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A Philosophical Approach to Law
11-22Views:150Bjarne Melkevik’s book is one of the best comprehensive treatments of legal philosophy currently available in Canada. First of all, the reader will find in the form of a long introduction a bookchapter translated into Hungarian, which is a general description of Melkevik’s jurisprudential views, provided by Mate Paksy. The chosen chapter organizes the reflexions on legal philosophy into three interrelated ques- tions. Melkevik’s first, thought-provoking question is as follows: why do we need legal philosophy? He views legal philosophy not as foundational legal scholarship, but mainly as an elucidation of public, reflexive argumentation on law which isn’t at
odds either with an empirical methodology. The second question concerns whether studying legal philosophy is useful for lawyers. Here Melkevik endorses again a post-positivist position according to which both law and legal philosophy are essentially practical discourses. Though the third part of the paper is heavy with disciplinary boundary-drawing, which emerges from questioning the place of legal scholarship vis-à-vis other, more empirical branches of social sciences such as history or anthropology, Melkevik’s reflexions here are still inspired by a sort of Neo-Kantian legal philosophy and Habermas’ communicative ethics.
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Knowledge of Law in the Hungarian Population Today and a Half Century Ago – A Comparative Analysis based on Kálmán Kulcsár’s Empirical Survey of 1965
11-28Views:205Knowledge of law is certainly one component of legal culture. Due to the support of the Hungarian Research Funds (OTKA) the authors of this paper carried out a comprehensive empirical analysis of this issue in Hungary. In doing so they strongly relied on Kálmán Kulcsár’s findings and insights stemming from his pathbreaking studies half a century ago.
The empirical study was carried out by the Szonda Ipsos Market and Opinion Research Institute in the framework of an omnibus questionnaire survey with a random sample of 1000 people in 2013. Thirteen questions essentially similar to certain questions used by Kulcsár in 1965 (for instance: Have you ever read a bill or an act? Have you ever participated in a judicial process? Who or which body enacts a bill in Hungary?) were posed in order to provide a possibility for the comparison of the actual results and those of Kulcsár.
We found that the general level of knowledge of law had increased substantially in the past decades. Knowledge related to constitutional law is the prominent example of this growth and it can definitely be coupled with the functioning of the democratic political system in the last 25 years. However, except from constitutional law, the growth of legal knowledge is due almost solely to the increased level of education and not a generally improved legal consciousness of the society.
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Claims for Compensation Based on the Infringement of Regulations Applicable to Procurement Procedures
11-30Views:141The study is concerned with those claims for compensation, which are based on the infringement of regulations applicable to procurement procedures. After the placing of the compensation within the public procurement remedy system, we outline those conducts, which can cause damage in the course of the public procurement procedure (e.g. contracting authority’s withdrawal from the public procurement, unlawful withdrawal of the tender, failing of contract conclusion, etc.). during the review of these cases, we heighten the differences existing between the classical civil law claims and the claims based on the infringement of public procurement rules.
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Legal–Sociological Analysis of a Scottish Judicial Decision
88-104Views:105In this essay I have attempted to show the Scottish tradition of criminal law and attitudes of legal profession and the whole Scottish society about the crimes trough one case. This criminal case was held before the Scottish criminal appeal court in 1989, where for the first time, a man could be guilty under the Scottish law of raping his wife while the couple lived together. This was a point that could show the flexibility of Scottish law while the english law was either unwilling or unable to make a change.
This case shows us that the judges in Scotland claim to represent the social attitudes through legal devices but this representation is not almost uncountable because the courts attempt to operate within the basically conservative traditions. Parallel of the above mentioned the courts try to use the alternative histories of law and the voices of practical lawyers, legal doctrines through the conflicting interpretations in order to make right decisions.
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Book Review: Ződi, Zsolt: Platforms, Robots and the Law. New Regulatory Challenges in the Information Society
213-216Views:138Zsolt Ződi’s second book was published in 2018 by Gondolat Kiadó under the title Platforms, Robots and the Law and the subtitle New Regulatory Challenges in the Information Society. At first glance, the reader could expect that the book will be dealing with a variety of topics not closely associated with one another, however, we experience the exact opposite when delving into the book. Similarly to Zsolt Ződi’s first book, he dissects a very relevant subject, guiding the reader through a maze of concepts and problems that did not even exist before the 21st century. He does so in such a way that it remains comprehensible and perceptible.
