We asked for a Review of the Supreme Court in our legal proceedings against the Constitutional Court

In the litigation against the Constitutional Court, we have approached the Supreme Court to overrule the legally binding decision of the Court of Appeals.

We have decided to use this extraordinary legal redress, because in our opinion the Court of Appeals made an unlawful decision in our litigation against the Constitutional Court. We wanted the courts to decide whether the Constitutional Court is required to share the motion of a Member of Parliament and his/her colleagues as public data. According to the opinion of the Court of Appeals, the motion reflects the personal opinion of the people putting it forward, so that data is defined as personal in nature and thus cannot be shared without the prior consent of the people in question.

The Court of Appeals could not come to a decision during this proceeding since the court of first instance came to an opposing decision and there was no proof given to the effect that the required data were trade secrets or would fall under the category of copyright.

For this reason the Court of Appeals asked the Court of First Instance for a re-trial, in which they had to decide whether the Constitutional Court was right in refusing sharing the information with the reasoning that these data were trade secrets or fell under the category of copyright. In the new proceedings the question has to be decided according to the guidelines of today’s decision.

Share

Related articles

Hungarian NGOs turn to Barroso over planned removal of Hungarian data protection commissioner

Eötvös Károly Policy Institute, Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and Hungarian Helsinki Committee informed the President of the European Commission on the failure of the Hungarian lawmaker to fulfill its obligation to guarantee the complete independence of the Data Protection Commissioner. Hungary therefore breached its duty arising from EU law.

Government agrees to back mega-project in Hungary despite concerns about transparency - Anti-corruption NGOs have turned to Joaquín Almunia

Some of Hungary's major anti-corruption NGOs have turned to EU Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia. The NGOs are concerned about a giant project financed with state aid and therefore urged the Prime Minister to immediately suspend the 'murky' 130 mn EUR investment, financed by an EU fund and the Hungarian Development Bank (MFB). Gordon Bajnai, Prime Minister of Hungary finally ordered the Ministry of National Development and Economy to make the feasibility study of the project public.

Information Freedom wins in Gripen-case

Following today’s first instance decision of the Capital Court, the Ministry of Economy and Transport is ordered to make public their list of fulfilments approved until 11.09.2008 by the Offset Committee with regard to the Gripen fighter-jets. The Court emphasized, that since public funds - which are of public interest - are involved, the fact that contracting partners are citing business secrets is, by itsself not enough to withhold the information from the public.