Government by Decree: A Never-Ending Story? Analysis of Hungary’s Emergency Legislation (2020–2024)

Abstract As of March 2025, Hungary has been under a state of danger – an emergency regime provided for in the Hungarian Fundamental Law – for five years, following its initial declaration in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent re-declaration in May 2022 in reaction to the Russia–Ukraine war. With only a brief interruption between June and November 2020, this means that Hungary has effectively been governed under emergency rule for half a decade. The primary aim of this article is to examine the rule of law implications of this prolonged emergency period, with a particular focus on the Government’s use of emergency government decrees (EGDs). The first part of the analysis addresses constitutional and rule of law concerns arising from the Government’s repeated six-month extensions of the state of danger without providing substantive justification for why the consequences of the war cannot be managed through ordinary legal means. The second part focuses on the scope, content, and legal conformity of EGDs. Once a state of danger is declared, the Government is empowered to regulate virtually any matter by decree, including overriding acts of Parliament. Since March 2020, more than 1,000 EGDs have been issued, derogating over 200 pieces of legislation for varying periods. Although the constitutional framework requires EGDs to address the emergency at hand, the analysis demonstrates that over the past five years, the Government has adopted more than a hundred such decrees with no discernible connection to either the pandemic or the war.