In the preface, the content of the given issue is described by the editor in the form of 5-6 line article descriptions (annotations). In addition to the latest changes to the journal, here is the explanation of the Latin phrase on the back cover.

The aim of the article is the understanding of the development, experiences and barriers of the the German collective redress mechanisms – from the point of view of a foreign researcher. When establishing a possibility for collective redress the course of the whole procedure and almost all segments are concerned. The case known as Volkswagen-dieselgate made the issue particularly crucial. Through this case, the author  examines the new  procedure introduced in November 2018. She also gives a brief overview of the class action in the US, concluded by a settlement between the Volkswagen Group and consumers. She  tries to answer the question of whether the new law can be expected to provide an effective solution to the procedural issues that have arisen in this case. The analysis is also based on a review of previous sectoral regulation, which was  the main basis of the development of the new regulation introduced in 2018.

The 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.

Temporary agency work was introduced into Hungarian law on the 1st July 2001. After nearly two decades of experience and numerous legislative changes, the domestic regulation of agency work is still not finished or coherent, and it is burdened with a number of EU harmonization shortcomings, constitutional concerns and practical problems. The purpose of this study is to examine the Hungarian legal regulation of temporary agency work from the point of view of EU law, while also highlighting a number of issues of domestic law that need to be clarified.

The legal status of cryptocurrencies is a gray area in most legal systems, although criminals increasingly abuse cryptocurrencies to fund criminal activities. The study analyses solely the criminal use of cryptocurrencies. For example money launderers have evolved to use cryptocurrencies in their operations, therefore legislative changes at EU level, or the uniform application of existing anti-money laundering regulations have been required. In a trend mirroring attacks on banks and their customers, cryptocurrency users and exchangers have become victims of cybercrimes themselves. Conventional crimes may be committed via cryptocurrencies such as fraud and extortion. Darknet criminal markets use cryptocurrencies as payment instruments since they offer better anonimity and some of them greater privacy. They are less traceable and their decentralised system challenges law enforcement.

The criminal act included in Subsection 1 Section 420 of Act C of 2012 on the Criminal Code (hereinafter referred to as Criminal Code) is the only one in the entire Criminal Code where the disposition includes the public procurement procedure as an element of the criminal act. In spite of this, further punishable criminal acts may be associated with the public procurement procedure which are inevitably committed or  completed in terms of the legal stadia of the crime, provided that any criminal relationship is established between the parties when public funds are allocated during the course of a tendering procedure.

The non-exhaustive examples of the – examined – conduct subject to proceedings show that the basis of an unfair public procurement procedure is the committing of any of the corruption criminal offenses, and then, after the public procurement procedure had been concluded, the felony of agreement in restraint of competition will constitute the criminal act without prejudice to the ne bis in idem principle, i.e. the criminal act specified in Subsection (1) Section 420 of the Criminal Code is not the definition of public procurement corruption. In order to verify this, I will outline what I personally understand as public procurement corruption.

The primary aim of the study is to support the argument that the delict referred to above is unable to fulfil the intention of the legislator, namely decreasing public procurement corruption. As a secondary focus,  the reasons behind the necessity of a new criminal act are referred to.

Social responsibility has undergone significant development in recent years. The concept has spread into every aspect of life: personal life, the economic sphere and finally the public sector. It is proven that currently many states are struggling with various problems in the public sector. We believe that public social responsibility is one of the guidelines that is able to help, for example, in the realization of a comprehensive public administration reform. This paper examines public social responsibility in Great Britain and Hungary. Even though we have the example of the United Kingdom to follow, their way of practicing PSR may not be suitable for the rest of the European countries because of the fundamental differences in our legal systems and mindsets.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, buzzwords of the recent times. While the term was created in the 1950s, until recent times it was the domain of sci-fi writers, who tried to explore its impact on society and humanity. The recent breakthroughs in AI technology and the spread of AI based services created the need for lawmakers and legal scholars to try and tackle the problems that AI creates. Although there are a lot of publications in this area, the book from Jacob Turner stands out in the field. The author has researched the subject very well, and using this knowledge he asks and answers not only the most frequent questions, but also those questions that belong to the foundation of AI and law, and which are often overlooked. This review aims to present these questions and answers to the Hungarian public in a shorter form.

An annotated bibliography of recent Hungarian legal science books is published regularly (twice a year) in our journal. The annotation is a short, factual description of the usefulness of the book, which, in addition to bibliographic information, defines the genre and briefly outlines the subject matter and the results presented. The authors of the annotations are members of the Faculty of Law of the University of Debrecen (lecturers, PhD students or gradual students). The current issue presents the first part of the book descriptions of books published in 2017.