Forms of judicial power

Abstract

Die Studie analysiert die verschiedenen Formen der richterlichen Macht in modernen Demokratien. Längere Untersuchungen der Studie beschäftigen sich mit der Grundrechtsrevolution in den Vereinigten Staaten und ihre Nachwirkungen auf die alltägliche Urteilstätigkeit der Gerichte, mit der Kriminalisierung des politischen Wettbewebs, wie es in Italien und in den Latein-Amerikanischen Ländern beobachtet werden kann. Es gibt Untersuchungen in der Studie über die Erweiterungen der richterlichen Macht in Ost-Mittel-Europe, Polen, Slowakien, Slowenien, Ungarn etc. In einem Kapitel beschäftigt sich der Verfasser mit der Entscheidungstätigkeit der Gerichte in Ungarn. Dieses Kapitel ist basiert auf einer empirischen Entscheidungsuntersuchung, die der Verfasser im Hauptgericht von Budapest gemacht hat.

The power of the judiciary has been expanding in a number of European and Latin American countries in recent years. This phenomenon could be observed much earlier, and, in the wake of this observation, comparative studies have been launched. Then, in the beginning of the nineties, this expansion was amply demonstrated at a conference held in Bologna, Italy (the lectures delivered at the conference are included in a volume edited by Neal C. Tate and Torbjörn Vallinder in TATE/ VALLINDER 1995). However, judicial power made its presence felt, and expanded, in a number of additional countries, and this phenomenon was not unrelated to a transition to political democracy from dictatorship that was going on at that time in many Latin American and East European countries. This pattern of development took over these two, very different regions, both in terms of culture and society. This happened, in many respects, due to motivations and urging emanating from the United States of America, including grants and ideological exports, just as the demonstration of the judicial power in the United States as an example to follow. Considering its role in making decisions in the area of societal management and the determination of the political life of the country, American judicial power has reached unparalleled heights in the world, and this wide ranging judicial power has been emulated in the past decades, and, also, before the nineties. In the adaptation of this model, it has been tailored to fit the local structures and mechanisms of the legal and political systems in the importing countries. Thus, it seems to be expedient to briefly summarize the various forms of judicial power in the United States and its operational conditions (1), then to analyze the variances that have manifested themselves in the countries of Southern Europe, lending new emphases to this power (2), and to examine the idiosyncrasies of the judicial power developed in Latin America (3), and, finally, to dissect judicial power in Hungary, the country that has forged the farthest ahead among the countries of the former Soviet bloc in solidifying an independent judiciary (4).