A text summary with graphs on case-load data and statistics for the year 2023 and for the fourth quarter is available here >>

Tables with detailed data on general case-load and on the handling of constitutional complaints are available here >> Data and tables for previous periods are also available here.

Summary of the case-load and statistical data for the year 2023 and for the fourth quarter

The Constitutional Court publishes detailed aggregated data on its case-load on a quarterly basis. Below is a summary of the data for the fourth quarter of 2023, as well as aggregated data for the full year. Tables for the period and further details on handling constitutional complaints, broken down by calendar year, are available on the website of the Constitutional Court.

The graph below shows the evolution of case-load data for recent years, together with the number of new cases opened and the number of cases closed

In 2023, a total of 549 new cases were referred to a rapporteur Justice of the Constitutional Court, a slight decrease compared to the number of new cases opened in 2022 (595). The table and graph below show the distribution of newly opened cases by fields of competence. The table also includes 2022 data for comparison.

		Year 2023	Year 2022
Total number of new cases referred to rapporteur justices		549	595
	Number of constitutional complaints	511	565
	Number of judicial initiatives	29	23
	Number of posterior norm controls	7	6
	Other	2	1

New case data for the fourth quarter of 2023 (1 October to 31 December) are as follows. The comparison is based on data for the fourth quarter of the previous year.

		4/2023	4/2022
Total number of new cases referred to rapporteur justices		109	135
	Number of constitutional complaints	100	129
	Number of judicial initiatives	7	4
	Number of posterior norm controls	1	1
	Other	1	1

Data on case-load have developed as follows over the last two years, broken down by quarter.

The relative proportions of the different case types to each other in the new cases assigned to Justices of the Constitutional Court in 2023 were as follows:

The figures for cases completed in 2023 are close to those for the year 2022. The bodies (plenary and panels) closed 592 cases, of which 115 cases were decided on the merits. The main figures for completed cases, together with the figures for the year 2022, are as follows:

	Year 2023	Year 2022
Total number of cases completed by the bodies	596	592
Total number of cases concluded with a decision on the merits	86	115
Annulment of a court / administrative decision	21	32
Full/partial annulment of a law, provision of the law	8	9
Establishing a constitutional requirement	2	5
Establishing an omission	5	3
Rejecting the admission of a constitutional complaint	465	417
Number of cases completed in the preparatory procedure before the Secretary-General and by ruling of a single judge	842	1027

The graph below shows the evolution of the number of completed cases from 2013 onwards in annual breakdown:

The next table shows the main data in the 4^th quarter of 2023 for completed cases. In this case, too, due to seasonality, the table also shows data for the fourth quarter of the previous year for comparability.

	4/2023	4/2022
Total number of cases completed by the bodies	158	166
Total number of cases concluded with a decision on the merits	17	32
Annulment of a court / administrative decision	4	9
Full/partial annulment of a law, provision of the law	0	3
Rejecting the admission of a constitutional complaint	138	108
Number of cases completed in the preparatory procedure before the Secretary-General and by ruling of a single judge	205	224

The evolution of the quarterly data on completed cases is shown in the graph below for the previous two years:

The average time for the handling of constitutional complaint cases completed by the bodies in 2023 was 313 days from the filing of the petition, a slight increase compared to the average time in the two previous years. In this context, it is important to note, however, that the time limits laid down in the Rules of Procedure are not counted from the date of the submission of the petition, but from the date of assigning it on the rapporteur. The graph below shows the average administration time in annual breakdown.

In 2023, in 21 cases of constitutional complaints, the Constitutional Court issued decisions annulling the judicial decisions challenged in the petition. A list of annulled judgements and annulled Constitutional Court decisions can be found on the Constitutional Court's website in Hungarian, where lists for previous years are also available.

The following graphs also refer to constitutional complaints.

The first one shows, by year, how many of the constitutional complaints filed in a given year were decided on the merits, how many were closed without a decision on the merits (e.g. in the course of the preparatory procedure of the Secretary-General, or in the case of a rejection or termination in the admission procedure), and how many cases were admitted but are still pending. For the 2023 figures, it should be taken into account that the preparatory procedure of the Secretary-General is still ongoing for some motions filed in the last weeks of last year, therefore these cases are not yet included in the data. In any case, the graph shows that on average about ten percent of constitutional complaints are decided on the merits.

The second graph shows comparative data for the last 9 years of constitutional complaint procedures initiated under section 27 of the Constitutional Court Act. This is the type of constitutional complaint based on which the Constitutional Court examines the constitutionality of a judicial decision, and does not carry out norm control. The years indicate the year in which the motion was filed. However, when analysing the data for motions filed in the past two years, it should be taken into account that a relatively large number of these are still pending, therefore the data for this period will change in the future.

The next graph demonstrates the proportion of constitutional complaint cases closed with a decision on the merits in 2023, according to the fields of law concerned.

Finally, for completed cases, a column diagram showing the distribution of adopting decisions on the merits between the plenary session and the panels.

Further details on handling constitutional complaints, broken down by calendar year, are available on the website of the Constitutional Court.

The Constitutional Court has several powers of normative review, not of a court decision, but of a legislative act that is contrary to the Fundamental Law. In this competence, in 2023, the Constitutional Court annulled laws or provisions of legislation in 8 cases. A list of annulled Constitutional Court decisions can be found on the Constitutional Court's website in Hungarian, where lists for previous years are also available.

The Constitutional Court, also largely in the exercise of its powers of normative review, has in several decisions established constitutional requirements and also infringements of the Fundamental Law by omission. An overview list of the current outstanding legislative omissions and tables summarising the constitutional requirements identified by the Constitutional Court are available on the website of the Constitutional Court.

The graph below shows data for the last 11 years on the annulment of provisions of the law, conflicts with the Fundamental Law manifested in omissions and the setting of constitutional requirements.

Another important power of the Constitutional Court aimed at the review of norms, is the adjudication of judicial initiatives. In such a case, a judge, in the course of adjudicating a case pending before him or her, discovers that the law to be applied in the case is unconstitutional and therefore requests the Constitutional Court to examine the law or legislative provision challenged by the judge. In 2023, the Constitutional Court received 28 of such judicial initiatives, a figure which is in line with the average for recent years. The two graphs below show the number of judicial initiatives and annual data, back to 2013, on handling them.

The tables containing detailed data on the Constitutional Court's case-load and statistics, as well as quarterly summaries and graphs, are available on the website of the Constitutional Court.

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