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Theoretical Aspects of "Green Criminal Law”
Views:153A major issue of legal theory today is to explore the problems raised by the so-called “green criminal law” or „green criminology.” Serious environmental disasters and the harmful effects of climate change also imply a rethinking of the established system and conceptual features of criminal law. Despite the European Union's efforts to develop environmental criminal law, the question arises as to whether criminal law can be seen as having an environmental function, and whether criminal law is suitable for protecting the environment. Recently there have been problems of effectiveness in the regulation of environmental criminal law at European and national level, and a new EU directive had to be adopted because the previous one had proved ineffective in achieving environmental objectives. It is therefore important to go deep inside the theoretical foundations that can provide a coherent explanation for the ineffectiveness of environmental criminal law and environmental regulation in general, and to find a justificatory framework that can justify the obligation to comply with these norms.
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Central Issues of the Application of EU Law in the Recent Case Law of the Hungarian Constitutional Court
161-174Views:167The present article examines the recent case law of the Hungarian Constitutional Court as regards the constitutional framework and the judicial practice of the application of EU law. After a short overview of the early precedents, the article focuses on the case law subsequent to the adoption of the new Fundamental Law in 2012. In the recent decisions the need for cooperation with the EU Court of Justice is of special importance so the article reflects on this issue as well. The first part scrutinizes the case law concerning the constitutional limitations and control measures of the application of EU law, including the landmark decision of 22/2016 (XII. 5.). The second part focuses on the decisions delivered in constitutional complaint proceedings, which determine the constitutional requirements of the preliminary rulings procedure and the judicial obligation to give a reasoned decision.
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The EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) from an Environmental Law Perspective
63-87Views:474This paper will focus on the 2012/27/EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). Since the EED is a rather new legal act, its assessment from an environmental law perspective has been neglected in academic literature. Therefore, the next question automatically arises: does the new directive take steps to improve the EU regulations concerning energy efficiency? The EED undoubtedly took a step forward by providing legally binding frameworks for the reduction of energy consumption (instead of the previous political and non-binding energy efficiency goals) and has done this in an absolute way, which is the most important requirement from an ecological point of view. Beyond the special targets of the EED, there are several specific requirements that may play a significant role in the realisation of the EED’s targets. Among these, for instance the following is highlighted in this paper: establishing energy efficiency obligation schemes or adopting alternative policy measures; the 3% commitment of renovation regarding central government buildings; the obligation of energy audits regarding enterprises that are not small or medium-sized, etc. This paper concludes that, despite a few provisions of the directive meeting the ecological requirements, in reality, the regulation misses theoretical ground.
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Symbolic Legislation in Criminal Law
173-189Views:353The study makes efforts to analyse the concept of symbolic legislation, particularly the question of the symbolic criminal law. In the first part of the paper, the author discusses the issues of international (German) literature which relates to the problem of symbolic criminal law. The second part contains the Hungarian theoretical standpoints from which the author draws the conclusion that the concept of symbolic criminal law can be interpreted in multiple ways. Symbolic criminal law is described by some scholars as a critique of the legislature, however according to other opinions – which are the focus of this essay – the concept of symbolic criminal law has a positive meaning which includes the viewpoint that the legislator tries to turn the attention of society to the obligation of saving the general ethical values, and on the other side, it emphasizes the high-priority values set by the legislator in actual social-political situations
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The Concept of the Right to Food in Public International Law
86-99Views:271According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), at least 868 million people are undernourished nowadays. Combating against hunger and malnutrition shall not only be a moral duty, but a legally binding human rights obligation. The right to food is recognized firstly within the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948, as part of the right to an adequate standard of living, however nowadays it is considered to be a substantive right. This study deals with the key aspects of the right to adequate food in public international law, including its definition, content and enforcement, as well.
