The study analyses the new Hungarian Criminal Procedure Act that entered into force in the summer of 2018. One aspect of the analysis is whether certain institutions of the law fulfil the constitutional requirements of criminal procedure. The other aspect is a sociological one. The past decades have brought many new developments in the field of society, economy and technology. The study, therefore, also revolves around the question of whether the new Criminal Procedure Act provides an adequate response to these challenges. The main finding of the study is that the legislation made the first steps in the right direction, however it did not introduce all the changes that would be necessary for a fair and modern criminal procedure. Besides, the act reflects predominantly the interests of the authorities while the rights and interests of other participants of the criminal procedure are not taken into consideration with the same weight

The principles of legality in criminal law determine numerous requirements both for the legislator creating criminal statutes and for judges as well who decide criminal cases. One of the most important demands of legality is the principle of maximum certainty according to which the state must establish a system of criminal law in which the wording of the statutes are clear, precise and understandable for the citizens; and judges are able to interpret criminal rules without making arbitrary decisions. In the Hungarian legal system the demands of maximum certainty are represented by the principle of nullum crimen sine lege. This principle is called the „clarity of norms” doctrine in the practice of the Constitutional Court of Hungary (HCC) which is entitled to strike down criminal statutes which do not meet its requirements. The aim of this paper is to argue for the claim that the „clarity of norms doctrine” and the concept of certainty in criminal law is based mostly on considerations about the plain meaning of words and texts and lack a coherent theoretical background in the decisions of the HCC and in judicial practice as well. The author offers a more complex and coherent conception of certainty stating that its requirements relate not only to linguistic considerations but also to thinking over the moral and political values of criminal law as well.

Working through digital platforms and apps is a new and rare form of work in Hungary. The spread of digital work is quite new all over the world and also part of the wider trend of precarious forms of work. Hungarian labour law faces serious challenges regarding crowdsourcing and working via apps. The main question is how to insert these new forms of work into the existing labour law framework. These new forms may hardly be considered as employment relationships due to the serious differences. Self-employment cannot be the solution either, since it would leave workers without any employment protection. Therefore, regulation of digital work is unavoidable, even if its details are far from clear for the moment.

The unilateral right of a member state to withdraw from the EU is an entirely new feature of EU Law introduced by the Lisbon Treaty. The practical application of the withdrawal clause was placed on the agenda as a result of the 23 June 2016 Brexit- referendum in the UK. The exit raises some non-legal and legal, theoretical and practical issues which – as we are talking about an unprecedented event – have to be elaborated on now. The paper analyzes Article 50 TEU by analytical methods, summarizing the incomplete frameworks, the main procedural rules, and those issues that require the interpretation of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The paper aims to highlight the points of the withdrawal clause that have interpretative gaps, which might not have been unintentionally left by the EU legislator.

The Aarhus Convention guarantees access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters. The Convention as a so-called mixed-agreement has been ratified by the EU as well as by its Member States. The Convention-related case-law of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) especially relating to Slovakia (see, C-240/09 – Slovak bears, C-243/15 – Slovak deers) shows that the Court has broadened the locus standi of NGOs before national courts using them in order to facilitate the enforcement of EU law. The activism followed by the Court in these judgements could be considered as environmental-specific expression of the objective of broader law enforcement before national courts. However it depends on national courts whether this kind of CJEU judgments could acquire cross-border relevance by their application of national judges. "A mű a KÖFOP-2.1.2-VEKOP-15-2016-00001 azonosítószámú, _ „A jó kormányzást megalapozó közszolgálat-fejlesztés”_ elnevezésű kiemelt projekt keretében működtetett Ludovika Kutatócsoport keretében, a Nemzeti Közszolgálati Egyetem felkérésére készült."

One of the rare but more prominent cases of judicial protection of the existing constitution is the revision of constitutional amendments. From among courts that review amendments, this study presents India’s Supreme Court’s practice, which is regarded as a model. India’s constitution does not contain any unamendable provisions or explicit authorization for judicial control over constitutional amendments, yet the court reviews constitutional amendments on grounds of protecting the constitution’s basic structure. India’s Supreme Court’s practice is a typical example of a court imposing an implicit limitation upon constitutional amendments. Therefore, before analyzing the basic structure doctrine, the study briefly examines the nature of the implicit limitations of constitutional amendments and some issues that may arise in their justification.

The problem of temporal scope is also reflected in Germany’s criminal law. Its essence is the usage of the more lenient law in the case of the difference between the law of perpetration and the law of decision-making. The German Criminal Code has a 150 year history, with the original version being around 170 years old. It’s respectable age allows us to conclude that it has a stable character, however due to its countless modifications there has always been a significant problem – and there still is today – in relation to its interpretation. This study also provides a brief outlook on the regulation of the temporal scope in other German-speaking countries.

The 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