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• Jurisdictional Constants and Doubtful Questions in Recent Hungarian Jurisdiction of Damages for Non-Pecuniary Loss

  Tamás Fézer

  Views:

  66

  Since 1992, date of Constitutional Court’s decision No. 34/1992, certain rules cannot be found in Hungarian Civil Code. There is only a part of a sentence that gives right to any injured person to claim damages in case of personal injuries. More than 10 years after the cassation we are able to look through the legal practice in connection with damages for non-pecuniary loss. The recent re-codifying process plans a brand new institution to substitute and follow damages for non pecuniary loss: pain award. To establish a decent regulation of pain award, jurisdiction of the last decade cannot be neglected. This essay aims to gather typical and crystallized methods of judgements in certain cases, which could be seen as essential and accepted unwritten rules of jurisdiction concerning this field of damages.

  One of the most difficult problems to solve is the question of amount. This field of damages for non-pecuniary loss is always problematic, because all of the cases are different. Although there are similarities between cases if we examine just damages themselves, but due to the difference of human personality it is almost impossible to give exact phrases and rules to help our judges. We can say that highest amounts are generated by assaults against physical integrity and life. Examination during a legal procedure concentrates on the stress caused by the injury, number of injured rights, age of the injured person and the durability of the harm. If the injured person contributed to the injury, it generates reduced amount of damages.

  Method of compensation is really simple for the first time. Hungarian legal system knows two different types for the method of damages: in kind or in money. Former one is inapplicable for non-pecuniary losses. If we compensate in money, there are two solutions: injured person can get the whole sum immediately or we can choose allowance as well. The adaptation of allowance is rather small in Hungary, in spite of the advantages this legal institution could offer. It does not mean res iudicata, so it is flexible and offers opportunity to adjust to changed circumstances in the future: both duration and amount of allowance could be changed.

  It is an interesting question whether personal circumstances of the misdoer could be examined when calculating the amount of allowance. The answer is not unambiguous. Civil law focuses on compensation for the injured party, not the punishment of the misdoer. In spite of this essential lemma, it is necessary to take into account the solvency of the defendant, if we want the plaintiff to get the adjudged amount really.

  Youth is not the only reason of allowance, sometimes old age could be a well-based legal ground for application of this method of compensation as well. It is really important to examine the personal circumstances of the injured party to choose between these two methods: which one serves the aim of compensation, moderation of lost joy of life the most.

  Civil Code precludes the possibility to apply both methods together for the same plaintiff. In my opinion the solution of German Civil Code (BGB) should be considered. BGB allows both methods together. It means that possibilities could be wider and fit better to the actual case and its circumstances.

   Although obligation of damages has two parties traditionally, in a legal procedure of damages for non-pecuniary loss this bipolar situation can be proven false. On the part of the misdoer it is an interesting question what kind of damages can be blamed the state. In Hungary we can meet rules order the responsibility of the state in the field of medical damages or damages for unlawful arrest and illegal imprisonment. Amounts of damages are the highest in these situations.

  On the part of the injured person an often argued problem the position of secondary victims’ claims. These claims are always problematic, because personality rights belong closely to the person himself and there is no possibility to inherit them. Hungarian Civil Code admits compensation for relatives only in case of injuring reputation of a dead person. There are several decisions in which courts admit these claims on the ground of their sui generis base. It is a decent solution, but because of the uneven jurisdiction it needs codifying.

  We can say that there are a lot of jurisdictional constants in Hungary in connection with damages for non-pecuniary loss. These are easy to collect and most of them are able to be codified in a strictly non-taxative style. But this examination showed that doubtful questions can also be found in Hungary especially the application of allowance, claims of secondary victims. To arrange these problems, starting point should be jurisdiction itself.

• Thoughts about claims of secondary victims for moral damages

  Tamás Fézer

  Views:

  62

  On the very swampy field of damages for non-pecuniary loss there is a special problem called claims of relatives. These claims are also known as claims of secondary victims or third parties. In this legal situation the injury itself hurts not the claimer himself. The claimer has non-pecuniary or moral loss because of his connection with the injured person. He is not the direct and suffering subject but the one who has a loss in his personal rights.

