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• The interaction of Continental and Anglo-Saxon legal system in the light of the FIDIC Yellow Book

  49-64

  Sándor Boros

  Views:

  94

  The so-called FIDIC Books made by the International Federation of Consulting Engineers provides different contract samples for construction projects, depending on the type of the project, with the primary aim of summarising best practice and proportionate risk-sharing. FIDIC Books are considered to be the most popular body of law worldwide in connection with construction projects. The Yellow Book is the second most commonly used contract sample, the essence of which is that the contractor’s obligation covers both planning and building. The Yellow Book applies the legal principles and legal institutions of the Anglo-Saxon legal system, which implies that the application of the contract sample in a continental legal context raises several problems regarding to interpretation and application. After an introduction to the interpretation of the Yellow Book in the continental legal context, the study deals with the question of the contractor's liability for damages arising from delay. The author focuses on cases where the delay of the contractor is caused by the principal. In this context, the author outlines a concrete proposal for the application of the law.

• Possibilities of workplace mediation in the European Union

  1-13.

  Aron Balogh

  Views:

  396

  The world of labor market and industrial relations is a field where conflicts and disputes are inevitable characteristics of the operation, regardless of the form of employment. Also, labor disputes appear both from an individual aspect, where the disputants are the employer and the employee, and in a collective respect, where the disputes take place between the employer(s) and the collective of the workers, typically represented by an employee organization (union) or a works council. 

  When a conflict or a dispute cannot be resolved through negotiation, the law offers dispute resolution mechanisms for the participants. Therefore, several legal mechanisms have been evolved in order to resolve disputes, starting from the classical form of litigation, where a court determines the end of the dispute by its judgement, and other alternative forms of dispute resolution, such as arbitration, mediation and conciliation, where the parties can reach a decision or a settlement outside of the judicial system of the state.

  EU Member States have introduced various legislative rules for labor dispute resolution covering all manner of individual and collective disputes. ADR schemes are also supported by the ILO, as the ILO Recommendation No. 92 (1951) suggests that voluntary conciliation should be made available to assist in the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes between employers and workers. Within the aegis of the European Union, several instruments have emerged with the attempt to elaborate the basic principles for the operation of ADR schemes in the context of cases between businesses and consumers. The Directive 2013/11/EU on alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes (the “ADR Directive”) and Regulation (EU) No 524/2013 on online dispute resolution for consumer disputes (the “ODR Regulation”) ensured that consumers could turn to quality alternative dispute resolution entities for all kinds of contractual disputes with traders, and established an EU-wide online platform for consumer disputes that arise from online transactions with traders.

  Workplace mediation is widely and successfully utilized in the USA for solely employment purposes both in the private and the public sector. Also, in the United States is a “employment at will” doctrine prevails, that basically means – unless stipulated to the contrary by the parties – the employment relationship can be terminated with immediate effect without any justification (just cause), thus workers do not have access to legal remedies as in the EU where the statutory laws provide a broad protection against arbitrary or unjust termination. Mediation, however, provide an effective solution for employees and workers, even if situated outside the protective scope of labor law.

  While the role of customer/consumer ADR and mediation is increasing throughout the whole European Union, workplace and employment mediation still constitutes a “grey zone”.  In many of the legal instruments of the EU and also in several products of the national legislations, consumers and workers are treated with the same legal awareness, thus protective laws compensate their weaker position in their legal relationships, but as far as the utilization and access of dispute resolution schemes are concerned, a significant but not always reasonable differentiation can be detected. Also, while mediation is an available tool for individual employment matters, still has not been utilized considerably, and remained an instrument only to resolve mostly collective conflicts. Therefore, the aim of this paper to present various styles of mediations from a comparative perspective, to express their biggest advantages and to highlight the areas where mediation could be more suitable to use in the context of the individual disputes of the workplace.

