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• Thoughts about accessory private prosecution

  Sándor Kardos

  Views:

  71

  In Hungary the new code of criminal procedure established a new legal institution to the Hungarian legal system: accessory private prosecution. This kind of private prosecution gives opportunity to the afflicted person to continue penal procedure in case of negative sentences from investigation authorities. If the prosecutor or the investigation authority stops proceeding or the prosecutor sets aside, withdraws formal accusation, afflicted person can substitute them during a penal procedure and has a right to claim the continuation of it. Our valid code does not limit the field of crimes this legal institution of accessory private prosecution can be applied. But there are some strict reasons, which limit this right of the afflicted person. If the investigation authorities neglected formal accusation because of childhood, death, prescription, clemency, prohibition of ne bis in idem, accessory private prosecution cannot be applied.

  Pros of accessory private prosecution can be found in the rights of afflicted persons. Criminal power of the state cannot be absolute, so we have to give the right for the injured to judge whether he insists on taking the responsibility of the perpetrator despite the opposite opinion of public bodies. This legal institution can help omissions of prosecutors to be remedied. Practicing this right depends on the stadium of the procedure. During the investigation period or the period of formal accusation reasons for accessory private prosecution are different.

  According to the new rules of the code, applying an advocate in the procedure is an obligation for the afflicted person. This regulation ensures that the structure of penal proceedings cannot be changed basically. In a normal procedure there is always a professional expert, the prosecutor on the side of accusation. That is why the code does not permit accusation without applying an advocate.

  Costs are interesting question in case of accessory private prosecution. In popular action procedures costs are paid by the state. When the afflicted person practices the right of accessory private prosecution, state pays in advance, but if perpetrator is acquitted or the court stops proceeding, costs should be paid by the private prosecutor himself. There are some rules to ease this burden for the afflicted person: if he has bad financial capacity and he can certify this circumstance, court can authorize him not to pay for the fee of the advocate.

  There is a special question in connection with accessory private prosecution: representation of the state. In these procedures the afflicted person is the state or one of the state bodies itself. There are two points of view to answer the question: who is authorized to represent the state as an accessory private prosecutor during a penal procedure. First we have to make difference between the injuries: if the injury is against the state while practising public authority, the injured party is the state itself. But if the injury hit the state as a civil legal entity, a possessor, the right to claim is in the hand of that public body, which was entrusted to handle the injured property. This theory means that in case of injuries against the public author state, only the prosecutor can represent it, so there is no chance for accessory private prosecution.

  The other solution for this problem has its starting point that in every crime against public property, accessory private prosecution can be applied. In this case the state can be represented by that part of it, which has interest. Although there are no jurisdiction in this question, because accessory private prosecution was established by the new code from 1st July 2003 after fifty years into the Hungarian legal practice. According to the regulations of the code, we can find the following sentence: afflicted person is whose right or legal interest was hurt or endangered by the crime. Analyzing this definition the argument can be read previously is decent for those situations, when we would like to find the legal representative of the state as an accessory private prosecutor.

  Accessory private prosecution is a good solution that fits to the new directions of law development, to increase rights of the afflicted person. Naturally, time needs to become a well-adopted legal institution in Hungarian legal system after half a century silence.

• Lack of Balance In Contract Law: the State as Contractual Party

  Ágnes Enikő Béky

  Views:

  291

  Contractual relations mean balanced cooperation between the parties. Right and obligations on both sides are equal. This seems to be a classic essential of contracts. As of many among the terms and condition in contract law, special situations clam for a different perspective. This essay is about a unique problem in contract law that origins from the ancient dilemma about the role of the state in private law relations.

  State as a sovereign has original power and hierarchic connection to citizens. In the field of constitutional law, public administration law, criminal law it is necessary to transfer certain right to the state and allow it determining one-sided obligations that cannot be changed in a particular relation. The theory of state immunity failed in the 20th century in private law. Since jurisprudence makes a difference between the role of the state as a merchant and a sovereign, we cannot maintain the old immunity rights of the state anymore.