  In Hungary the question is whether these claims can be permitted or not. During the changing structure of damages for non-pecuniary loss in the second half of the 20th century, this problem fitted to the actual judgement of moral damages. Now days the question is a little bit easier: in almost every decision courts admit the right of relatives to claim damages for an injury against there beloved relative, but in most of the cases they demand that plaintiffs has to demonstrate manifested losses not only the infringement of their personality rights.

  In this essay beside the Hungarian jurisdiction I examine German, French, English, Belgian and Dutch legal points of view too. The most interesting and – in my opinion – the one that can be useful for the upcoming new Hungarian Civil Code is the Dutch system.

  Dutch Civil Code limits the possibility of ‘third parties’ to claim damages for non-pecuniary loss as a result of the injury or death of another person. In typical cases the plaintiff would like to claim compensation because he suffered mental illness from witnessing the death of another person, namely a relative. This claim is not awarded by Dutch courts because of the prohibition of Civil Code, but the interpretation of the mentioned provision lives restrictively in jurisdiction. We can find two situations when the claim of third parties can be awarded. First of all, the claimant can only claim for damages, caused by a mental trauma because of being witness of an injury against another person, if he can establish that the aggressor (defendant) also committed an unlawful act vis-à-vis the claimant himself, which resulted in the trauma. It is really difficult to be demonstrated because of the causation required by BW. The process to verify that the aggressor, who committed an unlawful act against another person, causes the trauma is almost impossible in some cases. The second chance of the secondary victim to claim for compensation is if he verifies that the trauma amounts to physical or non-physical injury. If this is the case, the claimant can get compensation of his pecuniary loss (such as cost of medical treatment) and non-pecuniary loss on the basis of his non-physical personal injury.

  A famous case in Dutch case law is ‘Taxi bus case’. A 5-year old little girl was riding her bike close to her home, when a taxi bus overruns her. The bus actually rides over the girl’s head. The mother was immediately warned by one of the neighbours and found her daughter with her face turned to the ground. First, the mother called the ambulance hoping that the girl was still alive. When the mother tried to turn her daughter’s head to look her in the face, she experienced that her hand disappeared into the skull of the girl. The mother noticed that the substance next to her girl’s head was not, as she considered, her vomit, but appeared to be the girl’s brain itself. The mother suffered severe mental illness because of the shock of this sight and the realization. Dutch law is consequent in the question that there is no claim for non-pecuniary damages subsequent to death of a relative.  Taxi bus case was the first when Dutch Supreme Court awarded the right to compensation of non-pecuniary damages to somebody who lost his relative. The decision contained that the act committed towards the child, must also be regarded as tortuous towards the mother. The Court emphasized that there was a distinction between the consequences of the child’s death, for which no non-pecuniary damages may be awarded, and the consequences of the confrontation with the accident, for which damages may indeed be awarded. The mother received 14,000 Euros for non-pecuniary damages. This case shows that although in principle the plaintiff has a right to claim compensation for the exact damages he suffered, the courts are free to assess the damage in a more abstract way, if that corresponds better to its nature.

  Examining this case it is obvious that extra conditions are demanded to claim for non-pecuniary damages because of the loss of a relative. Only the fact of losing a close relative is not enough for a successful action. There have to be special circumstances, which demonstrate that the unlawful act made a direct effect to the plaintiff, who became the primary victim.

  The English solution is interesting because not only the relatives have right to claim but almost anybody who can verify a close relationship with the injured person. In my opinion this system ensures a more coherent and logical jurisdiction, because during the examination of authorization not only a legal fact – being a relative of the injured person – establishes the right to claim but a real emotional relationship.

