To protect the environment with the help of human rights is one possible way among others to fight against environmental degradation. Yet, does this idea fit into the system of human rights, taking into consideration the fact that the upmost goal of human rights is the protection of human dignity? Is the connection between the environment and the human dignity strong enough to protect the environment by human rights? The following conceptual paper searches for reasonable answers to these questions by analyzing the so-called right to a healthy environment. By doing so the links between human and environmental rights and the specialties of human rights will be examined in order to show why the right to a healthy environment could in theory fit into the system of human rights protection.

In Hungary, the new Civil Code came into force on 15th March 2014.Tthe fourth book of which (the Family Law Book) contains the rules of family law. These rules of family law have changed in some areas compared to what they were previously. For example, developments have occurred in the field of children’s rights. In the current study the author examines the enforcement of children’s rights guaranteed by the Family Law Book. As a main conclusion of this indepth analysis, the author states that the new Civil Code ensures greater protection and better enforcement of children’s rights. Namely, the Family Law Book determines the children’s rights in more detail, particularly the right to freedom of opinion, the right to maintaining relationship, and the right to support. In addition, new paradigm changes can be noticed in the Family Law Book which are in connection with the change of parent-and-child relations and the greater consideration of children’s rights and interests.

The Civil Code (Section 6:145.) excludes the possibility of parallel delictual claims of compensation for damages arising from breach of contract (non-cumul). This essay deals with the concept of concurrence of law and the concept of cumulation of causes of action and the relationship between contractual remedies and other sanctions grounded on a non-contractual basis. It examines the French doctrine of non-cumul, the proposal of DCRF and certain methods among the European legal systems. This essay analyzes briefly the two situations where the contractual and delictual bases could compete with each other and the application of the above mentioned provision may generate problems.

This paper aims to analyse the main linking points between EU law and national criminal law. For a long time, the criminal laws of the Member States have been heavily affected by EU law. This influence can be either negative or positive. The most lenient form of the positive effect is the assimilation principle, which does not seek to incorporate EU norms into national criminal law, only attempts to extend the latter’s applicability to the protection of the interests of the European Union. In the case of legal harmonization the Member States are required to adopt common criminal norms which aim to reduce the differences of the national criminal law systems. The most serious impact on national penal law is the supranational criminal legislation, which results not only in the approximation but the unification of the criminal laws of the Member States.

The study aims to assess the basis of the features of the new Civil Procedure Code, it is a general background of the non-litigious procedures. The research seeks to answer two questions: whether the new Civil Procedure Code satisfies the requirements of the non-litigation requirements; and whether it leads to a change in the regulation of non-litigation procedures. The study whittled down the scope of the investigation to the order for payment procedure. Based on the primary research, the sections of the draft of the new Civil Procedure Code, which are referred to by the order for payment procedure, are two ways to present: content unchanged, and content changed. The study examines the impact of the latter, and draws conclusions based on the changes in content on the relationship of the order for payment procedure and the new Civil Procedure Code.

The future Civil Procedure has been under recodification for three years now and the experts have made considerable effort to create a 21st century code. Now the draft of the Code was published by the Minister of Justice for social debate, and later on a Bill was introduced. This article offers several humble recommendations de lege ferenda, where the text of the code needs amendment and no interpretation may result in the desirable outcome. Several earlier remarks of the author have been accepted and are now reflected in the Bill, and these points shall be identified and evaluated.

The 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.

Sovereign funds are funds created and operated by the state. They came into the limelight after the financial crisis of 2007–08, when they saved the most emblematic listed companies in the US and Europe. The aim of the article is to explore some key issues related to sovereign funds. The paper discusses the origins of the term and some related economic concepts, including factors which resulted in the creation of sovereign funds. The legal background is also elaborated on both international and national levels, giving an insight into the regulatory framework. The article closes with propounding a sovereign fund in Hungary. This section gives an overview of state property management and its legal background.

The Fourth Amendment to the Fundamental Law of Hungary, together with the subsequent passing of, and the successive amendments made to, the National Higher Education Act have not only restructured the management of higher education institutions but have also introduced legal institutions (Chancellor, Consistorium), which intervene both directly, in terms of fiscal policy, and indirectly, in terms of educational and research policies, in their overall operation and – as these are essentially government appointed persons/bodies, the institutions themselves being left out of the process – their autonomy as well. While this radical reorganization is not without precedent, the possible reasons behind its implementation have not yet been revealed. This study aims to understand these reasons by analyzing and disputing the one and only monograph addressing the question published before these changes had taken place, and attempts to discuss its predictions from the present viewpoint.

This article introduces and evaluates the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding the case concerning certain activities carried out by Nicaragua in the Border Area (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua) proceedings joined with construction of a road in Costa Rica along the San Juan River (Nicaragua v. Costa Rica) from an environmental point of view. The case was one of the latest environmental related affairs before the ICJ and the Hungarian literature had been looking forward with great expectation regarding the Court’s award. The conclusion of this essay is that in spite of the nature of the dispute, the symmetry of the conflict and the constant need for the improvement of the general international environmental law, the ICJ missed the opportunity to develop international environmental customary law and the case will stay in the shadow of the ICJ’s previous judgement on Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay.

Emergencies are mostly sudden, and in most cases states need special measures to deal with them. For this reason liberal democracies have standing constitutional or special legal powers to derogate human rights for the sake of order. Those democracies that do not have such powers, use impromptu ones. It is possible for authoritarian governments to abuse emergency powers in order to stay in power, to derogate human rights and to silence the opposition. Therefore it is essential for a liberal democracy to have strict limits for the duration, circumstance and scope of emergency powers. There are human rights regimes (for example: the European Convention on Human Rights) which have to respect the member states’ duty and responsibility in such cases. This article tries to examine this special case law of the European Court of Human Rights. The question is whether a European Human Rights regime is capable of becoming the guardian of human rights in cases of national emergencies, or the sovereignty of states also means that there is very narrow margin to prove legality above security?

The Criminal Code of Hungary has contained the criminal offence of harassment since 2008 (Art. 222 of the current Criminal Code). The criminal definition contains three different statutory conducts: (1) disturbing or bothering behaviours (2) „dangerous threat” and (3) „awakening appearance of danger”. Many examples in Hungarian legal practice show that the prosecutors and judges face huge difficulties in the interpretation of these types of harassment. The main questions are: Which behaviours can fulfil the statutory elements of „harassment by threatening”? How can we define „threat” and „awakening appearance of danger” as a conduct? How can they be distinguished? Which other delimitation questions arise? this paper aims to answer these questions.