  In the essay we examine three specific questions in connection with state participation in contracts. The first part of our study analyzes the strange legal arguments in a famous Hungarian case, called the Subway case. In this case the reasoning of the Supreme Court denied the balanced elements in a private contract and accepted a redefined theory of state immunity in private relations. Although there is a strong political content in the story and right after the criticized decision the Hungarian Civil Code was modified to clear the facts, we want to prove that even today state participation can cause interferences in the coherent theory of contracts.

  A specific contract type is examined in the second chapter of the essay, the concession agreement. This contract is far from the balanced theory of party positions due to its unique nature and content. We emphasize many different aspects in mixing private and public law nature of provisions and rules. Concession agreement is an excellent example to demonstrate extra-rights on the side of the state.

  Finally we spare some words on authority contracts in which state authorities can manage debates in public administration procedures with using the private law nature of contracts.

• Theoretical issues of equal treatment in relation to the legal classification of labour law

  57-79

  István Herdon

  Dóra Takács

  Views:

  187

  There are many national and international academic debates on the classification of labour law. On the one hand, labour law can be categorised as private law when we consider the establishment of employment relationships. The legal basis for an employment relationship is exclusively the employment contract, thus labour law belongs to classical private law. On the other hand, the content of the employment relationship can be determined not only by the employment contract, but also by a number of other rules. These norms typically have public law content and, as so-called public law elements of labour law, seek to limit the contractual freedom of the parties. The existence of public law elements is typically justified by the legislator on the grounds that there is subordination between the parties in the employment relationship, so that the contractual balance of rights, which is characteristic of private law, is shifted in favour of the employer. The presence of elements of public law, and in particular the requirement of equal treatment, is intended to redress this imbalance in employment law by limiting the contractual freedom between the parties. In the present article, we examine in particular whether the presence of public law elements gives labour law a specificity of its own. In addition, focusing on the principle of equal treatment, we examine how the prohibition of discrimination in labour law and classical private law can be interpreted and whether this general behavioural requirement is capable of redressing the balance that has been shifted between the parties. Finally, we ask the rhetorical question: if the requirement of equal treatment is capable of redressing the balance, why is there a need for additional public law elements in labour law?

• Functions and interpretation of principles in the German contract law

  Andrea Csécsy

  Views:

  52

  To describe the functions of principles we can say that all of them are fundamental basis of an area of law. They declare or solve concrete debates between the parties. If there is a problem with interpreting of a rule in the civil code, judges has this helping hand. In Germany the development of principles in the field of contract law has a really unique historical root. At the time of BGB’s birth, the German Civil Code did not accept any exculpation under the rule pacta sunt servanda. Moral philosophers acknowledged that a contract as private interest of the parties needs special protection from the state. It is not only a personal relationship, because self welfare leads to welfare of the public. The law has to regulate this field and give instruments of protection for both parties to ensure peace and equality in the field of public relations and moral.

  After the First World War, Rechtsmark (German currency) had its deepest point in its history. The inflation was so high that the performance of a contract made before the war was absolutely unfair for the supplier. For the cost of one galloon gas anyone could buy the entire stock after the war. There was a too late and too small reaction from the state for this situation. An Act had been accepted in 1925 about revalorization. The main fault of this Act was the strict and very small applicability in the field of contracts. The regulations of it were applicable only for contracts with large economic potential.

  German jurisdiction had to solve the problem. The most difficult part of this process was how to dissolve the strict paradigm of pacta sunt servanda. Oertmann, a German legal expert created the collapse of the foundation of the transaction. It meant that changed circumstances deprive the contract from its ground, the need of the party. Anybody who signs a contract has a need and tries to create all conditions of that specific contract to harmonize with his or her needs and interest. In case of an essential change of circumstances this interest modifies and the original transaction became tremendously onerous for him or her. The doctrine of Oertmann was insisted on pacta sunt servanda, so after the change of circumstances the whole contract failed.

  Jurisdiction in Germany accepted Oertmann’s doctrine with a completion. Judges vindicated the right for themselves to modify the contract to be suitable for the new interests of the parties. This modification meant the implementation of clausula rebus sic stantibus into German contract law. It became applicable worldwide in the field of long term relationship of the parties.

