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• The polluter pays principle in the Hungarian civil law, with special regard to the liability for hazardous operations

  89-106

  Edit Sztancs

  Views:

  84

  The polluter pays principle is one of the basic principles of international environmental law
  mentioned directly firstly only in 1972, however the principle were declared in 1929 in the
  well-known Trail Smelter Case. The polluter pays is an economical principle, and in the
  meaning of this principle the costs of pollution shall be shared between industrial companies
  and consumers. Taking into consideration that after applying this principle price of products
  will be higher than before, industrial companies shall reduce their pollution in the interest of
  their (and their products’) competitiveness. Seeing the development of the principle in EU
  level, the polluter pays were mentioned first time in the first „programme of action of the
  European Communities on the environment” adopted in 1973. However it is questionable
  what polluter, pollution, obligation of polluter and costs of pollution mean exactly, and for
  this reason this principle cannot be applied automatically.
  In this study I try to examine how the polluter pays principle works in the Hungarian national
  law, especially in the Hungarian Civil Code. For this reason I examine the applicability of
  Article 345 of the Hungarian Civil Code („Damages Originating from Hazardous
  Operations”), with special regard to the case-law of the Hungarian civil courts. I also try to
  introduce the possibilities and obligations of the public prosecutor in environmental issues.

• The Appearance, Development, and Reception of Danger to Society in Hungarian Criminal Law

  105-120

  Ádám Szemán

  Views:

  153

  The concept of danger to society is perhaps the most controversial element of the Criminal Code's definition of crime. This concept plays a prominent role in the determination of criminal liability in domestic criminal law. In the 20th century, its necessity in our Criminal Code, which was in force at the time, was the subject of debate among jurists of repute in the field of criminal law.

  In the socialist criminal law of the pre-communist era, the concept of danger to society was used to express the 'class nature' of criminal law. After the 1990s, this concept - in the science of criminal law, in legislation and in the application of law as well - was cleared of the content elements adopted from Soviet law to serve the aims of party-state policy. Nowadays, the definition of danger to society is so devoid of ideological, party-political connotations that it is regarded by a significant number of legal scholars in the field of criminal law and even by case law as the conceptual equivalent of material illegality, taken from German legal theory (ÚJVÁRI, 2003).

  In this paper, I will present the emergence and reception of the concept of danger to society in Hungarian criminal law and criminal jurisprudence, from the preceding period – which applied formal illegality – to the Criminal Code of legal force.