Kategória: English

“Constitutional lockdown” – quoted by Radio Free Europe

I was quoted by Radio Free Europe about the recent Hungarian legislation, making the already puzzled legal situation related to the COVID-crisis even worse. The article is about the new emergency legislation planned in Hungary, related to the coronavirus pandemic.

I uphold my earlier opinion about the introduction of the state of emergency being against the Hungarian consitution, and this new piece of legislation is unneccessary and potentially capable of causing a constitutional lockdown. Of course, it can be avoided if we keep on amending constitutional provisions on the fly as we go, but this has nothing to do with legal certainty…

Told You so…? ICC and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

As I recently indicated, the ICC seemingly paves the way of jurisdiction to weight in the Israeli-Palestinian confict – following its footsteps made in the situation related to the persecution of the Rohingya, related to Mianmar.

The Prosecutor yesterday announced her decision to initiate investigations as preliminary examinations are concluded, and according to her opinion, the ICC has jurisdiction on the case. Now the Pre-Trial Chamber has to make a decision on this, expectedly there are going to be arguments from Israel against this… We are looking forward to a potentially historical decision by the ICC at a later point.

The persecution of the Rohingya is now being addressed not only by the ICJ but also by the ICC

Legal developments concerning the crimes committed against the Rohingya – which could easily be classified as genocide – have accelerated. As I indicated a few days ago, an inter-state case has been filed against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice. Furthermore, yesterday, the International Criminal Court announced its decision to authorize the Prosecutor to conduct an investigation into the matter. Consequently, formal indictments may be issued; in addition to the aforementioned inter-state case, specific criminal proceedings could now take place before this other judicial body in The Hague.

A notable aspect of this case is that it marks the first time in the history of ICC that a state affected by the investigation is not a party to the Rome Statutue of 1998 (the founding treaty of the ICC) that governs the court’s operations. Moreover, the investigation was not initiated by the UN Security Council – as was the case previously with Sudan and Libya – but rather at the initiative of the court’s own prosecutor (which is why a judicial decision was required to grant approval). Until now, such actions had only involved states that were parties to the treaty; logically, as the founding treaty cointans no provision for such proceedings being possible regarding non-party states. The crux of the matter is the Prosecutor’s argument that the international crimes committed against the Muslim Rohingya minority – who lived within the territory of Myanmar – do also affect Bangladesh, a state party – and in the border region it is not even entirely clear, where the acts were actually committed. In essence, consequently, the ICC is now is exercising its jurisdiction in relation to Bangladesh, a state party.

While this is certainly a very extensive interpretation of the scope of the jurisdiction of the ICC, the fact of the authorisation of the Pre-Trial Chambermakes it to become a reality. For those who study or observe international criminal law – especially those focused on its impact on international relations – the next question will be: when will this interpretation find its way to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

“shameless use of public money to formulate pro-government messages” – quoted by CBN News

My opinion was quoted by CBN News about the policy of the Orbán-government related to “protection of christians”. The story was originally published nearly two years ago, it has gone online recently. Still worth to take a look at it.

My analysis about the EU’s proposed new rule of law procedure

My analysis about the proposed new EU rule of law procedure is available under the title “Better protection of the rule of law – or of European taxpayers’ money” in the Reflection series of the IIR Prague.

You can access the file here.

The writing addresses some of the questions that may be raised related to EU law, member state sovereignty and its possible effects. The regulation still has a long way to go to become a law and in or order for that to happen it needs to be accepted by the Council. According to my opinion, this legislation is necessary, as currently only the possible withdrawal or hold of EU funds can be a proper tool to keep some member state governments from further violations of basic EU legal principles, like of the rule of law.

My interview about Nikola Gruevski to Al Jazeera Balkans

I have given an interview to Al Jazeera Balkans about the situation of the Macedonian ex prime minister Nikola Gruevski and his “strange travel” to Hungary.

According to my opinion, his request for asylum and the whole process of him arriving to Hungary is legally dubious and probably will cause not only diplomatic trouble to Hungary, but also could give an option to Macedonia to turn to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for violation of laws of diplomatic relations. Its jurisdiction is provided by the fact that both states are parties to the relevant Vienna Convention and its protocols without any reservations that could exclude the applicability of the ICJ dispute settlement clause within.

My reflection: Kurdistan and Catalonia as new states? Caught between sovereignty and peoples’ right to self-determination

During recent weeks, two major referenda have taken place with serious ambition: to create new states by secession, one in Catalonia in Spain, and ano other one in the Kurdish territory in Iraq.

My current analysis, published in the International Law Reflections series (of the Institute of International Relations, Prague) sheds light to the international legal background of similar situations and their possible consequence under the current legal-political circumstances.

You can download the analysis directly from here.

My analysis on the “lex CEU”

My analysis about the newly adopted “lex CEU” in Hungary is available under the title “Attack on the CEU in Hungary – Attack only on academic freedom?” in the International Law Reflections series of the IIR Prague.

You can access the document here.

The writing addresses some of the questions that may be raised related to this shameful piece of legislation, sheds light to the political background, analyses possible legal consequences – and most importantly, points out its biggest mistake, for which the Constitutional Court shall strike it down immediately, without any further questions or deeper analysis.

“Daggers are out for civil society in Hungary”

Today I was quoted in The Budapest Beacon, talking about the proposed Hungarian legislation on NGOs:

According to international lawyer Tamás Lattmann, while it is difficult to understand what Németh means by sweeping the NGOs out of the country, even in Hungary it would be almost impossible to take the regulation of NGOs out of the hands of courts and put it in the hands of the government.

“However, the government can require the directors of NGOs to furnish asset disclosures, but nothing interesting will happen there as we saw in the case of the Pasa Park condos,” Lattmann told Magyar Nemzet.

The Pasa Park reference is in regards to a scandal in which Fidesz MP Antal Rogán, currently the government’s propaganda minister, was found to have underreported the size of his luxury apartment in a parliamentary asset disclosure. Nothing ever came of the incident.

https://budapestbeacon.com/daggers-civil-society-hungary/