  In this essay I examine not only the development of these contractual principles in Germany but the effectiveness and functions of them. I describe and define the legal interest of regulating contracts and what is the connection between private and public interest in the field of the law of contracts. As a defect of the contractual procedure non-performance and other breach of a contract have special importance in civil law. Good faith is a basic principle of civil law in Hungary too and in most European civil codes. The interpretation of German good faith theory (Treu und Glauben) is significant from the viewpoint of the judicial modification of contracts. In case of clausula rebus sic stantibus if the party wants to ground his or her claim, he or she has to prove the good faith as a moral standard to be an exculpation under the heavy burden of pacta sunt servanda. The conclusion is that in Germany the basic element of private contracts is not the consent of parties but good faith of them. The socially excepted moral appears through the requirement of good faith of the parties. The law has to ensure that in any period of a contractual relationship this good faith exists.

• 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.

• The syndicate agreement

  45-57

  Krisztina Nagy Barna

  Views:

  231

  Before the new codex of civil law the law of business associations was cogent, that is why the syndicate agreement became a popular contract again. Yes, I would like to emphasize again, because in the past decade, after the commercial law became valid, this type of agreement and cooperation, what was regulated by the syndicate agreement was well known in the Hungarian civil law. Namely this commercial law had a provision, which said, that every occasional associations i.e. civil association or consortiums, are actually civil associations not business associations. The bottom line is, they are contractual collaborations, with one purpose, to make profit. If someone comes to make this kind of cooperation/collaboration, it has to be regulated by a syndicate agreement.

  After the WWII, the syndicate agreement was not popular. By the time when the first law of business association entered into force, this type of cooperation reached high popularity, because of the cogent rules, in respect of the private limited company. This is the reason why the syndicateswith vote became so popular,and they will be after a dispositive civil codex.

  First I would like to present syndicate agreement of company law, second I would like to give a brief overview about the syndicate agreement of public law.

• Atypical Contracts in Hungary and Serbia

  1-16

  Tekla Papp

  Attila Dudás

  Views:

  107

  The paper analyzes the notion and types of atypical contracts, primarily in the Hungarian and
  Serbian law, but also in wider, European perspective. The analysis sheds light on the different
  terms used in different legal systems to denominate contracts that do not fit explicitly into the
  range of nominate contracts, that is into the range of contract-types envisaged by the civil
  code or code of obligations, respectively. According to the Hungarian legal literature, all civil
  law contracts are divided into two main groups: nominate and innominate contracts. The
  former group is further divided into the categories of typical and atypical contracts, while the
  latter into the categories of mixed contracts and de facto innominate contracts.
  The authors conclude that there is a tendency in Europe, both in the jurisprudence, the
  legislation and the application of law, to create a unified and coherent law of contracts, which
  affects the range of atypical contracts as well. Most notably, the Draft Common Frame of
  Reference, the normative proposal of the Study Group on a European Civil Code and the
  Research Group on EC Private Law (Acquis Group), contains model rules on franchise, timesharing,
  commercial agency and treatment contracts, just as rules on electronic commerce, on
  the one hand. The legislation of the European Union, on the other, aims at the highest possible
  level of harmonisation of laws which, from the aspect of protection of consumers and
  competition law, affects the range and statutory content of atypical contracts. Finally, the
  paper refers to a series of decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union that tackle
  certain features of the atypical contracts, whereby the Court in the determination of issues of
  contract law applies a rather functional approach.