• New Tendencies in EU Law on Air Passenger Rights

  1-9

  Zoltán Angyal

  Views:

  124

  egulation (EC) No 261/2004 depending on the circumstances of the travel disruption, requires air carriers to: provide passengers with assistance, such as meals, refreshments, telephone calls and hotel accommodation; offer re-routing and refunds; pay a flat-rate compensation of up to €600 per passenger, depending on the flight distance; and proactively inform passengers about their rights.
  Under the Montreal Convention (as translated by Regulation (EC) No 2027/97 into EU law), a passenger may be entitled to compensation in case of mishandled baggage (but with a limit of about €1200), except if the airline can demonstrate it has taken all reasonable measures to avoid the damages or it was impossible to take such measures. Airlines often fail to offer passengers the rights to which they are entitled in instances of denied boarding, long delays, cancellations or mishandled baggage, in particular under Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 ("the Regulation") and Regulation (EC) No 2027/97. Case law has had a decisive impact on the interpretation of the Regulation. The Commission Communication of 11 April 2011 reported on the varying interpretation being taken on the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, due to grey zones and gaps in the current text, and the non-uniform enforcement across Member States. Furthermore, it is difficult for passengers to enforce their individual rights. With regard to Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, the European Parliament asks the Commission to propose a clarification of the passengers' rights, in particular the notion of ‘extraordinary circumstances’. On 13 March 2013, the European Commission made a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 establishing
  8
  common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights and Regulation (EC) No 2027/97 on air carrier liability in respect of the carriage of passengers and their baggage by air. This paper takes a closer look at this proposal. The proposal aims to improve enforcement by clarifying key principles and implicit passenger rights that have given rise to many disputes between airlines and passengers in the past; and by enhancing and better coordinating the enforcement policies carried out on a national level. Issues covered by the proposal are the following.

  Definition of "extraordinary circumstances"

  Right to compensation in case of long delays

  Right to rerouting

  Right to care

  Missed connecting flight

  Rescheduling Tarmac delays

  Partial ban of the "no show" policy

  Right to information

  Handling of individual claims and complaints

  Better take into account the financial capacities of the air carriers

  Ensure better enforcement of passenger rights with regard to mishandled baggage

  Adapt liability limits in accordance to general price inflation

• Előreláthatósági klauzula a szerződések jogában

  Andrea Csécsy

  Views:

  70

  The essay is about the clause of foreseeability in connection with damages for breach of a contract. This seems to be a constant problem throughout the history of law how and when it is reasonably to limit the amount of damages in case of breach.

  The general principle of full compensation originates in the main purpose of private law, restoring the violated financial situation. At the same time in business relations it often happens that damages occurred as consequences of breach highly exceed the contractual interest of the party and generate indirect damages independent from the violator’s influence. This is considered to be the starting point of the dilemma about restricting the damages availably for compensation.

  Full compensation and its relation to breach of a contract occurred in the Hungarian jurisprudence many times. Miklós Világhy suggested the reconsideration of full compensation in contract law in 1971. Attila Harmathy also suggested the implementation of foreseeability clause in the rules of contract law as the ‘best possible way to treat business relations between the parties’.

  Due to the historic and social differences various forms of foreseeability are known in the legal systems.

  The study examines the development of foreseeability, its first codification in the French Napoleonic Code Civil, its application in the law of the USA and some significant sentences of English courts. The first application of foreseeability was in the infamous Hadley v. Baxendale case, in which an English court worked out the meaning of contemplation rules. In the case of Victoria Laundry Ld. v. Newman Industries Ld. (1949) the court defined the meaning of foreseeability. According to the sentence of the case damages are limited to those that were foreseeable for the party at the time of entering a contract. The study also analyzes the German model of restricting damages of breach. The German theory ensures the possibility of exoneration for the violator if the other party failed to give proper information about the unusual danger of breach in the particular case. If the entitled party acted intentionally, the German law accepts exoneration. The essay demonstrates the adequate causality conception of the German law. This theory states that an act can only be the probable cause if – due to the normal and reasonable procession – it is able to cause such consequence. In our opinion foreseeability gives a stricter and much better solution of restricting damages with a more objective measurement for the obliged party on how to calculate his behavior in a certain contractual relation. The amount of risk can be predicted if the rules of damages for breach are based on foreseeability rather than adequate causality.

  The new Hungarian Civil Code plans to establish objective liability in contract law. The only exoneration can be the successful reference to unavoidable external cause. Beside this stricter liability the new Civil Code also introduce the possibility of limitation in damages, the application of foreseeability clause. This seems to be a significant preference for the obliged party. As in the Hungarian legal history foreseeability clause was never used, it is an essential question how judicature will interpret the rule in practice. In our opinion for an adequate application of the new clause it is necessary to take a closer look at the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG), the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL) and the interpretation in the American and English case law. This study tries to give some help for it.

