On the history of codification of Hungarian civil law and the new Hungarian civil code

Abstract

The first part of the paper examines the basic tendencies in the development of the codification of Hungarian civil law in the period of representative and civil society. The second part deals with the new Hungarian Civil Code (2013/14) its content, methods of regulation and its relation to other civil legislation, temporal validity with the adherence to the idea of validity pro futuro, as well as its tendency to harmonize its norms with the guidelines of the European civil law. In accordance with the idea of completeness, the lawmakers incorporated all of the areas of civil law according to the pandecta system - personal law, corporate law with civil association law, family law, obligations and inheritance. The Code is based on the principle of equality of parties in civil relations, the principle of good faith, fraus legis prohibition. Family law is based on specific principles of protection of marriage, family and children. Contract law is based on the freedom of contract, limited by good customs and morality. Tort law is guided by the principle of prohibiting the harm to others, full compensation of material and imaterial damages. Contractual responsibility is regulated separately, so that the tort rules apply if the specific rules of contractual responsibility donot say otherwise. Other grounds for obligations are also regulated, as well as unjustified enrichment, doing business without order or authority, unilateral expression of intention and securities. The grounds for inheritance are contractual, statutory or based on the will. Freedom of disposition by will is limited by statutory rules regulating the forced share. The system of transfer of property ex lege after the death is adopted. The state is a successor if there are no testamentary, statutory or contractual inheritors.