• Thoughts about the new directions of European contract law

  Ágnes Enikő Béky

  Views:

  58

  On the field of contract law the European Union started a wide legislative effect at the end of the 20th Century. Despite of the originally economic and public legal goals of the Communities recently the competence of the EC institutions conquest a major field in the area of private law. To ensure the fast and non-problematic acceptance of these directives concerning to contract law EC chose two important solutions. Most of the directives focus on the neglected area of the so-called atypical contracts (hawk contracts, e-commerce contracts, leasing contracts, factoring contracts, etc.). As these contractual forms were born in the hands of business actors, most of the European civil codes do not deal with them in an explicit way. As a gap of law this area is the best approach to create unified legal institutions in all Member States’ legislation. The other relevant factor is the law of consumer protection. This is not only a fashionable topic in Europe but a rather underdeveloped issue in – especially – the new Member States. Almost all legal institutions in the EC directives in connection with contract law contain a strong link to protecting customers. As and indirect effect, these new institutions (such as consumer’s right to withdrawal) found their ways in the national codes to be flagships applicable for all consumer contracts. This essay contains thoughts about these relevant changes in approaching contract law from the rather unique EC perspective.

• 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.

• Unilateral determination of working time in the effective regulations of labor law

  63-80

  Szabó Mercédesz

  Views:

  269

  In most cases, law does not differentiate between various people in equal-level positions of a contract; during sales, the State has the same rights and obligations as the contracting private person.  Labor law is a specific field of law where one of the parties that are theoretically on equal level – i.e. the employee – is actually in a somewhat subordinated and obviously more exposed position. In the light of the foregoing, it is especially notable that there are some fields of labor right where the third way applies; parties are not equally positioned in terms of power; however, it is not the employee who gets legal assistance for the equality of opportunities, but the law itself supports their disadvantaged position.  Such situation is called the legal situation of unilateral power, and we aim to study to what extent it is present in Hungarian labor law and how advantageous or disadvantageous this it to the parties.  The field of law where one is likely to detect the traces of unilateral power is the legal regulation related to working time, which, therefore, is the subject of this study, and the definition of working time will hereinafter be looked into from the aspect of the employer’s unilateral right to establish employment. Unilateral power is basically not typical to be enforced in labor law, and therefore, working time-related regulations – that belong to the employer’s own discretion – form an exception in such respect. At the same time, the option of flexible work order provides an exception from the superiority of unilateral power, and therefore it is actually an exception to the exception. Such complex system, however, provides the option to make sure whether the enforcement of unilateral power is constructive in labor law, or it would be more reasonable to apply a more balanced system such as the principle of the employer’s ultima ratio as suggested by Guy Davidov. While noting that according to those described above, flexible work order poses some potential risks, too, in our opinion, it would be more efficient and social to set up a consensus-based system, which would also allow us to satisfy our obligation of European Union legal harmonization. Hungarian legislation, and labor law legislation in particular has numerous tasks to do in order to promote the solution of socio-economic problems, as well as to fulfill our obligations related to legal harmonization; in our opinion, the conclusions above confirm that making working time regulations more liberal is one of the major tasks of legislation.

• The connection between the work of the judicial experts and the public sector

  27-41

  Zsuzsanna Halmosné Siket

  Views:

  147

  This is an essay about the connection between the judicial experts and the public sector. The expert opinion has a special role in the system of the envindeces in the criminal procedure. The expert opinion as a kind of evidence has a short history in the criminal procedure, because this evidence is the product of the new age. The second difference from the other evidences that the judicial expert needs a special quality, and because of this cause the law rules controls who has premitted to become expert and make expert opinion. The Criminal Procedure Act controls when should and when must delegate a judicial expert the criminal procedure. Consequently the state has a main role in connection with the activity of the experts by the law rules.

  In the first part I show the short history of the appearance of the expert opinion in the criminal procedure.

  In the second part I show the main law rules in connection with the judicial experts, and I write about the expert chambers, the list of experts, and the professional institutes and corporations.

  The third part is about the fees and taxes in connection with the judicial experts. In this part I show the problems about who have to pay the fees in the end of the criminal procedure. The acitvity of the judicial expert is always expensive, so the expeneses can grow quickly. If the accused is acquited the expense will stay in encumbrance of the state, and if the accused is convicted, the accused will have to pay the expenses. So this expenses are enourmous encumbrances for everyone. This problem has waited solution yet. Reduction of  costs or hunting out  justice ?  Sometimes very hard to decide, which one is the better. The judicial experts also work in the private sector. The competition of the judicial experts is big in the private sector, and this phenomenon is influences the private prices.

