The present article concentrates on two aspects of the legal personality of water. First, it deals with the national legislation of New Zealand, especially the „Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017”, in which the legislator granted legal personality to the Whanganui River. Second, the article focuses on a Hungarian initiative concerning the establishment of a legal personality for the biggest Hungarian lake, i.e. Lake Balaton. Is it a real alternative to renew the legal protection of the environment in the Hungarian law? The article tries to launch a theoretical and practical dispute on the topic.

The paper analyses the issues of confidentiality and publicity, arising from current information security legislation in Hungary. First of all the information security as a state task is analyzed. In Hungary, the information security controls of state and local government entities are regulated. Afterward, on the one hand, the information security as a tool for data protection regulation, state secrets and freedom of information were discussed. On the other hand, information security can be an object of the law, when the protection of security controls is required. One of the main findings of the research was that the information security controls applied at state entities are generally public data (according to freedom of information regulation). Thus it might not stay confidential. We formed proposals to solve this issue.

The rapidly developing gene manipulation techniques (more recently „gene editing”) have long been controversial, which is reflected in the evolution of legal regulation in Europe. Hungaryʼs Fundamental Law (Art. XX.) clearly states that Hungarian agriculture desires to remain free from genetically modified organisms. According to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA resolution, 2017), the results of the new techniques (without transgenic implantation) are not regarded as GMOs (by the proper application of the genetic engineering law), these new techniques are not governed by the provisions of the Fundamental Law. Recently, a lawsuit was filed before the Court of Justice of the European Union in which the main question was whether GMOs should be considered the result of new techniques (if not, they do not need to be licensed). In the light of a detailed analysis of the precautionary principle, the study examines the question of whether genetic engineering or its results cover the scope of the legislation. According to the author, this question (as long as the revision of the regulation is not on the agenda) is not for the genetic technologists and plant breeders, but for the lawyers to decide. The conclusion of the study is that genetic engineering, respectively its results are subject to the regulation.

The study focuses on the separation of two classical institutions of collective labour law: the labour unions and the works councils. Traditionally, labour unions are associations intended to represent and protect the collective interests of workers; works councils are units that exercise the workers’ participation rights, and are mechanisms where the employees can influence the decisions of the employer at the workplace. The distribution of traditional union and works council authorities, however, is not that obvious, especially from a practical point of view. The study strives to highlight those areas where the unions and the works councils appear as opposing parties, especially focusing on works agreements with normative power, from a practical and an international comparative perspective, and to offer solutions de lege ferenda.

The present study examines how the image of profession changes for law students in the different stages of their connection with the profession. It assumes that at the beginning of their studies, law students have an idealised image of their chosen study program and the profession based on it. This image changes during the years of studying, and especially after graduation, it is shifted by work experience and by the factual state of the profession. Students of the Faculty of Law, especially law students identify themselves based on the internal and external elements of a prestigious profession, which was established hundreds of years ago. Due to their early career choice, their professional socialization during the first years at the university creates the ideal image of the legal profession, which they strongly relate to. The relationship of this ideal image to reality, and how different it is from the real situation of various professional groups of the legal profession is an important question. The present study answers this question based on the results of multiple empirical researches.

The internet intermediaries, such as services like Google and Facebook became important actors who can influence the media supply through the personalised information flow tailored by their own algorithms and due to the content moderation of their own platforms. These services have exceeded their previous activities which were merely of an intermediary scope and this change affects substantially the fulfilment of international human rights standards. The article analysed first and foremost the operation of the internet intermediaries, especially of the social media platforms from the freedom of expression point of view. It seeks answers to the question to what extent does the moderation of the user generated content on the platforms, i.e. removing and blocking contents which do not comply with the terms and conditions of the platforms, comply with the requirements of the restriction of human rights. Based on the analysis of Facebook’s own regulatory framework, it evaluates content moderation activity on hate speech on the platform in the context of human rights. It points out the guarantees of human rights which are missing from the content control mechanisms of Facebook.

The subject of the study is the realization of real estate, which is not examined in the traditional way but within the scope of the implementing law, but as a legal institution affecting several jurisdictions, focusing on the ownership of the auction buyer. In addition to the method of obtaining ownership based on the official auction, it analyzes in detail the possibilities of obtaining from the non-owner in the official auction and in the light of the judicial practice, the legal effects of registering the enforcement right and the note are taken into account.

Medical practice affects human life and health, which are not just some of the key social values, but actually express the existence of a human being. Therefore, it is a requirement to set the legal standards to guarantee the preservation and respect of human rights during medical treatment. Patients’ rights provide specific types of human rights in the area of patient care. The German legal system grants the preservation of these rights in a contractual framework that cannot be breached. In Hungary, patients’ rights are listed in the Public Health Act. Despite the diverse methods in regulating patients’ rights, the underlying public policy considerations are the same in both systems. The goal of this study is to provide a comparative analysis on the development of the German and the Hungarian regulation of patients’ rights focusing on the consideration of human rights.