• Judicial practice regarding the compensation for personal injuries caused by the circumstances of penal institutions, violating the fundamental rights of convicts and detainees of other dues

  49-62

  Botond Nagy

  Views:

  316

  The studied topic is the judicial practice regarding the compensation for personal injuries caused by the circumstances of penal institutions, which violate the fundamental rights of convicts and detainees of other dues. Dual research questions have been posed because of the characteristics of the covered topic. The first one is related to civil law and is about demandants’, defendants’ and courts’ attitudes and tendencies relating to the topic in question. The second question, inseparably stemming from the previous one, is from the field of penal execution: what kind of traits can be abstracted from the judicial decisions when it comes to the condition of Hungarian penal institutions.  To answer these, empirical methodology must be applied. Accordingly, I examined 91 judicial decisions from 2014 to 2020. Thus, this study depicts the entirety of the relevant time range, meaning that the demandants’, defendants’ and courts’ characteristics are introduced in their arc of development, rather than pointwisely. In my study I delineate the demandants’ actions firstly: their claims, their supposedly violated rights and the ontological phenomena causing harm. Secondly, as displaying the defendants’ statements of defence, I specify the legal arguments brought on in order to support the claim that the penal institutions caused no harm to those held captive, or that they cannot be obliged to pay compensation. Afterwards, I examine the judicial practice. Firstly, I write about the ways courts treat the claims of ascertainment, namely whether or not the rights of those who are captivated were violated. Subsequently, I portray the claims of detain, about which I illustrate the relevant regime of liability and its partial requirements. Then I write about the matrix of the compensation for personal injury and the indemnification for the prison circumstances, the relation and the delimitation of the two. Finally, I answer the research questions. I draw an ideal model about the first question, in which the parties adduce correctly and make fair judgements.  By these the demandants can make sure that the violation of their rights is ascertained and that they are given compensation.  By following the model, the defendant can achieve the lowest amount of compensation possible, while the court can make the correct decision from a dogmatic point of view. As for the penal executive question, I give suggestions to solve the problem of the circumstances of penal institutions violating fundamental rights.

• Non-competition agreement

  20-28

  Alex Ember

  Views:

  242

  The “agreement on non-competition” is essentially the extension of the protection of the basic economic interest of the employer. While during the employment relationship several labor law provisions protect the interest of both parties, the “agreement on non-competition” is designed to protect the employer’s interests after the termination of the relationship. This means – in return for financial compensation – the former employee needs to refrain from any kind of business competition against his/her former employer. This necessarily involves financial compensation and may have several restrictions, such business or geographical area or time.

   

  The previous Labor Code did not specify for detailed regulation of the issue and the law remained rather vague. It merely referred to the fact that parties – based on their own free will – may enter into such agreement. However the new Labor Code contains explicit regulations under title XVIII of the Act as “Particular Agreements Related to Employment”.

   

  The “agreement on non-competition” belongs to the field of employment law. Unlike the previous Labor Code that categorized this possible agreement as of purely civil law in nature, the new Labor Code declares it to belong under the scope of the Labor Code. The previous regulation even ordered the provisions of the Civil Code to be applied to such agreements however the new legislation brought a conceptual change.

   

  The currently effective regulation provides for a 2-year limitation on such conduct on the employee’s part that would create competition with the employer. The exact amount of the consideration payable for this obligation remains to be decided by the parties however the Labor Code suggests that it shall be based on how difficult the applied restrictions make it for the employee to find another job with his qualifications and experience. As a basic limit the law provides that the amount shall not be less than one-third of the base wage payable for the same period of time.

   

  The “agreement on non-competition” is not to be confused with similar legal institutions. The paper points out two close similarities in the legal system. One being the employee’s obligation of confidentiality; this prevails after termination of the employment relationship as well without any time or similar restrictions and even without any financial compensation. The other one is the so called “non-compete” agreement from the field of competition law. This is applicable after takeovers where the seller shall refrain from engaging into business in the same area as the buyer.