  The end of the essay is a summary which contains my main conclusions.

• A short study on Danish Act on Names

  Zoltán Megyeri-Pálffy

  Views:

  55

  In Denmark until around 1850-1870 most ordinary people used patronymics instead of surnames, however, in 1812 the Danish government passed a law requiring families to choose a fixed surname that future generations should continue to use. In 1826 patronymics were abolished by law. It took several decades for patronymics to disappear.

  Constantly changing names had given reasons for this regulation. The patronymics (as family names) were not favourable for property circumstances and registration.

  Today the Danish name system bases on the Danish Act on Names. This act contains regulation of last names, middle names, first names, procedure of giving names and the changing of names, private international law relations and penal provisions.

  This Danish act is very permissive, because it allows using traditional patronymics and in the same time encourages individuals to choose a new surname. So a name which is not used as a last name in Denmark can be adopted as a last name but some conditions must be effective.

  In Denmark last names borne by 2,000 individuals or less are protected and cannot be adopted by other individuals. This is an unusual form in protection of names.

  There is a lot of similarity between Hungarian and Danish right of name, enough to think about the first names. Either in Denmark and in Hungary a first name cannot denote the opposite gender in relation to the individual who will bear the name. There is a list of names for boys and girls, which is identical with the Hungarian list of first names compiled by Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

  Why can this Danish act be interesting for a Hungarian lawyer?

  In Hungary the regulations of names were very scattered, so the rules were on every level of the sources of law. Since 2004 this situation is not so unfavourable, but we still do not have one unified act on names as it is in Denmark. So the Danish act can be a good example to examine how we can establish a similar unified regulation in Hungary.

• Stations in legal history of error; focused on Nándor Bernolák’s thesis of error

  Katalin Mónusné Kiss

  Views:

  67

  I examine one of the grounds for the preclusion of culpability and grounds for the termination of culpability: error. Grounds for the preclusion of culpability are the followings: infancy, abnormal mental condition, constraint and menace, error, negligible degree of danger to society of an act, self-defence, extreme necessity (emergency), absence of private motion, other grounds defined in the Act. Grounds for the termination of culpability are: the death of the perpetrator, prescription, remission, cessation or becoming negligible of the dangerousness for society of the act, other grounds defined in the Act.

  Grounds for the preclusion of culpability and grounds for the termination of culpability mean that culpability shall be precluded.

  Error - as an obstacle of the preclusion of culpability – is not as usual as other grounds for the preclusion of culpability, for example: insane mental state, constraint or menace. Error means - 27. § of the Hungarian Criminal Code – that the perpetrator shall not be punishable for a fact of which he was not aware on perpetration. The person, who commits an act in the erroneous hypothesis that it is not dangerous for society and who has reasonable ground for this hypothesis, shall not be punishable. Error shall not exclude culpability, if it is caused by negligence and the law also punishes perpetration deriving from negligence.

  I examine error’s ruling from Roman law to now days. One of the most important books was written by Nandor Bernolak: The Error doctrine. I succeeded Bernolak’s method to search how error was regulated in different ages. Bernolak wrote his essay in 1910, so he described the rules of error as it appeared in Code Csemegi. I follow his method during the examination of 1950.:II. Criminal Code of General Part, 1961. IV. Criminal Code and finally 1978. IV. Criminal Code.

  I found many differences and similarities between Criminal Codes, Propositions, and finally I compiled a table about the changes of the development in error’s legal history.

  There is a rule that is known generally from Roman law: „ignorantia facti, non iuris excusat”, which means: ignorance of the law means no excuse.

• Certain private law aspects of the law on the transfer of agricultural holdings

  65-97

  János Dúl

  Views:

  88

  In this study I will examine the law on the transfer of agricultural holdings, focusing on the provisions that can be related to private law. The aim of the law was to facilitate generational change in the field of agriculture, and I believe that farm transfer contracts can be an effective tool for the transfer of agricultural holdings, but it is not yet known to what extent they will be used and to what extent they will be able to fulfil the hopes placed in them.

