Hungarian Law Research Articles

Criminal Protection of the Right to Honour and Dignity in Romanian and Hungarian Law

Criminal protection regarding the right to dignity and the right to honour is manifested differently in Romanian and Hungarian criminal law. Regarding the protection of these rights through criminal law, there have been similar measures, but the legislation of the two legal systems is different both in terms of the content of the offences and the set of sanctions.

Governing Without Being in Power? Controversial Promises for a New Transition to the Rule of Law in Hungary

After 12 years of the governance of the national-conservative Fidesz in Hungary, from 2020 on, there seemed to be a real chance that the united opposition would win the election in Spring 2022. But even if the current opposition governs, either from 2022 or later it will face serious problems about really being in power, as Fidesz cemented all significant rules, institutions and positions into the constitution and cardinal laws. These can only be amended with a two-thirds majority in parliament, and it is very unlikely that the opposition could win such a large majority. A unique situation is likely to occur within the European Union (EU): a member state will be facing dilemmas of constitutional transition, while as an EU-member, it was not (and could not be) considered as a dictatorship, from which exceptional transitions are the only way out. This article argues why a new government should avoid illegitimate constitution making or constitution amending without the required majority at all costs and suggests alternative solutions for living with ‘Fidesz’s constitution’.

Results of risk assessment for occupational electromagnetic exposures

In 2016, a Hungarian law was introduced in accordance with the valid guidelines of the European Parliament related to the occupational exposures of electromagnetic fields. By this law, it is mandatory to evaluate and assess all the risks of operating equipment with voltage levels above 100 kV or currents above 100 A in the industry. Based on this guideline, experts of Group of High Voltage Technology and Equipment of Budapest University of Technology and Economics have performed several risk assessments based on the prescribed requirements.In several cases, exposures of electric, magnetic and electromagnetics fields have exceeded their limits: not only in case of worst-case simulations, but during on-site measurements, measured range of electric field and magnetic flux density was in the range which requires additional protection. To reduce risks to acceptable levels, practically applicable ways of protection must be prescribed to guarantee the requested level of safety, like improved medical examinations, restriction of approach or additional personal protective gears. Based on the results, industrial processes were modified, best practices have been declared, and critical activities were reported for the government – as requested by the guideline. The main aim of the introduction of these results is to highlight the importance of this topic, to assess the so-called “invisible” sources of dangers which are unfortunately often neglected. It is also crucial to introduce the basics and typical ranges of electromagnetic exposures for the employees of the affected facilities. Education, as a second step, is also an important part of this job. This paper summarizes the typical scenarios and magnitudes of exposures in case of occupational applications. Key data of analysis and basis of risk assessment was the measured electric field and magnetic flux density values compared to the current limits prescribed in the territory of the EU.

Remarks on the concept of gross disparity in value in Hungarian law

As it is well-known, laesio enormis is an ancient legal institute of Roman Private Law. According to Roman law, in sales of land, if the price paid was less than half of the value of the land, the vendor could have the contract rescinded unless the purchaser made up the full. The paper scrutinises the appearance of this legal institute in Hungarian private law from a comparative-historical approach, bearing in mind the differences in the regulation of this legal institute in the old Civil Code of 1959 and the new Civil Code of 2013 has been effective since the 15th of March, 2014. The study also highlights the important findings of the decisions of the High Courts of Hungary (Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, etc.) regarding the application of laesio enormis (gross disparity).

Interplay between undue influence, usury, and immoral contracts in the light of the recent case law of Hungary

In this short writing, we intended to show the recent tendency in the Hungarian judicial practice, a slight movement to rediscover the importance and the great variety of the subjective elements of usury contract, focusing on the so-called undue influence as a subjective condition of the invalidity. However, a twofold finding should be expressed here. First, the conceptual scopes of these grounds are not totally separated from each other, although, a distinction should be made, moreover, not only between the undue influence and other defects of contractual intention but also between usurious contract, immoral contract and unfair exploitation, with the observation that the latter ground of invalidity has only historical importance in Hungarian law. Second, as the former judicial practice placed too much importance on the assessment of the reciprocity condition in usury cases, in the cases of the gift contracts concluded by the party under the undue influence the court constitutes the invalidity based on immorality, not on usury.