   

  In the field of labor law the time period for the “agreement on non-competition” is up to the agreement of the parties however the new law invokes an upper limit of two years that is following the termination of the employment relationship. This is a decrease from the previous regulation that provided for a period of three years. The agreement can be modified by the consent of both parties just like the employment contract or civil law agreements.

   

  In case of violation of the agreement three cases are to be analyzed. The first is the case of the employee breaching the provisions of the contract. In this case the employee is liable for damages towards his/her former employer. The provisions of the new Civil Code and those of the Labor Code are to be applied to the damages. In the second case the employer may request an injunction to prohibit the employee from any conduct breaching the agreement while the third case involves the breach of the agreement on the employee’s part for which the rules of the Civil Code and the Labor Code are to be applied as well.

• The Rules concerning Compensation for Expropriation in Hungary

  Imre Andorkó

  Views:

  202

  The regulation of expropriation law is indicative of the sound of rule of law. It shows how the state treats vulnerable groups, and people adversely affected by expropriation. In this paper I will give a short overview of the rules concerning compensation for expropriation, from the inception of expropriation law, right up to 2014. I pay particular attention to the characteristics of the regulation in the socialist era between 1948, and the regime change in 1989/1990. I expand on how Hungary tried to free itself of the burdensome heritage of the socialist regulation of that law, after the regime change of 1989/1990. Then I review the current status of legal regulation concerning compensation for expropriation that gives me a great opportunity to and explain suggestions de lege ferenda.

• Thoughts about the latest modification of the Hungarian Act on Copyright

  Tibor Kiss

  Views:

  106

  The Act LXXVI of 1999 on Copyright was amended by the Act CVLV of 2005 with effect of 15 April 2006 in compliance with the provisions of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on measures and procedures to ensure the enforcement of intellectual property rights (hereinafter: “Enforcement-Directive”). The Enforcement-Directive concerns the measures necessary to ensure the enforcement of intellectual property rights (copyrights, patent, trade marks, etc.). The Member States of the European Union had to provide for the proportionate measures and procedures needed to ensure the enforcement of intellectual property rights covered by the Enforcement-Directive. The amended and supplement provisions of the Hungarian Act on Copyright provide efficient shelter for the authors from the infringement of copyright law on the one hand and provide legal (procedural) guarantees for the potential infringers on the other hand.

  There are some new provisions which can be applied against the infringers not only by final judgment but also as provisional and precautionary measures. When a judicial decision has been taken finding an infringement of copyright or neighbouring right, the judicial authorities may serve the infringer with an injunction aimed at prohibiting the continuation of the infringement. The judicial authorities can serve the alleged infringer, or the intermediary whose services are being used by a third party to infringe a right, with an interlocutory injunction intended to prevent any impending infringement of copyright or neighbouring right, or to forbid the continuation of the alleged infringements of copyright or neighbouring right, or to make such continuation subject to the lodging of guarantees intended to ensure the compensation of right holder. The judicial authorities can be empowered to require the applicant to provide any reasonably available evidence to their satisfaction with a sufficient degree of certainty that the applicant is the right holder and that the applicant’s right is being infringed or, that such infringement is imminent. The judicial authorities may order the publication or seizure of bank, financial or commercial documents. The judicial authorities may order the recall, at the infringer’s expense in appropriate cases, of the goods which have been found to infringe copyright or neighbouring right and may order that the goods which have been found to infringe the right, as well as the materials and implements used primarily for the creation or the manufacture of the goods in question, be disposed of outside the channels of commerce, without any compensation being due.  It can be also ordered, that the decision be displayed and published in full or in part in the newspapers or in the internet designated by the right holder.

  The most efficient protection against the usurpation can be satisfied by the parallel regulation of the civil and criminal law. The next steps to be done by the European Union are the criminal law provisions. Besides the regulations, consistent jurisdiction is necessary, in which the courts should play an important role.

• The comparison of the civil law liability for the actions of courts and the civil law liability of attorneys in view of the standard of attributability

  128-148.