• Fragmentation and changes in Hungarian succession law

  81-103

  Tibor Kiss

  Views:

  245

  The right to inherit is recognized in the Fundamental Law, the detailed substantive legal rules are laid down in the Seventh Book of the Civil Code. In recent years, the legislator has formulated rules of substantive succession in other legislation beyond our private law code (the Civil Code). According to the Registered Partnership Act, the rules applicable to the spouse apply mutatis mutandis to the registered partner, which means that the registered partner is also a legal heir. The special rules for the acquisition of ownership of agricultural and forestry land by succession by will are laid down in the Land Traffic Act (Act CXXII of 2013). On 1 January 2023, a new law will enter into force (Act CXLIII of 2021), which will supplement the succession law provisions of the Civil Code in the case of joint legal intestate succession of undivided common ownership of agricultural land by several heirs. The designation of a public body to represent the State in succession matters is provided for in a separate ministerial decree. The present article analyzes how all these complex, fragmented regulations make it difficult to enforce the law and the extent to which it hinders the speedy execution of probate proceedings. The present article criticizes the fragmented regulation and proposes the integration of the rules of the separate laws into the Civil Code, as this could contribute to a more efficient application of the law.

• Regulatory issues of intellectual property rights

  27-33.

  György Csécsy

  Views:

  166

  The study finds that the regulation of intellectual property is dominated by civil law rules. The old Civil Code expressed the correlation with the law of intellectual property and regulated the legal protection of know-how, however, the legal material could be found in the separate legal acts organically related to it. The new Civil Code, Act V of 2013 is no longer entitled as intellectual property rights but “copyright and industrial property rights”, and know-how has been protected as a form of trade secret. The homogeneous nature of copyright is broken by Act XCIII of 2016, which provides for collective rights management. In the field of industrial property protection, the most problematic legal institution was know-how. The LIV Act of 2018, which was born after the rules of the new Civil Code, opens a new chapter in the regulation of know-how. In this connection, the law transposes Directive 2016/943/EU into the Hungarian law. The legislator therefore chose the solution that it has incorporated the new conceptual approach, legal institutions, and rules of procedure for the protection of business secrets into national law not by creating them in the Civil Code but by creating new legislation. In this way, the private secrets of natural and legal persons will continue to enjoy the protection of personal rights, while trade secrets and know-how will enjoy protection based on the logic and sanction system of intellectual property protection.

• Mortgage and credit guarantee registry

  15-26

  Fanni Ferenczi

  Views:

  172

  Analyzing th esystem of mortgage we must reach back to the Roman Law. At that era it had been possible to pledge liabilities, rights and moreover aggregated asset, property. Mortgage is a long term institute of Hungarian Private Law as well. Paragraphs 251 – 269 of Act IV of 1959 on the Civil Code of the Republic of Hungary regulates mortgage in the Law of Obligations, placed among collaterals. In the last two decades the old Civil Code of the Republic of Hungary has been modified twice. Act V of 2013on the Civil Code of the Republic of Hungary weakens but definitely rewritten the principles of lending. Regulation of mortgage and the system of chattel mortgage registry has significantly changed. Several novelty has been introduced therefore the system of chattel mortgage registry was reformed too. Detailed regulations of credit guarantee registry in Act CCXXI of 2013 and Act 18/2014. (III. 13.) KIM has also been accepted correspondingly to the previous changes.

• Basic Questions of the Protection of Privacy in Private Law

  Tamás Fézer

  Views:

  188

  Privacy has become a hot topic in personality rights protection in the 21^st century all over the world. Classic personality rights did not cover all aspects of modern privacy law and the lack of an exhaustive list for personality rights also left many questions unanswered. The right to privacy is hard to define and it is even more difficult to identify the limits of this sensitive right. Our goal is to analyze various definitive attempts to privacy and synthetize them with actual judicial practice in order to get closer to what privacy law truly covers in modern jurisdictions. Even if brand new challenges arise almost every day, privacy remains a powerful instrument to provide autonomy to individuals and sometimes to legal entities.

