András Baka is a Hungarian judge who served on the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) from 1991–2008.
[1] In 2011, a set of judicial reforms were adopted in order to permit a new government to appoint a new head of the supreme court and ensure that Baka was not eligible for the post.
In Case C-286/12, the CJEU ruled that the reduction of the mandatory retirement age breached European Union law.
[10] In contrast to multiple previous judgements by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the ECtHR did not assimilate the independence of the judiciary as part of the guarantee of a fair trial.
[7][11] Czech scholars Katarína Šipulová and David Kosař criticized the judgement as an ineffective response to Viktor Orbán's "abusive constitutionalism" because the court "overlooked the main structural problem behind Mr. Baka’s dismissal (the broad powers of court presidents in CEE), it has blurred the Convention’s understanding of the concept of the rule of law, and it failed in delivering persuasive judgment firmly based on the existing ECtHR’s case law".