HUN-1997-3-011
a)  Hungary / b)  Constitutional Court / c) / d)  19-11-1997 / e)  61/1997 / f) / g)  Magyar Közlöny (Official Gazette), 101/1997 / h) .
 
Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:
 
 
Sources - Hierarchy - Hierarchy as between national sources - Hierarchy emerging from the Constitution.
Institutions - Executive bodies - Sectoral decentralisation - Universities.
Fundamental Rights - Equality - Criteria of distinction - Age.
Fundamental Rights - Economic, social and cultural rights - Scientific freedom.
 
Keywords of the alphabetical index:
 
Decree, ministerial, contrary to a statute / Scholarship, access, restriction / University, autonomy.
 
Headnotes:
 
It is unconstitutional if a Decree of the Minister of Culture and Public Education, without being authorised by the Act on Higher Education, restricts the range of persons who, under the Act, can apply for a professors' scholarship.
 
Summary:
 
The Constitutional Court held unconstitutional the provision of Decree no. 17/1996 (X. 13) of the Minister of Culture and Public Education, according to which only a scholar who is under 55 at the time of announcement of the competition in the Hungarian Official Gazette can apply for a professor's scholarship. The Act LXXX of 1993 on Higher Education establishes the general conditions of awarding this scholarship, its term and quantity and also the number of scholars who can get the scholarship per year, but the Act does not include a regulation on age limit. The Decree in question, however, excludes those persons who are above the age of 55 from taking part in the competition concerning the professor's scholarship. The challenged provision of the Decree is therefore unconstitutional, since it violates Article 37.3 of the Constitution, according to which in the performance of their functions, the Prime Minister and the members of the Government may issue decrees, but these decrees must not be contrary to any statute or any government decree or resolution.
 
Supplementary information:
 
The Constitutional Court in its present decision remarked that the universities' right to autonomy and also their right concerning the qualification of professors is infringed by the fact that the name of this scholarship is a professors' scholarship, whereas, the applicant does not have to be a professor to be awarded the scholarship.
 
Languages:
 
Hungarian.