• Problems of globalization examining the development of local governments

  Tamás Horváth M.

  Views:

  55

  In Hungary almost every reform has its reference to the integration in the west, especially European Union. The explanation for failures is the difficulties of adjustment. The dilemma is what kind of reasons result this problem: is it a national feature or the original distress of Hungary. We can say that the root of it is the problem of following patterns. The origin of these patterns are from the western world but these patterns needed years or sometimes ages to reach the present situation. It was an organic development.

  In our modern world we can find plenty of legislative elements of globalization, unifying and harmonizing rules and institutions. Most of the international economic organizations make every effort to harmonize economic institutions, but the example of European Union shows that borders are not as simple as it seems. This harmonization and unification has to surpass it to a wider perspective (e.g. administration, public education, telecommunication or private law institutions, etc.).

  In the study I examine the development of self-governing and local governments. In Hungary over the last years – since the birth of self-governing – many changes could be found. Reforms followed reforms. According to a survey the most important fields of reforms are the following:

  • decentralization
  • privatization
  • decreasing the role of public sector
  • reform of the law for public servants
  • information technology
  • financial and budgetary management.

  Reforms of local governments are part of the globalization especially in those countries where change of the regime has happened. To reach the desired western pattern some lemmas are necessary:

  • constitutional state
  • territorialism of state
  • guaranteed financial sources
  • stability from the perspective of economy and policy.

  These foundational criterions are spread by international organizations like NAFTA, GATT, WTO, IMF, WB, OECD or EU itself. Plenty of recommendations exist on this field for administration and local governments. The Council of Europe has a basic document, the Charta of European Local Governments.

  If we examine the problem closer we can see that in spite of every recommendation or regulation, local governments are in trouble for example in Hungary. There are exact rules or principles to ensure the liberty or free space for them, but financial problems always exist.

  In the essay I analyzes the way of following patterns in typical countries and try to show how hard is to introduce a pattern from a moment to another that has prestigious past.

• International aspects of basic regulations regarding softwares – with special attention to German legal solutions

  Tekla Papp

  Ádám Auer

  Views:

  111

  Competion in the field of Informational Techonology influences our everyday life; a competion realized in a global playground, not reduced into a national framework. Joining the discussion around optimal software protection, we introduce some foreign software regulations in our essay from different given aspects, and finally we analyse German legal solutions regarding softwares. Observation of foreign regulations related to softwares and their protection is needed because there are still a lot of unanswered questions around software as a legal instrument. Inadequacy of copyright to serve protection of softwares and the need to create sui generis protection come up in the latest researches. Furthermore, the number of inventions supported by IT and the number of software supported technological solutions increase in our days, and that moves this legal instrument into the field of patent jurisdictions and industrial property. Efficient legal protection is both a tool and a goal in the system, since elaboration and support of genuine ideas are priority interests. According to our opinion, it is not only the task but also the obligation of private law – as the law regulating basic rights of natural persons and legal entities in personal and financial context – to set up proper regulation in this system.

• Legal relations in German partnership under the Civil Code

  Veronika Szikora

  Views:

  62

  Partnership under the civil code is a harsh institution in Hungarian legal system. Despite of this fact, most of the European countries apply this legal entity a lot as a background for other, more complicated corporate forms. In my essay I demonstrate those rules in German Civil Code (BGB), which show the importance and opportunities of these partnerships.

  If we would like to describe the essentials of partnerships under the Civil Code, the most important question is the legal relations from both inner and external point of view. Internal relations mean an obligation between the parties, who form this partnership. It is natural that we can find both rights and commitments between founders. This is a contract but BGB says that all parties have equal rights and commitments in the same partnership. As a general rule of the Code, it is permissive, not cogent. BGB has basic regulation for operating such a partnership, but can be useful if founders live with this permissive opportunity and shape special rules for their partnership, which fit to their aims, functions, different financial potential of the parties.

  There is a chance for founders to neglect building a whole structure and organization for their partnership, if they want to operate it as an inner partnership, without external relations, focusing only for the rights and omissions between the parties.

