Between Politics and Justice: International Criminal Law in Hungary

Abstract Hungary has had an intense engagement with international criminal justice. During communism and democracy alike, the normative framework and language of international criminal law was used to delegitimise the political opponent. This article aims to describe the way international criminal law was repeatedly instrumentalized to not simply serve as a genuine tool for justice but also as a potent political pawn through presenting the use of international criminal law in four different time periods: (1) during the post-World War ii war crimes trials at the People’s Tribunals; (2) the adoption of universal jurisdiction during the communist era as a tool of Cold War status competition; (3) in the 1990s, as an instrument of transitional justice; and finally, (4) in the post-2010s, as a tool for memory politics and anti-migration propaganda.