Hungarian Civil Liberties Union www'tasz'hu

1
Hungarian Civil Liberties Unionwww.tasz.hu

• Ádám Földes
• Overview of FOI Litigation in Hungary

2
Legal sources

• Constitution
• Act LXIII of 1992 on the Protection of Personal
  Data and Public Access to Data of Public Interest
• Aarhus Convention (implemented by Act LXXXI of
  2001)
• Act LXV of 1995 on State and Official Secrets
• Act XC of 2005 on Electronic Freedom of
  Information
• Regulations in sectoral laws (e.g. Act on Police)
• Decisions of the Constitutional Court (since
  1990)
• Practice of the Data Protection Commissioner
• Precedents
• EU law, Strasbourg cases

3
Types of data

• Personal data
• Data of public interest
• Data public on grounds of public interest

4
Data Protection Court Commissioner

• statements, recommendations (must be answered),
  consultations
• but legally not binding!
• usually there is no judicial review
• no deadlines for the Commissioner
• he can investigate not bound to the complaint

• lawsuit - decision
• legally binding!
• there is appeal
• out of turn procedure
• only the petition can be examined

5
Data Protection Court Commissioner

• when judicial proceedings are already pending
  concerning the case in question the Commissioner
  can not initiate an investigation
• both procedures are free of charge (regarding the
  court and the Commissioner) although there are
  costs follow the event at the lawsuits