The renewed bestseller clause of the copyright act

The bestseller clause of the Copyright Act is an older legal institution of Hungarian copyright law. The rule was taken over by Hungarian law from the German Copyright Act. The bestseller clause provides protection for a creator in a weaker contractual position than the user. It provides effective assistance for the subsequent consideration of unforeseen circumstances at the time of the conclusion of the contract. Its primary purpose is to remedy the post-contractual shift in value using the special means of judicial amendment of the contract.The legal institution of the bestseller clause is a special regulatory solution compared to the provisions of the Civil Code on invalidity. It is a special provision compared to invalidity in the event of a significant difference in value, however, it provides a strong limitation on the legal consequences of invalidity.It only provides an opportunity for the court to amend the contract and eliminate the striking difference in value.The rule has very poor judicial practice, both in Hungary and abroad. The primary reason for this is that the parties apply contractual arrangements that avoid future uncertainties regarding the amount of the royalty.One of the aims of the DSM Directive is to extend the legal opportunities for weaker contracting parties, including the EU-level harmonization of the bestseller clause. According to Article 20 DSM, Member States shall ensure that in the absence of an applicable collective bargaining agreement providing for a mechanism comparable to that set out in this Article, authors and performers or their representatives are entitled to claim additional, appropriateand fair remuneration from the party with whom they entered into a contract for the exploitation of their rights, or from the successors in title of such party, when the remuneration originally agreed on turns out to be disproportionately low compared to all the subsequent relevant revenues derived from the exploitation of the works or performances. The essay examines the possible effects of the extension of the bestseller clause to new areas in the national copyright law and the relationship between the new provisions and civil law invalidity rules.

The Law Enforcement Higher Education in the People’s Republic of China

The authors of the essay spent two weeks in the People’s Republic of China, where they had a chance to study the Chinese law enforcement higher education system. In this essay, the authors intend to share the experiences of these two weeks. Furthermore, they would like to shed light on the current standards and status of the law enforcement higher education in the People’s Republic of China, show those areas where they have fallbacks and set the course of the development of the Hungarian law enforcement leveraging Chinese ‘best practices’. We can declare that significant changes have taken place also on an international level regarding police and education. In China, not only the number of police staff has been increased but also the level of their professionalism. All the same, the crucial question remains as to what is more important: police higher education or police training/preparation courses. The first part of the study tends to present the law enforcement higher education in China with the major landmark events and phases of its development. The second part of the article introduces one of the most outstanding law enforcement higher educational institutes of the country, the People’s Public Security University of China (PPSUC), with special remarks on application, its admission requirements and process, curriculum structure, student life and their special training on criminalistics.

Non-Litigious Proceedings under the Jurisdiction of the Court in Hungary

The author outlines in her study the main non-contentious (nonlitigious) procedures under Hungarian law that are governed by special norms in conjunction with those of the Code of Civil Procedure and that now employ electronic means for submitting requests and documents, as well as for communication with the parties and service of procedure. The main procedures examined are those instituted by the new Hungarian Code of Civil Procedure itself and those pertinent to procedures before the Company Register, during insolvency procedures and during the registration of entities comprising non-governmental organizations and other manifestations of the civil society. The author concludes that the most significant non-litigious procedures now employ means of electronic communication.

Fidesz, liberal democracy and the fundamental law in Hungary

After its landslide victories of 2010, 2014 and 2018, Fidesz has introduced numerous institutional changes in the Hungarian political system. The academic research has emphasized the illiberal and antidemocratic character of these reforms, and the populist ideology of the party has been widely considered as the underlying force behind them. This study analyzes the most important reform that Fidesz has undertaken: the new Fundamental Law, enacted in 2012. We examine whether this change can be regarded as a violation of liberal democratic principles, and, if that is the case, whether it can be linked to the populist character of Fidesz. We found that some of the most criticized dispositions of the newly enacted constitution cannot be regarded as violations of liberal democratic principles, whereas other changes clearly constitute attacks to the foundations of Hungarian democracy, mainly affecting the separation of powers and the civil rights of minorities, These findings are largely consistent with the effects of populist governments on democracy as documented in the literature.