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Access to higher education and right to free movement in the case-law of the CJEU
134-156Views:130This article examines the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) concerning the right of EU citizens to gain access to higher education in other EU Member States. The case-law plays an important intermediary role between various EU policies, often contributing to their more effective implementation in this way. The paper presents an obvious example for that as legal principles developed by the Court in free movement and antidiscrimination cases essentially facilitate the promotion of student mobility that is one of the fundamental objectives of the Bologna Process and the Union‘s education policy. At the same time, free student mobility may go against national education policies and interests and Member States are often reluctant to accept that the rulings, despite the limited competencies conferred upon the EU to take measures in the education sector, set narrow boundaries for national actions. The analysis also seeks to indicate those factors which have an influence on the Court‘s sensitivity towards interests and policy autonomy of the Member States in the field of higher education.
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The One Who Wanted Online Courts Before the Coronavirus: Review of Richard Susskind's New Book "Online Courts and the Future of Justice"
192-200Views:307In November 2019 Richard Susskind, who is relatively known and popular in Hungary as well, published his new book “Online courts and the future of justice” issued by Oxford University Press. The author argued rather radically for the necessity of the change of legal services in his previous books before and he has maintained this approach. This time Susskind argues for the transformation of the century-old court systems giving alternative ideas about what sort of methods and ways in which we should transform our courts in order to make judicial services available for every person indeed. As the title suggests, the core concept of the book is the realization of online courts, which has slowly become a reality amid the pandemic caused by the coronavirus. Thus, the concept of Susskind may be called even fatidical from this perspective.
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The Financial Supervisory Agencies of the European Union and the Question of the European Administrative Procedure
Views:201The agency-type organs have a history of several decades in the European Union. In the last few years there were two different tendencies leading towards the establishment of regulatory (or decentralised) agencies with strong powers, especially in the field of financial supervision. The first of these tendencies was the fall of the neoliberal dogma of the self-regulating market – as a consequence of the 2008 financial-economic crisis – which led to the priorities of the decision-makers being reset in favour of a stricter regulation than that of the New Public Management era. The other tendency was that the debate about a European administrative law started to live. The European Supervisory Authorities of the financial sector, which were established after the crisis, are regulatory agencies with strong powers. However, some of their competences are so strong, that it poses questions regarding the legal protection of the participants of the market. Moreover, the case-law related to their function seems to overwrite the accepted norms of delegation of competences within the institutional framework of the European Union.
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Personal data protection in the public sector in frame of the GDPR
39-54Views:430The European Union has finished the reform of the European data protection rules, and the main result is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which entered into force after a two-year period on 25 May 2018. The GDPR draws special attention to the protection of personal data not only in the private-, but also in the public sector. It introduces several significant changes and restrictions, but after almost a year of being in force, there is still some uncertainty as to how we can apply its provisions, especially for public authorities and bodies. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the relevant data protection provisions of GDPR regarding the public sector and to clarify any misunderstandings in this field.
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Comparison of Enforcement Systems for the Violation of Fundamental Rights of Detainees Stemming from the Condition of Detention in Penitentiaries and the Right to a Fair and Public Hearing within a Reasonable Time
90-110Views:126The violation of fundamental rights of detainees stemming from the conditions of detention in penitentiaries and the right to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time raise complex concerns, because in such cases the applicants have to submit a procedure under the Hungarian Prison Act or a lawsuit concerning the violation of certain rights relating to personality under the Hungarian Code of Civil Procedure or the Civil Code. The legal protection is uncertain, because the rules relating to prison conditions meet with rules of civil procedure and civil code rules. Court decisions do not help to find the way out of this incoherency. The questions mentioned in the present article raise serious dogmatic debates, casting doubt on the efficiency of the remedies.
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Quantum Mechanics and Law. What Does the Failure of Environmental Regulation Teach Us?
60-82Views:221The article first of all holds that environmental regulation has failed. This is because it is too weak to prevent the overstepping of ecological boundaries by humanity. This legal regulation reflects that human behavior is psychopathological. This collective mental illness may originate from false self-identification. Therefore, the author reviews the outcomes of modern natural sciences, such as quantum physics, cosmology, and non-local consciousness research. These results give sufficient support to argue, despite the traditional paradigm of materialism, that some aspects of consciousness are not limited by the space-time continuum. Moreover, all consciousness, regardless of its physical manifestations, is part of the universal Consciousness. From these scientific results, in line with ancient scriptures, an Eternal Order has evolved, which can be described at least by four fundamental and universal truths. This Eternal Order should be taken into account by positive law, if humanity wants to reach fulfillment within the ecological limits of the Earth. -
The framework for budgetary expenditure of local governments between 1993–2010 and after 2010
79-97Views:504The present study is an analysis of the budgetary expenditures of the Hungarian local governments between 1993 and 2010. One of its main objectives is the presentation of the most significant local public functions. The problem of borrowing and debt management of local governments cannot be ignored in this study. Based on the results of the study it is clear that the operational expenditures were pre-dominant meanwhile the local governments could not dedicate more money to the investment in different domains. The most important failures of the previous system were the unfavourable allocation of duties and the decreasing central support. After the adoption of the new Municipal Law, important financial changes put in place. As a tendency of the past few years it can be stated that the scope of local public tasks is narrowing (e.g. the primary education and the social security system were centralized) whilst the budgetary expenditures of local governments are decreasing. As a main conclusion the author states that the local financial autonomy was reduced during the last years.