  Zsolt Zsurzsa

  Views:

  158

  It is a basic requirement of society that those who are infringed upon in exercising their rights, may enforce the sanctions of the infringement in a judicial process. This process is mainly executed by state courts in most legal systems, which are supposed to settle legal disputes by interpreting the relevant laws, and by taking the relevant case law into consideration. However, this is a complex process that requires professional legal knowledge from the parties. Attorneys are meant to be those professionals, who help people seeking justice to obtain their respective compensation, and also with other problems requiring legal expertise. The attorneys shall also execute this ask to the best of their knowledge. In some cases, however, this legal enforcement process may fail, which may result in the person seeking legal advice or compensation to lose its opportunity to pursue its claim permanently.
  This case might happen as a result of the actions or omissions of courts, or that of attorneys. In these cases, it is logical that the liability of these two actors of justice for the parties’ damages may be decided upon by assessing the quality of work that has led to a person suffering material damages. It would be easy to assume that the standard for the reasonable conduct for both actors is very high. However, apparently the standard for the reasonable conduct of courts seems to be a lot lower than that of attorneys in the judicial practice. In practice, only in case of the most severe infringements of courts may the injured parties receive compensation for damages, while a lot less severe infringement – or even quite the same infringements – may result in the attribution of the attorney’s liability.
  I intend to analyze this difference in the civil liability of the two actors in the light of the legal background, legal practice and the different tasks of courts and attorneys as well as the reasons of this phenomenon, and form an opinion on whether it can be justified or this practice should be discouraged. To do so, I analyze the relevant Hungarian judicial practice and legal science, and cite some foreign examples as well.

• Functional Analysis of Damage Charges

  97-117.

  András Mátyus

  Views:

  232

  Replacing the legal institution for non-pecuniary damages burdensome by previous theoretical and practical contradictions, Act V of 2013 (Civil Code) introduces damage charges as a separate sanction for violation of personal rights, which has dual functions: on the one hand, it aims for the person being injured in its personal rights receive a monetary allowance that approximates or compensates for the non-material damage suffered. On the other hand, it can also be considered as a punishment under private law for the prevention of similar infringements, as a deterrent.

  According to the intended interpretation, the damage charge can only be applied if it is able to fulfill its function, i.e. if no non-pecuniary damage can be detected for which the damage charge is intended for proportional compensation (primarily), it has no place at all since in the case of infringements leaving the personality untouched, only the punitive function would be exercised, which is completely incompatible with the inherently remedial, corrective nature of private law. According to the unanimous opinion of the legal literature, the compensatory function should have priority and private punishment only take precedence of a secondary nature. On the basis of my work, it is noticeable that judges also consider damage charges as a legal instrument to repair the immaterial injuries suffered and to compensate for the lost pleasures of life, and to not order it upon preventive reasons solely, but in the plurality of cases, preventive function is being evaluated as a factor enhancing the amount of the damage. In my study, I wish to analyze from several aspects, how the dual function of the damage charge is assessed by the courts concerning present cases, by highlighting which nature is protruding concerning the amount or the legal basis. As the research is basically empirical, I will examine through as many judgments as possible, what aspects the courts evaluate in the framework of the compensational (e.g.: physical injuries, mental changes, age, family life of the victim, change in lifestyle, etc.) and of the preventive function (e.g. the gravity of the infringement, its protracted nature, etc.). Finally, I would like to answer the central question of my thesis: what function does practice attribute to the payment of damage charges.

• The essential aspects of the protection of wages in Hungarian labour law’s regulation and legal practice

  27-37

  Nóra Kristóf

  Views:

  40

  The aim of my publication is to scrutinise the Hungarian rules concerning the protection of wages and concluding how effectively they serve the social interests of employees. Furthermore, I researched if the regulation is efficient and consistent enough to protect the employees in point of the compensation for work.

  During the research, I was examining the efficiency of the protection of the employees and their salaries in practice. The other question was whether the current regulation is satisfactory enough to provide the main purposes. In order to answer these questions I was analysing the theoretical dimension and the judicial practice as well.

  I concluded that even if there are some incompleteness and inconsistency in the Hungarian labour law, the regulation seems appropriate and rational concerning the interests of the employees. In my opinion, the social function of labour law serves the employees’ interests enough to give them a decent standard of living.

