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2014 Hungarian Y.B. Int'l L. & Eur. L. 121 (2014)
The Baka Case - The Unbearable Price of Individual Justice

handle is hein.journals/huyiel2014 and id is 137 raw text is: 9 THE BAKA CASE - THE UNBEARABLE PRICE OF INDIVIDUAL JUSTICE Mart Susi* On May27, 2014, a chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in Baka v. Hungary,' the first case ever decided by the permanent Court2 where it had to evaluate the compatibility of a Council of Europe member country's constitutional reform with some provisions of the European Human Rights Convention.3 The Court found unanimously that the early termination of the applicant's, Mr. AndrAs Baka's mandate as President of the Hungarian Supreme Court and the National Council of Justice, undertaken in the midst of Hungarian Constitutional reform, violated Articles 6(1) and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.4 In this judgment unfolds the fundamental conflict written into the international human rights protection system - whether the sovereign power of any country to pass constitutional legislation prevails vis-a-vis its international obligation to protect fundamental rights.5 The judgment is also significant as the international judges adopted it towards one of 'their own' - Mr. Baka served for Docent of Public Law, Head of International Research Center of Fundamental Rights, Tallinn University Law School; E-mail: martsusi@tlu.ee. 1 Baka v. Hungary, Appl. No. 20261/12, ECtHR judgment of May 27, 2014. The judgments and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights are available through www.echr.coe.int. 2 Protocol 11 to the European Human Rights Convention set up a single permanent Court, as of November 1, 1998, in place of the previous two-tier system of a Court and a Commission. 3 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, November 4, 1950, ETS No. 5,213 UNTS 222. 4 Art. 6(1) 1st sentence provides: 'In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law.' Art. 10 (1) provides: 'Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This Article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.' 5 For discussion about every country's right to self determination and acceptable restrictions to its sovereignty see: A. Avbely, 'European Court of Justice and the Question of Value Choices: Fundamental Human Rights as an Exception to the Freedom of Movement of Goods', Jean Monnet WorkingPaper 6 (2004); Raul Narits, 'The Republic of Estonia Constitution on the Concept and Value of Law', VII Juridica International (2002), pp. 10-16. 121

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