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Collision of Judicial Opinions in the Practice of the Curia
Views:30This article examines the 2/2022 PJE Unity Decision of the Curia from the perspective of divergent theoretical and dogmatical views expressed in minority opinions. The case study compares the dissenting opinions and the majority opinion of the judges and aims at demonstrating the fact that theoretical disagreement between judges has a huge impact on legal practice and on the issue of how judges decide cases. The hypothesis of the article is that – in hard legal cases – the reason for the differing opinions is the different theoretical convictions of judges. It seems evident that two legal practitioners, who have different views on cardinal issues of law, such as the concept or the purpose of law, interpret legal norms differently. Using the method of qualitative case analysis, the article analyses the arguments appearing in the justification of the decision.
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Right to disconnect: Jog a kikapcsol(ód)áshoz
50-66Views:773Az elmúlt években tetőfokára hágott technológiai fejlődés és digitalizáció szinte teljes mértékben képes felszámolni a munka és a magánélet közötti határokat, egyre nehezebbé válik „csak úgy letenni a tollat” egy munkanap végén. A munkaidőn kívüli elérhetőség/munkavégzés egyrészt adódhat a munkavállalók egyéni döntéséből, másrészt viszont lehet munkáltatói elvárás is. Jelen tanulmány a közelmúltban egyre jelentősebbé váló ún. right to disconnect, vagyis a kikapcsol(ód)áshoz való jog munkajogi kérdéseit járja körbe. A dolgozat kiindulópontja a tradicionális értelemben vett „állandó elérhetőség” dilemmája és az ehhez kapcsolódó gyakorlat. Ezt követően elemzés alá veszem, hogy mit is jelent a munkavállalók kikapcsolódáshoz való joga, és annak milyen szabályozási formái alakultak ki - törvényi, illetve vállalati szintű normákban - az utóbbi időkben az egyes államokban (többek között Franciaországban, Olaszországban, Németországban és az USA-ban), értékelve e rendszerek jellemzőit. Végül pedig egy kapcsolódó területen, a munkaegészségügy terén felmerülő problémákat vetítem előre.
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Minority Rights and the European Court of Human Rights
138-160Views:166This paper aims to present the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) regarding minorities’ rights. Even though minority rights as such are not listed in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the ECtHR has developed an evolving minority rights protection under it. This paper describes the concrete cases of minority rights protection and shows how the case law evolved throughout the years. The ECtHR recognized the right to self-identification, the right to culture, the right to use minority languages, the right of assembly and the freedom of expression regarding minorities. This paper argues that there might be a shift towards a greater diversity protection in the future under the ECHR.
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Crimean Secession in International Law
9-28Views:306This article provides detailed insights into the validity of remedial secession, the two major judicial opinions that have addressed it (Kosovo advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, and the Quebec Secession Reference case decided by the Supreme Court of Canada), and the steep, but evolving, path to legitimacy it may now be travelling. This article does so within the context of Crimea’s secession referendum, declaration of independence, and de facto statehood, and Russia’s annexation of Crimea. It covers the international community’s reaction to these events – and the disparity among academic reactions to the vitality of remedial secession. It traces the UN General Assembly’s 2014 Crimean debate – concluding that it is the most authoritative referee for judging Russia’s claim to the validity of the Crimean secession.
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Rest Periods in EU Labour Law
Views:28The paper aims to approach the dilemmas of EU working time rules from the novel perspective of rest periods. It examines the functions and nature of rest periods in EU law, with special regard to the ECJ’s recent judgment in the MÁV-Start case (C-477/21). The analysis tackles the question whether rest periods should be regarded as a right or an obligation of the worker and visits the issue of the possible role of a separate right to disconnect. The analysis ends with some conclusions.
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About the Costs of Public Procurements
103-127Views:110This study summarizes the basic types of costs which are related to public procurements and which are based on expressed legal regulations. It analyses the costs of tender documentation, the experts, the tender guarantee, the mandatory examination of the notice and the following legal institutions which are related to the legal remedies: the administrative service fee and the fine. The article compares the solutions of other countries: it examines the regulation of fees and the consideration of tender documentation. The Polish, the Austrian and the german examples show that the Hungarian legislator could improve the Hungarian regulation.