• The civil liability of the medical doctor

  28-42

  György Juhász

  Views:

  294

  The article wish to briefly cover the civil liability of the medic. The actuality of this topic is exemplified well by the fact that court trials for compensation of damages against healthcare providers show an increasing tendency year by year. It is deem important to briefly delineate the drawing of line between the civil and criminal liability during the presentation of the civil liability. After speaking about issues of drawing of line, the study is going to cover the effective liability for damages of the medic. While explaining the liability for damages of the medic, it will cover the concept of legal nature of invasive procedures, matters concerning the liability of healthcare institutions, and the basic topics of tort and contractual liability. The article is going to introduce the issues concerning illegality, the patient’s right to self-determination, his or her right to information, the obligation of medics to disclose information, in addition to matters related to the concept of the legal nature of informed consent along with the connected judicial practice in the chapter about the informed consent of the patient. As for closure, during the analysis of issues regarding evidence, it wish to cover the rules of culpability, the choice for healing methods of medics, and medical documentation, respectively.

• Agents and Insiders – The Relationship Between Agency Costs and Insider Trading

  54-64

  András Kecskés

  Views:

  183

  This paper examines insider trading regulation regulations from the viewpoint of agency costs. An overview is given regarding the different definitions of insider trading in jurisprudence which helps establishing the essence of this behaviour. The author also aims to give an insight to the agency problem and agency costs which arise in a business organisation with separate ownership and management. Only through that can be the effects of insider trading demonstrated on agency costs. The article aims to give a balanced overview by enumerating reasons whether insider trading increases or decreases agency costs. If it raises agency costs then prohibition is justified. If it decreases agency costs, e.g. it serves as a more efficient compensation mechanism, then allowing insider trading might be more beneficial.

• Skócia és Anglia – reform a tisztességtelen kereskedelmi gyakorlatok terén

  35-42

  Edit Zsuzsanna Tárczy

  Views:

  90

  After the implementation of the 2005/29/EC Directive on unfair commercial practices (hereafter: UCPD) in the United Kingdom is has been discovered that the misleading and the aggressive practices are targeting many people. Some of them moreover damage the reputation of the traders who act legally, and the reputation of the market.

  So, the Scottish Law Commission and the Law Commission for England and Wales want to create a new system on remedies. Because of this aim the two commission started a consultation in April, it ended in July. 

  Presently, The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (hereafter: CPRs) – which was one of the regulations which have implemented the rules of the UCPD – contains rules on the liability for unfair commercial practices, and - according to the rules – the realization of the practices is an offence.

  But in respect of civil law the rules don’t have unity: the rules of misrepresentation are applied in the case of misleading practices, but in the case of aggressive practices there aren’t rules.

  The two commissions want to create a new consumer protection act, which will complete the rules of the CPRs. In this act there will be two levels of remedies:

  • on the first level the main aim will be the restoration of original condition (before the contract)
  • on the second level the main aim will be the compensation.

  The commissions hope that after the reform the following will be:

  • because of the clearer rules the claims will become more successful
  • because of the clearer rules the traders’ - who are acting legally - costs will decrease
  • the costs of the organizations – which are dealing with consumer protection – will decrease after the reform, and the proceedings of them – perhaps – become more successful.

  The two commissions will publish the data from the consultation in March 2012.

• Introduction to the Hungarian worker’s compensation system

  Alex Ember

  Views:

  58

  Without abstract.

• Civil law dogmatic deficiencies and legislative hiatuses in a private law legislation: Short case study

  49-66

  Tibor Kiss

  Views:

  113

  Based on the Government Decree 383/2023 (VIII.14.) on the ministerial approval of lease contracts of companies directly or indirectly majority-owned by the state, the article presents a case study showing that the legislation suffers from numerous "legal errors" that violate the provisions of the Legislation Act and is not in line with the fundamental doctrinal principles of civil law. The case study describes in detail the provisions of Act CXXX of 2010 on Legislation that the Government Decree does not comply with and shows how imprecise wording leads to problems of interpretation. The paper points out the private law terminus technicus which the legislator did not apply correctly (the party of the lease contract, consideration, invalidity - ineffectiveness) and the author proposes to correct the errors and to clarify certain normative provisions.