EUR;CoE;EU;CECC;JCCJ;WCCJa) Hungary / b) Constitutional Court / c) / d) 21-03-2014 / e) 9/2014 / f) On the unconstitutionality of continuous national security control / g) Magyar Közlöny (Official Gazette), 2014/42 / h) .
Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:
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Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Right to private life.
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Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Right to private life - Protection of personal data.
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Keywords of the alphabetical index:
National security control / State surveillance, continuous.
Headnotes:
Certain amendments to the legislation on national security which allowed continuous national security control and covert information-gathering for thirty days twice a year on somebody under national security control exceeded the extent of the necessary and proportional restrictions of the right to respect for private life in such circumstances and were unconstitutional.
Summary:
I. The former Parliamentary Commissioner for Fundamental Rights submitted a petition to the Constitutional Court challenging the regulations of Act LXXII of 2013 which pertained to national security control. They allowed for continuous national security control and covert information gathering for thirty days twice a year, both before the commencement of a legal relationship and during its entire term. These measures affected persons occupying important or confidential positions or applicants for them, as well as persons occupying positions within organisations which allowed them the possibility of access to information designated, at the very least, "confidential".
II. The Constitutional Court had previously suspended the entry into force of some provisions pending its examination. In its current decision, it noted the universal right under the Constitution to respect for private and family life, home, communications and good reputation. It held that these particular amendments created a regulatory framework that allowed the observation and recording of intimate details of the life, lifestyle and connections of the person under control and his or her family. It resolved to repeal them, on the basis that they exceeded the extent of the necessary and proportional restrictions of the right to respect for private life when continuous and secret information gathering is permitted.
The Constitutional Court also declared unconstitu-tional the new provision which meant that somebody subject to such control had no recourse to legal remedy (in an external forum) in case of refusal of the commencement of the legal relationship which was the basis of the national security control.
III. Justices István Balsai, László Salamon and Mária Szívós attached a dissenting opinion to the decision.
Hungarian.