Shaping Presidential Powers in Hungary: Convention, Tradition and Informal Constitutional Amendments

Abstract There was no tradition of a republican president in Hungary before the fall of communism, and the transitory constitution of 1989 was unclear about the exact role the President should play in the constitutional system of Hungary. Some provisions even resembled those of presidential or semi-presidential systems; some ambiguities were clarified during the first two decades after the transition. Conventions, however, were established to some extent and sometimes very quickly. This period gave rise to guidelines as to how the powers of the President should be exercised. Some other powers were concretized and interpreted foremost by the Constitutional Court. These conventions and judicial interpretations formed the character of the Presidency to the extent of informal constitutional change. Some of these elements have even been incorporated into and formalized by the new Fundamental Law of Hungary. The present contribution will point out how the originally broad competencies of the President have been narrowed in the practice, and what role the Constitutional Court and political actors played in this process.

Alexander Maxwell. Everyday Nationalism in Hungary, 1789–1867.

Alexander Maxwell. <i>Everyday Nationalism in Hungary, 1789–1867</i>.

A szerződés semmissége és megtámadhatósága a magyar és a román polgári törvénykönyvekben

The validity as an essential element of contract is the basis for achieving the economic purpose set out in in it. Without validity there is no legal way to enforce the contractual content. In addition to the identity of the theoretical foundations of the legal institution of validity, significant differences can be observed between Romanian and Hungarian law. Those differences justify the performance of a comparative legal study beside several other specific reasons. The first of the this special reasons is the cross-border economic relations and the Hungarian legal society in Romania, which can play a ‚bridge’ in this matter. The real need for professional co-operation between members of the same mother tongue lawyers results summaries of the conceptual issues based on comparative legal studies. For theoretical, scientific and practical purposes the study outlines the basic issues of the nullity and avoidance of a contract, the partly different basic positions of the two legal systems, the grounds for annulment and the legal consequences.

Two Influential Concepts: Socialist Legality and Constitutional Identity and Their Impact on the Independence of the Judiciary

AbstractIn this Article, I suggest considering linkages of a theoretical, and continuities of a sociological nature between on the one hand, the concept and the practical use of socialist legality in Socialist Hungary—with particular regard to the period following the judicial reform of 1954—and on the other hand, the concept of constitutional identity as it has developed in the Fundamental Law in Hungary, with particular regard to the period since the 2011 judicial reform. The Article highlights surprising similarities in the politically determined legislative intention in these two periods to form embracing, quasi legal concepts, which in themselves seem to differ fundamentally, although the similarities in their nature and in the specific constitutional practice are attention-grabbing. The interpretation of the role of state institutions, and especially the judicial role, lead one to think that despite the explicit rejection of the Socialist era in Article U) of the Fundamental Law in Hungary, the new constitutional regime has familiar attitudes to the understanding of the rule of law and the role of the judiciary in promoting the enforcement of the new, supra legal concepts of a transformative nature, which, however, are filled in with the ruling political ideology, whether it be socialist legality or national constitutional identity.

A bonus ec diligens pater familias 20. századi alakulása a német családjogban

The process of women’s emancipation in European legal culture can be divided into three major periods according to their defining issues and objectives. The findings of the following study refer to the period from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day, which is usually identified in the literature as the second wave, and then as the third wave from the 1990s onwards. The turning point between these two stages is the thirty years after 1950, when the social, personal and family legal status of women changed significantly in Europe. The demands of the third wave, the ’modern emancipation movement’, which are still ongoing today, are of a different nature and are primarily sociological rather than legal nature. Although the topic of feminism is popular and has been dealt with in many ways in the Hungarian social science literature too, this study is nevertheless suppletory as I present the German marriage and family law reforms by means of the historical legal analysis, which will be supplemented in later studies by a comparison of Austrian and Hungarian law for the same period.

Gyengébb közlekedők és átalakuló mobilitás Budapesten

In the last decade, transportation in Budapest has been changed. There have been multiple and dynamic changes in the choice of individual transportation modes. During the early years of the decade cycling was the popular alternative transportation in the inner city. However, the growth of the modal split of this transportation mode stopped around 2015. In the second part of the decade other individual transportation modes have also been appeared. These are mainly electric devices and according to the Hungarian law cannot be described as vehicles. Their users are also pedestrians while their dynamics and speed are at higher levels. The current proliferation of these devices can be a kind of danger of road safety and the lack of legislation makes the accident prevention more difficult. In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic has also made an unpredictable effect on the urban transportation.

