What it means: The old court system will function with a shrunken purview. The new system, known as the administrative courts, will handle politically sensitive matters like election law, corruption and the right to protest. Mr. Orban’s justice minister will hire the judges.
Analysis: The government says the plan is well within European and international standards. Critics say it takes a wrecking ball to judicial independence, which was already weak in Hungary.
Reaction: Some lawmakers delayed the vote by blowing whistles for more than two hours, and about 2,000 protesters marched through Budapest. But anger was more focused on another piece of legislation, denounced as “the slave law,” which allows companies to force employees to work the equivalent of roughly one extra day per week.
