Certain Issues of Environmental Administration – With Particular Regard to Liability and the Application of Sanctions in Hungary

Abstract

It has already been proven in the specialised literature that the legal basis of the environmental protection is the right to a healthy environment under Article XX(1) of the Hungarian Fundamental Law, which is supplemented by the state obligation under Article P(1) as the institutional ‘side’ of the identified fundamental right. The research on which this study is based can be linked to this institutional, state ‘side’, as it seeks to explore the nature of the rules of administrative procedure applicable to those involved in environmental administration and to analyse their possible consequences, i.e. the potential sanctions. Given that, as we will see later, administrative bodies perform, among other things, official activities in environmental administration, in addition to the above mentioned provisions of the Fundamental Law, reference must be made to the right to fair administrative proceedings, which constitutes the fundamental legal framework for administrative and judicial proceedings [Art. XXIV(1) of the Fundamental Law], and the right to a fair trial [Art. XXVIII(1) of the Fundamental Law]. Since the aim of the research in this case is not only to demonstrate the enforcement of the right to a healthy environment at the legislative level, but also the enforcement of the rights of potential clients in administrative proceedings and other proceedings resulting in the imposition of sanctions. It must be emphasised here that it will be impossible to avoid demonstrating the (possible) conflict between these fundamental rights at a later stage.