ABSTRACT
The roots of the principle of legal protection can be traced back to the second half of the nineteenth century in Hungary, during the dual monarchy with Austria. The country has followed various patterns and traditions of Western Europe, like the principle of legality which was borrowed from the German concept of Rechtsstaat. The new constitutional provisions not only recognised the inviolable and inalienable human rights, but declared also that ‘the respect and protection of these rights became a primary obligation of the state’. The crucial one is the right to fair procedures assuring that every person has ‘the right to have his or her affairs administered by the authorities in an impartial, fair and reasonably timely manner’. The concept of legal certainty as a pillar of the principle of rule of law appeared already in the practice of the Court in the early 1990s.
