Dr András Baka, a lawyer, university lecturer and judge, is a former Hungarian member of the European Court of Human Rights and a former President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Hungary and the National Council of Justice Administration.
He was born on 11 December 1952 in Budapest. He studied law at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of Eötvös Loránd University, graduating summa cum laude in 1978. He began his academic career at the Institute of Law and Political Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His research focused on national and international legal issues relating to minority rights, as well as human rights. In 1988, he was awarded the academic degree of Candidate of Political and Legal Sciences. His academic work was recognised in 1988 with the Youth Academy Award of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
In 1990, he was elected as an independent member of the first freely elected Hungarian National Assembly on the list of the party ’MDF’ (Hungarian Democratic Forum); however, he resigned his parliamentary seat in 1991. In 1990, he was appointed Director-General of the College of Public Administration, a position he held until 1998. He also taught at the institution’s Department of Constitutional Law and subsequently at its Department of International Law, where he served as Head of Department. Between 1993 and 1994, he served as President of the Budapest University Association.
In 1991, he was elected as the Hungarian judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. During his term of office, he was re-elected twice, in 1998 and 2001. From 1999 until the end of his term, he served as Vice-President of Section II of the Court. His tenure at the Court in Strasbourg lasted until the end of January 2008.
Upon his return to Hungary, he worked at the Budapest Court of Appeal. On 22 June 2009, the National Assembly elected him President of the Supreme Court and of the National Council of Justice Administration. He held these positions until 31 December 2011. In 2011, he was elected President of the Network of the Presidents of the Supreme Courts of the European Union, and has served as the organisation’s Honorary President since 2012.
Between 2012 and 2020, he served as Presiding Judge at the Curia. He continued his international judicial and judicial-administration activities thereafter: between 2018 and 2024, he served two terms as Vice-President of the Administrative Tribunal of the Council of Europe.
Throughout his career, he has gained extensive domestic and international experience in the fields of academic research, legal higher education, human rights protection and the administration of justice.
Dr András Baka was elected President of Hungary by the National Assembly on 11 August 2026.
