Rule by law. Migration and the abuse of power in Hungary

Zoom link: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/67561159079

The democratic decay in Hungary has been subject to ample scrutiny in academia as well as in the EU and other institutions. This talk will take a special approach: it will review the Hungarian migration and asylum policy in an extended time frame, going back way before 2015 and show how in different segments of migration control policing measures, ethnic preferences, intrasparent investment immigration rules, threats against pro-migration NGOs and the gradual destruction of the asylum system are all linked together by the logic of a securitising, identitarian populist authoritarian regime. A review of CJEU and ECtHR judgments and the  analysis of the Covid-19 induced migration control rules will support the theoretical foundations with further evidence.

Boldizsár Nagy read law and philosophy  and received his PhD at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest  and pursued international studies at the Johns Hopkins University SAIS Bologna Center. Besides the uninterrupted academic activity both at the Eötvös Loránd University (between 1977 - 2017) and the Central European University (since 1992) he has been engaged both in governmental and non-governmental actions. He acted several times as expert for the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Council of Europe and UNHCR and participated at various inter-governmental negotiations. In the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros case before the International Court of Justice he acted as one of Hungary’s counsel.  He is a co-founder and  former board member of the European Society of International Law and member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Refugee Law and of the European Journal of Migration and Law.

Discussants:

Ildikó Asztalos Morell, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Rebecca Stern, Faculty of Law, Uppsala University