  From all contract that establishes a partnership under the Civil Code membership rights follow. These rights cannot be transferred. A distinction can be made between administrational, common business management and financial rights. Rights to common business management can consist of right to information, right to supervision or the most important right to vote. Financial rights gather typical rights such as right to dividend or liquidity proportion. These rights are social omissions from the viewpoint of the partnership itself, as these are for the interest of the parties.

  The most important omissions of the founders are financial contribution to establish the partnership. This regulation results from that partnership is to promote common aim of the founders, and to achieve this, all of them have to make available pecuniary or non-pecuniary assets. According to a special rule of BGB, over against the other corporate forms, members of the partnership have no omission to increase or complete their assets.

  Management of the partnership is not only a right but an obligation too. A special omission is that all members and founders have to be loyal to the partnership. Because of the strong partnership character of this corporate form, this means that members have to keep the interest and aim of the partnership in view. They all are responsible for achieving the aim of the partnership and nobody can sit as a beneficiary. Loyal members have to keep secrets in connection with operating the partnership and of course the sudden obligation to inform the others of all events and experiences, which are in tight connection with the partnership and the interests of the parties. If any of the members breach these obligations, rules of damages can be applied in BGB.

  Assets of the partnership are special, because no separated corporate assets form. Financial and non-pecuniary contribution becomes the assets of the community of members. It is undividable and common. But these common assets are strictly separated from the private assets of the parties. Rights for profit and deficit are equal, but this permissive rule allows different regulation in the contract. The only cogent sentence is the prohibition of societas leoniana, i.e. nobody can be precluded of profit and deficit.

  External relations mean the representation of the partnership. In this case the most important law is the contract itself. In case of disagreement between the parties, there is a helping rule of BGB: members can act as a body. If we take into consideration the rules of liability, we can say that because of the lack of legal capacity of the partnership, individual liability has its important role. Generally this liability is unlimited, but there is a chance to agree with the creditor to limit liability. But this limitation is only valid for that legal transaction.

  Rules for partnerships under the Civil Code in Germany are more detailed and nuanced than in Hungary. Partnership is the basic type of civil law partnerships, such as limited partnership or general partnership. We have to consider that building up a more coherent regulation for these partnerships can be useful to categorize atypical corporations.

• Questions around prescription by title

  81-89

  Tucsek Máté

  Views:

  414

  In this paper I am willing to introduce different aspects of the new institution of the Hungarian civil law, the so-called prescription by title. This young way of acquiring property was a novelty in the field of law and jurisprudence, and a novelty for entities as well. The law of property contains the most important and fundamental rules of private law, this is the reason why it is always ultimately important that the legislator and the exact purpose of the legislation has to be as clearly defined as possible, since this is what ensures the security of property transactions and guarantees the freedom and protection of one of the most ancient social institutions, property. By its unique nature, prescription has always been the subject of legal disputes, thus the arguments above are cumulative.

  The aim of this paper is to present the regulation of prescription by title, its dogmatic features, draw parallels with its ancestor in Hungarian legal history and an unusual foreign example, examine some relevant aspects of judicial practice and finally attempt to compose a possible  alternative regulatory technique.

• 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.

• 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.

• A közút tartozéka: egy sajátos jogintézmény ellentmondásai

  László Pribula

  Views:

  73

  In the legal terminology of private law several times the same definition is used for addressing the same legal institution (e.g. default penalty, in-building). In most of the cases there is no problem to separate these institutions and we can also give an explanation why legislator used the same terminology.

  The definition of accessory is used for a special group of article groups in the Hungarian Civil Code and also used in the Act I. of 1988. From the angle of judicature it is problematic as even if the definition of road accessory is build upon the general terminology of accessory in the Civil Code, the two legal institutions are not the same.

  In the essay we would like to emphasize that the safety of traffic does not give a decent reason why we have to restrict the proprietary rights with using the institution of road accessory. This restriction is in a close connection with not only the distance from the public road but the effect of the property to the safety of traffic. The valid regulations may cause illogical contradictions and judicature problem.