Ferenc Mádl and International Economic Law

Abstract

Ferenc Mádl, while rising to the ranks of the outstanding Hungarian statesmen who served their country unconditionally, remained a scholar with exceptional knowledge and a unique academic life. In the 1970s, he was the first to recognise that even the broadest interpretation of the field of private international law could not cope with the expansion and transformation of international economic relations in the world and in our country. Reality had gone beyond the given framework of thought, „the facts had rebelled”, a new system and new solutions were needed. A new discipline, international economic law was born to meet the needs of theory, education and practice. The new field of law not only sensed the changes in reality and the interconnections between different areas of reality, but also anticipated the future. Decades later, Ferenc Mádl comprehensively summarised the most important legal consequences of economic, political and social changes and demonstrated the role of law in these changes. In the field of international economic relations, changes have continued to accelerate, new issues and new dilemmas have emerged, including in the area of foreign investment, where public law meets private law, international law meets national law, substantive law meets procedural law. These – and many other exciting new topics – remain best located, cultivated and taught in the field of international economic relations 'invented' by Ferenc Mádl.