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Some Issues in Treating the Changes of Circumstances under English Law
25-44Views:195All legal systems have their own solution for the treatment of the essential change of circumstance subsequent to the conclusion of the contract. Some of them allow for the judicial amendment of the contract, if the conditions of the clausula rebus sic stantibus are fulfilled. There are other states, where the possibility to modify the contract by judicial act in case of an essential change of circumstances subsequent to the contract conclusion has only recently been recognised by the national legislation. In the following, it is to be reviewed how and by what means and models English law treats those changes of circumstances which occur after the conclusion of the contract and significantly reshape the contractual relationships.
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Examination of Quality Management Solutions and Their Applicability in the Context of Right to Information
102-118Views:101With the growing importance of good public administration, the quality of information can be measured primarily through customer satisfaction. In order to provide a uniformly high level of information, it is possible to apply quality management standards and other solutions such as ISO 9000, citizen’s charts and excellence models. However, they are not always able to measure the quality of information in a targeted way, therefore the use of solutions based on customer feedback is required. However, the question arises, whether these classic quality management solutions can still be used in an environment where multi-channel access, electronic communication, automation and artificial intelligence are playing an increasingly important role in public administration and customer information?
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Strict Liabiliy and Predictability: The Austrian Economic Analysis of Tort Law
Views:54This article provides a critical analysis of the main claims of the Austrian school of law and economics on tort liability. It reviews the normative claims of the Austrian school. It identifies the requirements the Austrian achool articultes towards law and which can be described in five points. According to them positive law should be (i) abstract, (ii) simple, (iii) predictable, (iv) should change incrementally, and (v) should reflect the basic informal rules, social expectations. They maintain that in the case of tort liability, a prima facie strict liability would meet these requiremes much better than the negligence rule. The article contests this claim and argues that it is not clear that the strict liability would be more predictable or better suited to informal social rules.
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The Concept of the Responsibility to Protect, Is There Anything New under the Sun?
67-78Views:183The concept of the responsibility to protect has emerged in the practice of the United Nations in the past years, inducing much criticism in the literature. The aim of the author was to present the concept in Hungarian and to analyze it from international legal point of view. According to the author the concept is just a paraphrased principle, responsibility has already existed under the relevant norms of international law. Nevertheless, the content of the obligation and responsibility is not fully clear, especially with respect to the exact meaning of prevention.
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The Future of International Environmental Law
139-145Views:91Book review on The Future of International Environmental Law, szerk.: David Leary és Balakrishna Pisupati, 2010, Tokió, United Nations University
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Opinion or statement of fact?
48-68Views:247Press correction is a special way to defend personality rights on the basis of civil law. Its main objective is that if someone states or rumours a false fact or makes a fact appear untrue about a person in a given publication, the affected person has the right to submit his claim – as soon as possible – in order to have a rectifying communication be given out in the particular publication showing which part of the injurious publication states false, unfounded facts or makes a fact appear untrue and what is the reality. If the publisher does not satisfy its duty to correct the injurious publication voluntarily, the affected person – in a short period – has the right to enforce his claim for press correction in an accelerated judicial procedure which allows only restricted production of evidence.
The most frequent question of the press correctional lawsuits is whether the content of the publication turns out to be a statement of fact or an opinion. The opinion, assessment, critique and debates about society, politics or art cannot serve as a basis for press correction. The statement of fact is a declaration about a given momentum of reality, the assertion or rumour that something has happened in a certain way or that something really exists. In opposition to the statement of fact, the opinion expresses a value judgement or critique, and false facts cannot be concluded from it even indirectly. It is hard to define on an objective basis if a declaration is a statement of fact or an opinion. As life creates a wide range of various situations, the developing legal interpretation by the judicial practice has a great impact especially as regards the distinction between a statement of fact and an opinion, the interpretation of the publication or the determination of the content and form of the press correction.
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The Intergenerational justice at the Constitutional Level
48-64Views:139The debates about the rights of the future generations have risen significantly in the last decade. The more attention we give to the question, the larger the number of new issues which emerge. As an example, the right to a healthy environment or the rights of the unborn can be mentioned. The aim of the study is to examine this question in connection with constitutions. The constitutional level could significantly affect the possibilities of the future generations. The theory of intergenerational justice is examined in relation to the main topic. The analysis of the population pyramid of the Brexit voters is mentioned as an example of a possible intergenerational injustice.