The right of EU citizens to consular protection in third countries, where their Member State is not represented, is one of the most significant rights attached to the European citizenship. With the existing legal basis laid down in the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the right to consular protection of EU citizens has all the conceivable chances to be established uniformly by union actions and under the supervision of the European Court of Justice. The aim of the Council Directive (EU) 2015/637 is to lay down the cooperation and coordination measures necessary to further facilitate consular protection to unrepresented citizens of the European Union. Nevertheless the directive does not affect consular relations between Member States and third countries. The present paper focuses on the actions had been taken in this field from the treaty establishing the European Economic Community until the achievements of the Treaty of Lisbon and the aforementioned Council Directive.

The question of division of state powers is a crucial part of constitutional law determining how state organs work (or should work) in theory and in practice. After the adoption of the new Fundamental Law of Hungary, there are some modifications in the Hungarian constitutional system, including the division of powers as well. In this study we examine the original model of “3 branches of power – 1-1 function” as a starting point, and the other factors and branches which can modify the original model. In the study we try to focus to the examples of the former and present Hungarian legal system as certain proves of our theory about the new frameworks of division of powers in Hungary. In the end of this study we also examine, as an indirect argumentation, the opposite side of the separation of powers, i.e. concentration of powers.

The present article concentrates on the so-called water law concepts. As regards water law concepts, the article especially deals with the challenges of the Hungarian water management. The article has five main chapters. In the first chapter, the author focuses on the basis of the water law concepts, namely on natural, social and engineering sciences, furthermore, the author also determines the legal instruments which are able to provide proper links among the different water law concepts. The further four chapters analyse the water law concepts one by one; i.e. (a) ruling over waters, (b) water as an environmental component, (c) water as the subject of commercial deals (good or service), (d) water as cause of damage a.k.a. defence against water.

In 1986 the Council of Europe adopted a recommendation on the use of human embryos and foetuses for diagnostic, therapeutic, scientific, industrial and commercial purposes [Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1046 (1986)]. At the time, biotechnology was less advanced than today, however, its main challenges were already apparent. In its recommendation, the Council of Europe called upon the Member States to restrict the industrial use of human embryos to therapeutic purposes benefiting the health of the respective embryos, while the tissues of dead foetuses may only be used for strictly medical, scientific purposes. The commercial, profit-oriented use of embryos or fetal tissue is prohibited, with special regard to human dignity. Today, we are faced with the growing risk of encountering products manufactured on the basis of experiments conducted with, or base material including human embryonic cell lines. Such commercial and industrial uses of human embryos and foetuses give rise to concerns related to the religious freedom and the freedom of conscience, fundamental rights protected by both national constitutions and the Charter of Fundamental rights.

The paper deals with the level of legal knowledge among the Hungarian population measured with a representative survey asking questions regarding the knowledge of certain constitutional, civil, administrative and procedural legal rules releant in everyday life. Our findings are compared to a research carried out in 1965, using the same questions. Furthermore we analysed the relationship of knowledge level as a dependent variable with (i) socio-demographic (gender, age, education, etc.), (ii) media consumption (some 30 written, electronic and internet-based items), (iii) interaction with the legal system (read a law, consulted with a lawyer, participated in a trial) and (iv) civic activity. We found that the level of education is crucial, and interaction with the legal system has some additional significant impact, too. All other independent variables seem to have less significance or no impact at all. The relative strength of explanatory variables has largely changed in the past decades and in some cases even the direction of impact altered (for example women seem to be more educated about the law nowadays, in a sharp contrast to the 1965 data.)

Intensive economic, social and political changes cause local and global effects, which means that both universal (including the un, european union and other Igo’s) and national responses are necessary and shall be harmonized. Individual responses, without taking into consideration the other universal and national actor’s steps can cause more problems than they solve. According to the official un statistics, people who are forced to leave their country of origin, flow mostly from the region of Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq to the EU Member States. This means that their legal, cultural and religious background are different from the EU standards, which can be considered as sources of additional social (and sometimes criminal) problems. It is clear that all the states have right to take legal steps against crimes committed by these people (independently from the question whether their presence in the territory of the country is lawful or not), enforcing all the international and national standards of fair trials and humanity during the procedures started against them. The topic is extremely hot nowadays in Hungary and in the European Union.

Indisputably, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has an effect on national legal systems. In this study I examine the type of this effect in the Hungarian legal system through the case law of the year 2014, and as an outcome, I would like to demonstrate that the ECtHR has both direct and indirect impacts on the national legislation in Hungary. As a result of the judgments’ direct impact, changes are made in the national legislation, meanwhile the indirect impact can only be detected in the decisions of the Hungarian Constitutional Court or domestic courts. Obviously, the direct impact is the most significant and most noticeable, however, the significance of indirect impact has been gradually increasing in the recent period. Based on this idea, I would like to point out that both effects are present in the Hungarian legislation, and seem to show an increasing trend, although the judicial bodies mean an exception in this practice. Nonetheless, according to the European practice, the judicial bodies will most likely refer to the international norm and the case law of the ECtHR in the near future.

This paper emphasizes one of the most important questions of equal treatment that is the reversed burden of proof and aspects of the special sharing of burden of proof. The hypothesis of the paper is the following: although the Hungarian regulation follows the relevant directives of the European Union properly, the legal practice does not focus on victim protection to the expected level. The legal practice of the Equal Treatment Authority and the Supreme Court (Curia) of Hungary are both analysed, therefore the different approaches can be confronted. The paper provides de lege ferenda proposals mainly in connection with the unification of the Hungarian judicial practice.

Lien is substantially characterized by priority in satisfaction, which is in the spotlight of the execution of the lien. The lien’s function and force as a security interest is determined by the rules of execution. Under Act V of 2013 on the Civil Code, out-of-court execution has become the main rule, however, judicial execution and liquidation proceedings remained available to enforce the lien. Furthermore, in order to protect the purpose of the pledge to serve as a collateral and to provide priority in satisfaction, the lien may also be enforced where the pledge has been seized and offered for sale in the execution proceedings initiated by a person other than the lien holder. In this case, the lien holder may join in the execution proceedings even if his/ her claim against the lienee as debtor is not yet due. otherwise, upon auctioning the pledge, the lien holder’s lien would terminate. The purpose of this study is to identify and address the issues of this specific type of execution that arise during implementation as well as the incompleteness of the applicable laws and regulations.