• The impact of inflation on private law relationships

  45-72

  Tibor Kiss

  Views:

  237

  Not for decades have we seen price rises in Hungary, or in Europe and the world in general, such as those faced by the developed world in 2022. Inflation in Hungary was 24.5% in December 2022 and in January 2023, the indicator stood at 25.7%. This article provides a summary of the key concepts related to inflation, going beyond a definitional approach to inflation to cover its types and the most important principles and methods of measuring it. Economic foundations fundamentally determine private legal relations and legal institutions. In such a situation, crisis legislation is triggered, primarily in areas that have the greatest impact on the functioning of the economy and on consumers' daily lives. The present article reviews those important civil law structures and the rules governing them in the Civil Code and other statutory and governmental regulations, the content of which is justified to be amended in a persistent inflationary environment, but which have not been the focus of the legislator so far, emphasizing the need to adapt private law norms to the changed economic environment. The article examines those legal acts in which the legislator has set out in the text of the act data referring to value or price, nominally defining and quantifying in concrete terms the price or value that plays a significant role in a given private legal relationship. This type of legislation, however, does not take into account the changes in value relations at all, so that in an inflationary environment, the price and value figures nominally fixed in the private law norm are not adapted to economic processes, i.e. they are not in line with the current price level determined by economic fundamentals. The author outlines proposals and regulatory techniques for amending the law to adapt these legal provisions to the changed price and value conditions.

• The principles of property value and the appraised value in the system of the tax debt execution proceeding

  Péter Darai

  Views:

  226

  In my essay I’m trying to answer some questions in the topic of the appraisal of real property. During my work – in National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary – I daily meet the problem that the process of appraisal is very complex activity because of many internal and external factors. It needs great attention because the appraised value influences the execution of movable and immovable property and determines the purchase price in compulsory auctions. With this in mind it effects on refundation of tax debt. It is important to note at the same time that the target of the execution is not the recovery of the debt at any cost; at least essential guaranteed procedures which protect the rights of the debtors. In the following lines I focus the operative legislation of the tax execution proceeding and I describe the concerning judicial precedent with particular attention te case law of the Supreme Court. The importance of the subject presented by some decisions of the Constitutional Court. In my opinion without exaggeration the theme is so interesting the recently changed legislation cannot be connected to it because in theory anyone can get into a life situation that execution proceeding so it is worth knowing some rules about it.

• Interpretation anomalies in the Vienna Sale Convention damages practice

  14-26.

  Sándor Boros

  Views:

  256

  The essay is about the interpretion anomalies in connection with damages law practice of The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). This seems to be an essential problem regarding to that the Convention’s breach of contract-system is highly relevant, whereas it must provide a mechanism, which serves international trade between countries with huge legal, economic and social disparaties. At the heart of the system we find damages, which provides an efficient and rapid solution to cure the dysfunctions which can occur with respect to cross-border commercial relationships.

  The provisions of the Convention are of a universal nature, thus they require uniform interpretation and application by the courts of the Contracting States, therefore Article 7, which deals with interpretation of rules and the filling of legal gaps, is indispensable for the successful application of the Convention and the achievement of its objectives. In this essay by analyzing the relevant case law, I was primarily seeking the answer to whether the judges of different countries validate the universiality of the Convention with respect to damages law. In order to answear the question I have analyzed the Convention’s damages practice in relation to interpretation principles set out in Article 7. Within this I have systematically reviewed the practice of Article 74 of the Convention, analyzing a total of 144 cases from 2006 to 2016.

  The revision shows that nine decisions were made during the period under review, where the court has applied national doctrine of liability, law, or practice in connection with the interpretation of Article 74. This method obviously does not promote the realization of uniformity. An internationally uniform sales law will only be realized if it is uniformly applied. For the purpose of the interpretation of the Convention, it follows that requirement the Convention’s provisions must be understood and applied autonomously, separated from their possible national roots. The legal problems discovered in this essay tries to highlight on those issues, which require more attention from the courts, thus confirming the universal character of the Convention.

• Extracts from the regulations settling the tenure of the matrimonial home in Europe

  121-139

  Tamara Dóra Szücs

  Views:

  111

  The tenure of the matrimonial home after divorce is a significant question in several respects. In addition to the fact that both parties are likely to be emotionally attached to the former scene of family life, the wealth factor must be taken into account as well, as it is a valuable property that can be a real trump card for both spouses these days, considering the high property prices. It should also be borne in mind that if a spouse receives the formal matrimonial home, he or she will not be exposed to the inconvenience of finding a suitable home and will not have to leave his or her usual environment. It follows, however, that a spouse who is forced to move must be compensated in some way for these difficulties, even if he or she did not own the matrimonial home. This study intends to examine the regulation of European countries regarding the use of the marital home in the event of divorce, presenting the typical models and the main aspects considered. The purpose of the present work is not to analyse the Hungarian regulations, they are only mentioned for the aim of comparison. As a conclusion of this research, I would like to reveal the most ideal solution for settling the tenure of the matrimonial home in the event of a divorce, the pros and cons of each model, and if states really take family law principles into account.