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The Right to Maintain Contact within the Context of Fundamental and Personality Rights
Views:824It is self-evident that parents play an irreplaceable role in the lives of their children, influencing the child's physical, mental, and emotional well-being and behavior. It is therefore necessary that children maintain personal relations and direct contact with each parent, even if the marriage of his/her parents is permanently and irreparably damaged. The right to contact, which has a strong legal foundation in international conventions, is traditionally described as a right of the child, despite the fact that contact between parent and child is both a right and obligation of mothers, fathers and children. The right to contact is a Janus-faced, complex legal institution: although it is largely based on the fundamental right to private and family life guaranteed by constitutional norms, it plays a significant role in private law disputes as well. The aim of this article is to present the place of the right to contact within the Hungarian legal regime, emphasizing the enforcement of this right in the field of protection of basic and personality rights.
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The Legal Status of the Inventor in the First Hungarian Patent Act
19-33Views:159The first Hungarian Act on Patents was adopted in 1895. The study examines the regulation of the inventor’s legal status in this act and the problems the legislature had to solve. In the first part of the study the inventor’s rights are described regarding the inventor’s personal and valuable rights and interests. By the beginning of the 20th century license became the most important valuable right and interest, although its regulation could not be found in any act. In fact, a decision of the Patent Court in 1928 declared the regulation of leasehold valid, which raised greater and greater difficulties in legal application from the second half of the 20th century. The second part of the study examines the inventor’s obligation of payment and functioning. The latter is one of the special features of the intellectual property system which is regulated by the Industrial Property Union.
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The Concept of the Responsibility to Protect, Is There Anything New under the Sun?
67-78Views:290The 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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Issues of Cumulation and Delimitation Regarding the Felony of Endangering a Minor
Views:24The felony of endangering a minor is the most important part of the fight against domestic violence in Hungarian criminal law since the statutory definition of the offence covers almost every types of child abuse. It would be impossible to list tha various forms of behaviours that might fulfil the statutory elements of the felony, the Criminal Code therefore defines the offence behaviour as grossly violating the duties arising from the obligation to raise, supervise or care for a minor. It is the task of the judicial practice to decide exactly which behaviours are covered by these terms. As a result, the violation of duty usually fulfils the elements of another offence, raisng questions about cumulation and delimitation. In the following, these issues will be discussed by reviewing the relevant case law and literature.
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Rest Periods in EU Labour Law
75-92Views:252The 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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The Question and the Means of Tax Liquidity in Tax Law System
128-150Views:185The paper scrutinizes the definition, the general and the legal characteristics of tax liquidity. It is a very essential question as to whether taxable persons have enough money to fulfill the obligation of taxpaying, secure their abilities to pay taxes in the future. The tax liquidity can be analyzed specially in the field of duties, ordinary and extraordinary taxes of wealth and natural justice. The legislator can regulate different legal institutions to fulfill the requirement of tax liquidity: it can prescribe for example various allowances, the possibility of deduction or it can ensure different possibilities in the field of fairness.
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Multilevel System of Fundamental Rights Protection in Practice, in the Light of the Dismissal of Government Officials without Justification
120-141Views:203Today, in the European multi-level and cooperative constitutional area the European Convention on Human Rights, the constitutional value provisions of the EU Treaties together with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, as well as the constitutions of the member states of the EU function as parallel constitutions. The legal remedies offered by international forums by nature are subsidiary, because it is desirable that legal issues of human rights be solved by the states at national level. The obligation of the exhaustion of domestic legal remedies as a procedural precon- dition is needed in order that the national level should have the chance to remedy the violation of human rights within its own legal system.
The present paper focuses on Art. 8 para. (1) of Act LVIII of 2010 on the legal status of government officials, which states that the employer has the right to terminate the contract of goverment officials by two months’ notice period without any justification. The research is of considerable interest because the dismissed officials – who, in my opinion, de facto suffered injury by violation of human rights – were forced to turn to international forums because of the fact that the Hungarian legal system was not able to grant them adequate reparation. Therefore, the examination also evaluates the current level of fundamental rights arbitration and the jurisdiction using fundamental principles in Hungary.
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Groundwater protection in the light of a judgment of the Supreme Court of Hungary
178-191Views:324In the study the author analyses a judgment of the Supreme Court of Hungary, in which a progressive judicial interpretation is included concerning the obligation of fact-finding in connection with the protection of groundwaters. Before this, the author presents the legal doctrine regarding groundwater regulation. The regulation is not only drawn up on the national level, but also on the level of European Union. After the detailed presentation of the case, the author makes some conclusions.