community tasks according to his or her abilities and possibilities.

Article P

1. Natural resources, in particular arable land, forests and the reserves of water, biodiversity, in particular native plant and animal species, as well as cultural assets shall form the common heritage of the nation; it shall be the obligation of the State and everyone to protect and maintain them, and to preserve them for future generations.
2. The limits and conditions for acquisition of ownership and for use of arable land and forests necessary for achieving the objectives referred to in Paragraph (1), as well as the rules concerning the organisation of integrated agricultural production and concerning family farms and other agricultural holdings shall be laid down in a cardinal Act.

Article Q

1. In order to create and maintain peace and security, and to achieve the sustainable development of humanity, Hungary shall strive for cooperation with all the peoples and countries of the world.
2. In order to comply with its obligations under international law, Hungary shall ensure that Hungarian law be in conformity with international law.
3. Hungary shall accept the generally recognised rules of international law. Other sources of international law shall become part of the Hungarian legal system by promulgation in legal regulations.

Article R

1. The Fundamental Law shall be the foundation of the legal system of Hungary.
2. The Fundamental Law and legal regulations shall be binding on everyone.
3. The provisions of the Fundamental Law shall be interpreted in accordance with their purposes, the National Avowal contained therein and the achievements of our historical constitution.

Article S

1. A proposal for the adoption of a new Fundamental Law or any amendment of the present Fundamental Law may be submitted by the President of the Republic, the Government, any parliamentary committee or any Member of the National Assembly.
2. For the adoption of a new Fundamental Law or the amendment of the Fundamental Law, the votes of two-thirds of the Members of the National Assembly shall be required.
3. The Speaker of the National Assembly shall sign the adopted Fundamental Law or the adopted amendment of the Fundamental Law within five days and shall send it to the President of the Republic. The President of the Republic shall sign the Fundamental Law or the amendment of the Fundamental Law sent to him within five days of receipt and shall order its promulgation in the official gazette. If the President of the Republic finds that any procedural requirement laid down in the Fundamental Law with respect to adoption of the Fundamental Law or the amendment of the Fundamental Law has not been met, he or she shall request the Constitutional Court to examine the issue. Should the examination by the Constitutional Court not verify the violation of such requirements, the President of the Republic shall immediately sign the Fundamental Law or the amendment of the Fundamental Law, and shall order its promulgation in the official gazette.
4. The designation of the amendment of the Fundamental Law made during publication shall include the title, the serial number of the amendment and the date of publication.

Article T

1. Generally binding rules of conduct may be laid down in the Fundamental Law or in legal regulations adopted by an organ having legislative competence and specified in the Fundamental Law that are promulgated in the official gazette. A cardinal Act may lay down different rules for the promulgation of local government decrees, and of legal regulations adopted during a special legal order.
2. Legal regulations shall be the Acts, the government decrees, the prime ministerial decrees, the ministerial decrees, the decrees of the Governor of the National Bank of Hungary, the decrees of the heads of autonomous regulatory organs and local government decrees. In addition, decrees of the National Defence Council adopted during a state of national crisis and decrees of the President of the Republic adopted during a state of emergency shall also be legal regulations.
3. No legal regulation shall conflict with the Fundamental Law.
4. Cardinal Acts shall be Acts, for the adoption and amendment of which requires the votes of two-thirds of the Members of the National Assembly present shall be required.

Article U

1. The form of government based on the rule of law, established in accordance with the will of the nation through the first free elections held in 1990, and the previous communist dictatorship are incompatible. The Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party and its legal predecessors and the other political organisations established to serve them in the spirit of communist ideology were criminal organisations, and their leaders have responsibility without statute of limitations for:
   1. maintaining and directing an oppressive regime, violating the law and betraying the nation;
   2. thwarting with Soviet military assistance the democratic attempt built on a multi-party system in the years after World War II;
   3. establishing a legal order built on the exclusive exercise of power and unlawfulness;
   4. putting an end to the economy based on the freedom of property and indebting the country;
   5. submitting Hungary’s economy, national defence, diplomacy and human resources to foreign interests;
   6. systematically devastating the traditional values of European civilisation;
   7. depriving citizens and certain groups of citizens of their fundamental human rights or seriously restricting such rights, in particular for murdering people, delivering them to foreign power, unlawfully imprisoning them, deporting them to forced labour camps, torturing them and subjecting them to inhuman treatment; arbitrarily depriving citizens of their assets, restricting their rights to property; totally depriving citizens of their liberties, submitting the expression of political opinion and will to coercion by the State; discriminating against people on the grounds of origin, world view or political belief, impeding their advancement and success based on knowledge, diligence and talent; setting up and operating a secret police to unlawfully observe and influence the private lives of people;
   8. suppressing with bloodshed, in cooperation with Soviet occupying forces, the Revolution and War of Independence, which broke out on 23 October 1956, the ensuing reign of terror and retaliation, and the forced flight of two hundred thousand Hungarian people from their native country;
   9. all ordinary criminal offences committed for political motives and left unprosecuted by the justice system for political motives.

   Political organisations having gained legal recognition during the democratic transition as legal successors of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party continue to share the responsibility of their predecessors as beneficiaries of their unlawfully accumulated assets.

2. With regard to Paragraph (1), the operation of the communist dictatorship shall be realistically revealed and society’s sense of justice shall be ensured in accordance with Paragraphs (3) to (10).
3. In order for the State to preserve the memory of the communist dictatorship, a Committee of National Memory shall operate. The Committee of National Memory shall reveal the operation of the communist dictatorship in terms of power and the role of individuals and organisations that held communist power, and shall publish the results of its activity in a comprehensive report and other documents.
4. The holders of power under the communist dictatorship shall be obliged to tolerate statements of facts about their roles and acts related to the operation of the dictatorship, with the exception of deliberate statements that are untrue in essence; their personal data related to such roles and acts may be disclosed to the public.
5. The pensions or any other benefits provided by the State under legal regulations to leaders of the communist dictatorship specified in an Act may be reduced to the extent specified in an Act; the arising revenues shall be used to mitigate the injuries caused by the communist dictatorship and to keep alive the memory of victims as provided for by an Act.
6. Serious criminal offences laid down in an Act which were committed against Hungary or persons under the communist dictatorship in the name or in the interest of, or in agreement with the party-state and which were left unprosecuted for political reasons by ignoring the Act on criminal law in force at the time of commission, shall not be considered as time-barred.
7. The criminal offences referred to in Paragraph (6) shall become time-barred on the expiry of the period determined in the Act on criminal law in force at the time of commission, to be calculated as of the day of the entry into force of the Fundamental Law, provided that they would have become time-barred by 1 May 1990 under the Act on criminal law in force at the time of commission.
8. The criminal offences referred to in Paragraph (6) shall become time-barred on the expiry of the period between the date of commission and 1 May 1990, to be calculated as of the day of the entry into force of the Fundamental Law, provided that they would have become time-barred between 2 May 1990 and 31 December 2011 under the Act on criminal law in force at the time of commission and that the perpetrator was not prosecuted for the criminal offence.
9. No legal regulation may establish new legal grounds for compensation providing financial or any other pecuniary payment to individuals who were unlawfully deprived of their lives or freedom for political reasons and who suffered undue property damage by the State, before 2 May 1990.
10. The documents of the communist state party, of the civil society organisations and youth organisations established with the contribution of or influenced directly by the communist state party, and of trade unions, created during the communist dictatorship shall be property of the State and shall be deposited in public archives in the same way as the files of organs performing public duties.