Articles

• Legal harmonization in the field of service of documents and its impact on national civil procedural rules

  1-26

  Gabriella Breczkáné dr. Békési

  Views:

  1

  The European Union has ensured the free movement of persons, goods, services, and capital by creating a single internal market, which is the primary objective of integration. This has led to judicial cooperation in several areas, including civil matters, thereby guaranteeing the legal certainty of EU citizens. One of the most striking forms of cooperation was the approximation of laws, which primarily resulted in the creation of EU legislation of a procedural nature. However, the EU legislator also created sources of law governing substantive legal issues, as well as complex sources of law that regulated both procedural and substantive legal issues within a given subject area.

  The most effective means of purposefully reducing differences between the legal regulations of Member States is legal harmonization, which has been a key regulatory tool of European integration from the outset, with particular regard to the fact that, under the loyalty clause, Member States are obliged to align their national laws with harmonization requirements.

  In civil proceedings, where service of documents abroad has become increasingly necessary, the civil procedure rules of Member States, such as the German and French codes, used similar instruments (bilateral agreements, diplomatic channels, postal delivery), but true legal harmonization was achieved at the international level with the 1965 Hague Service Convention and at the European Union level with the first Service of Documents Regulation of May 29, 2000.

  These rules had a significant impact on both the French and German regulations and the Hungarian regulations in force as well.

  In the field of service of documents, it is clear that, in order to ensure legal certainty, regulations are the best tools of legal harmonization, as all EU citizens must be able to rely on the same rules when they become parties to legal proceedings, regardless of their habitual residence in the European Union.

  pdf (Hungarian)

  1

• From sacred precepts to secular law: the genesis of the legal institution of insolvency in antiquity

  27-44

  Szabolcs Igaz

  Views:

  9

  The phenomenon of insolvency is as old as the development of human societies, but the emergence of its contemporary legal regulation is the result of a long development process. The aim of the study is to demonstrate how the norms for managing debt and insolvency have evolved from ancient religious precepts to codified legal solutions. The study begins with an analysis of the principles of debt forgiveness and debtor protection appearing in sacred texts, then explores the first institutionalized debt settlement mechanisms through the legal sources of ancient Mesopotamia. The regulatory solutions of the archaic Greek legal system are also presented, with particular attention to the development of the debtor's personal liability and the means of creditor claim enforcement. The final part of the study analyzes the insolvency regulation of Roman law, which represents a shift in the management of insolvency from personal sanctions to property-based enforcement forms, thus creating the foundations of modern bankruptcy law. The research uses legal historical and comparative methods, revealing the normative patterns that aim to create a balance between creditor interests and debtor protection.

  The results point out that the basic principles of insolvency management – ​​debt settlement, debtor protection and limitation of creditor claims – appeared in ancient times and then, through the mediation of Roman law, had a decisive influence on the later development of European law.

  pdf (Hungarian)

  6

• Thoughts on theoretical and practical issues arising from the examination of insight

  45-65

  Bettina Ilona Papp

  Views:

  3

  With the entry into force of the Criminal Code, the legislator broke with the regulation on the age of criminal responsibility, which had been in force for nearly sixty years. Although it set the age of criminal responsibility at fourteen, in the case of certain violent crimes against specific persons, it lowered this age to twelve and made criminal responsibility conditional on the perpetrator having the insight necessary to recognize the consequences of the crime at the time of its commission. Although the concept of discernment is not entirely unknown in criminal law, it did not appear in criminal law regulations in the decades preceding the codification of the Criminal Code, nor was the concept of discernment defined when the new regulations were introduced.  In view of all this, my study aims to provide an overview of the regulation of the age of criminal responsibility, in particular the historical changes in the regulation, the concept of discernment, the provisions relating to the assessment of discernment, the scope of judicial discretion in the assessment of discernment, and Constitutional Court Decision 25/2022. (X.26.) relating to a specific criminal case. 

  Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

  pdf (Hungarian)

  2

• Proposals concerning the regulation of food supplements based on the national marketing authorization procedure for medicinal products

  67-93

  Anna Zsófia Pataki

  Views:

  9

  The use of dietary supplements is becoming increasingly common these days, as these products claim to help maintain our health and support a healthy lifestyle. The ingredients in dietary supplements often include substances that are also found in medications; however, the regulations governing medications and dietary supplements are not identical in either scope or stringency, which can raise serious quality concerns and pose a risk to consumer health.

  The aim of this study is to explore the advantages and risks inherent in the differences in notification requirements for dietary supplements, based on the national authorization procedure for drugs (mentioning, but not discussing in detail, the differing procedural mechanisms regulated by the European Union). To make the consumption of dietary supplements safer, I present recommendations for possible changes by the Hungarian Chamber of Pharmacists regarding the tightening of legislation, supplemented by my own observations.

  pdf (Hungarian)

  4

• The appearance of regulations related to the fulfillment of obligations in early private law codification efforts in Hungary

  95-120

  Kristóf Somorjai

  Views:

  13

  Since the beginning of economic relations, performance has always constituted the preferred final stage in the lifecycle of an obligation arising from the conclusion of a transaction in any form, namely, the point at which an obligation based on performance and counter-performance reaches its ultimate purpose. The same holds true, in substantive terms, for the general rules on the performance of obligations, which, after centuries of development under customary law, had become ripe for positive legal regulation and, from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards, became the subject of several partial codifications and attempted codifications.

  The aim of this study is to demonstrate how Hungarian regulations concerning the performance of obligations moved beyond its customary-law phase and became an integral part of the written system of private law norms. Within the necessary limits of the analysis, the study also examines how these rules, along the axis of Act XXXVII of 1875 on the Commercial Code, the Draft Hungarian General Civil Code, and the Private Law Bill, shaped the dogmatic foundation and direction which, by the middle of the Horthy era, had matured into a bill professionally suitable for entry into force, and upon which socialist codification could confidently build its general provisions on performance.

  pdf (Hungarian)

  3

• Responsibility of the chief executive officer towards the enterprise operating the higher education institution maintained by a public interest asset management foundation performing public tasks

  121-153

  Tamás István Stipkovits

  Views:

  1

  The treatise examines a key instrument of the economic engagement of higher education institutions, namely the legal regulation of academic spin-off companies, with a particular focus on the liability of executive officers toward the company. The central research question explores how the emergence of the public interest trust foundation structure has influenced this liability system compared to the state-maintained model. Regarding certain mandatory provisions that allow no discretion or impose restrictions, the study investigates whether these exist as necessary guarantees for the performance of public tasks or as unjustifiable constraints. The author employs dogmatic and statutory analysis to explore the provisions of relevant legislation, particularly the Innovation Act and the National Higher Education Act. Throughout the research, a historical overview is occasionally provided to facilitate the understanding of conceptual shifts, while the study critically contrasts conflicting statutory definitions and cross-references.

  pdf (Hungarian)

  0