The Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome on 17 July 1998 and it entered into force on 1 July 2002. The ICC Statute contains rules regarding grounds for excluding criminal responsibility but this list is not exhaustive since other defences are recognized in international (criminal) law. This essay will not examine the special procedural defences and other obstacles of punishability which are explicitly rejected by the ICC Statute but focus on the substantial defences in international law: the lack of responsibility under a certain age; insanity and intoxication; justifiable defence; necessity and duress; mistake; superior orders; belligerent reprisals and military necessity.

Directive 2005/29/EC concerning unfair commercial practices (hereafter: UCPD) has a maximum harmonization character. The aim of this paper is to review and criticize the rules of the Hungarian implementing act. The starting point is the ban stemming from the maximum harmonization: Member States during the implementation must not create or apply stricter or milder rules than those of the UCPD. However, the Hungarian act has many problematic parts in connection with both the rules and the definitions. Besides scrutinizing these questionable points the paper also uncovers the possible practical consequences.

The introductory part of the study presents the standing points related to the delimitation of typical and atypical contracts. The first part gives an overview of the debates on the integration of atypical contracts (e.g. leasing, factoring, franchise, etc.) into the Hungarian Civil Code with special regard to the fact that the proposal on the new Civil Code contains regulations on franchise contracts. The second part examines the rules on franchise contracts of the proposal which was elaborated by the Codification Committee and published in February 2012.

Ott, ahol a bíró nem leterhelt tisztviselő, perpatvarokat eldöntő jogalkalmazó, hanem jogalkotó, és egy erőteljes hatalmi ág jól fizetett, független, megbecsült képviselője, vajon milyen tere van a számon kérhetőségnek? Régóta rejtélye ez a common law jogrendszereknek. Jóllehet globális problémának számít a bírói függetlenség és számon kérhetőség egyensúlyának megteremtése, és a kontinentális és common law jogcsalád konvergenciája ezen a területen is szembeötlő, igazán élesen éppen a fenti kérdés miatt az angolszász országokban vetődik ez fel.