Rules of jurisdiction in the new Hungarian private international law

AbstractOn 1 January 2018, a new act entered into force in Hungary. This act is the new code of private international law in Hungary. The basic purpose of this article is to present the jurisdictional rules of the new law. In the description I discuss how the new act differs from the rules of the old code. In addition, I focus on international and European trends in private international law. I also examine the extent to which the new Hungarian code complies with these trends, as well as discussing the peculiarities of the Hungarian regulation. The new Code uses the concept of jurisdiction as a rule for the ‘international distribution’ of cases and in the sense of public international law. Therefore, I also address in this article the definition of jurisdiction and other conceptual issues, the doctrines of immunity and the description of the jurisdictional system of the Code. I present the relationship between international, European and Hungarian rules which are relevant in private international law. In addition, I provide an overview of the novel system of jurisdictional rules in the Code.

Jewish Quotas on a Continuum of Time and Space

ABSTRACT This essay positions the Hungarian numerus clausus law (1920) in the narrative framework of de-emancipation and in the transnational context of its time. The Jewish quota as a measure to reverse Jewish educational mobility and social integration was not unique to Hungary. Neither was the peregrination (student migration) of Jewish youth as a response. However, the role this migration and its community support mechanism played in Jewish life was particularly significant in Hungary.

The Loss of Face for Everyone Concerned: EU Rule of Law in the Context of the ‘Migration Crisis’

No winners emerge out of a consideration of the two key EU crises side-by-side: the ‘migration crisis’ – steady attempts by the EU and its Member States to switch off the effective enjoyment of the right to asylum already truncated by the Dublin system and national law – and the ‘rule of law crisis’, seeing Member States leave the club of functioning liberal democracies and pushing the Union in the direction of an association not based on particular values and harboring autocracies with destroyed checks and balances. Hungary is deployed as a case-study next to the EU itself to assess how the two ‘crises’ feed and amplify each other and which lessons emerge from the connection between them for the EU’s future. The conclusion is that everyone is losing face, since EU law, just like Hungarian law, is unable to ensure the safeguarding of asylum seekers’ rights by design. Moreover, recent ‘improvements’, from the EU-Turkey deal to the Hungarian policy of populist hate, showcase the feebleness of values and rampant double standards in a landscape of wanting legal remedies and empty proclamations of rights and principles. While the failed neighborhood policy and empty European values deliver thousands of dead in the Mediterranean, ‘illiberal’ Hungary and ‘value-based’ EU emerge as successful powerhouses of othering, hypocrisy and wanting legality, where double standards reign and scapegoating migration, especially ‘non-Western’ migration – up to the point of leaving thousands of people dead – brings steady political dividends.

Case C-66/18 Comm'n v. Hungary (C.J.E.U.)

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered a judgment on October 6, 2020 in case C-66/18 following long deliberations. The case concerned an amendment to the Hungarian law on national higher education (HEA) in 2017, requiring both new and established foreign universities in Hungary (the host state) to prove that they had a physical campus in their home state and, if their host and home states failed to conclude an international treaty on the university's operation in Hungary within a period of six months, they were forced to close and leave the Hungarian market. Of the 24 established foreign university programs in Hungary in 2017, one was particularly affected by the new requirement: an American university operating in Hungary, whose founder was at odds with the Hungarian Government, was forced to stop admitting students.

Adalékok a Horthy-korszak büntető jogtudományának történetéhez

The aim of the study is to demonstrate the arguments and debates of jurists and the experts of the criminology about equality, liberties in the Horthy era when these issues were challenged by the restrictions of rights, such as the Anti-Jewish laws and the racial policies. In this period the criminal law focused on the personality and the social background of the perpetrator as an influence of anthropological criminology which combines the study of human races and their personal characteristics with the criminal propensity instincts. In the literature of criminal law new issues appeared such as the restriction of rights, deprivation of rights and racial policies as the influences of the Nurnberg Laws in the Third Reich. The jurists in Hungary paid close attention to the jurisdiction in the Third Reich, but they did not set an example for Hungary. According to their arguments, the German way of the racial law in the Hungarian context is not adaptable because its society is too multi-ethnic. This resonates with the opinion of Pál Angyal, who was the leading figure of the criminal law in Hungary. According to his view, criminal law cannot be a tool for racism, but it can be useful in the field of civil law and the state administration. Despite the jurist’s cautious argument, the racial policies appeared in legislation after 1938.