It is no exaggeration to say that family plays a prominent role in our daily lives. This study therefore examines the constitutional and family law foundations of family protection in seven Central European countries. The study describes, among other things, the nature of family law legislation, the conceptual approach to family and marriage, the legal protection and solution of extramarital partnerships, such as de facto partnerships and registered partnerships, and the status of children in the countries studied.

The number of criminal court trials is constantly decreasing, as the domestic legislature has introduced a number of legal institutions aimed at diverting criminal cases from the court system, or avoiding charging. Nevertheless, there will always be crimes, the adjudication of which cannot dispense with impeachment based on direct judicial investigation. The trial is undoubtedly the "highlight" of the criminal proceedings, since it is here that the adversarial process takes place in its entirety, and here the defense counsel and the prosecutor have the opportunity to form opinions on factual and legal issues in each other's personal presence. The amendment of the Criminal Procedure Act naturally raised many questions, such as who in the near future will actually control the evidence taken in court proceedings, and what basic procedural rights should be provided to the participants of the proceedings. In this study, I would like to reflect primarily on these questions, based on some ECtHR decisions.

The study focuses on smart contracts, emphasizing the opportunities provided by blockchain technology. The main research method used is an examination of relevant domestic and foreign sources on the topic, such as studies and legislation. In addition, we formulate a proposal on how smart contracts and blockchain technology could be applied in public administration, focusing on the real estate registration procedure.

The study examines the digital transformation of Hungarian administrative procedure and the advance of automation. Based on statistical data, the study highlights that in connection with digital public administration procedures, the importance of customer-focused services appears as the standard of digital public administration. Digitalization is dominated by electronic contact options, online information and submission of electronic requests, rather than complete automation of administrative procedures. The study focuses on digital authority procedures from the point of view of how this manifests itself primarily for the client: how to satisfy the need for information, how to contact the authorities and how to initiate the procedure. In addition to the legal bases, this part primarily focuses on the possibilities. After that, the consequences of digital solutions (automation) for making substantive decisions from the customer's point of view are discussed; this part of the study therefore concentrates more on the normative side of the processes and finally analyzes this. As a result, it states that automatic decision-making is mainly used in case of registrative acts based on official records and decisions embodied in decision-type documents, but there are already examples of the automation of the decision-making mechanism in connection with the production of facts. Although more complex automation is just spreading its wings, in connection with the rapid technical development and innovations of recent years, the legal system must keep up with digitalization and not give in to it.

In recent years, several judicial and constitutional court decisions have been handed down worldwide on the legality and constitutionality of the fundamental rights restrictive measures (including compulsory vaccination) imposed during the pandemic. Aside from Austria, Italy has imposed compulsory vaccination more widely than any other European country; moreover, the lack of vaccination has made it impossible for citizens to live their daily lives to such an extent that some scholars have even written of de facto compulsory vaccination. In December 2022, the Italian Constitutional Court ruled in three judgments against the petitions related to compulsory vaccination. After outlining the legal context and the scholars’ positions on mandatory Covid vaccination, this paper examines these decisions, focusing on the arguments on which the Court saw justification for compulsory vaccination.

The case-law developed by the European Court of Justice aims to ensure consistency and legal certainty in the registration of EU three-dimensional trademarks. It interacts closely with the legislative amendments introduced by the trademark reform, which aim to make the registration procedure for EU trademarks more flexible and transparent, thanks to the European Court of Justice's work in interpreting and developing the law. The problem of the definition and registration procedure of three-dimensional marks is an important issue in EU trademark case law, as this category of marks is the most popular of the non-traditional marks for which the trademark reform provides a legal framework, but also overlaps with other forms of intellectual property protection.

This paper analyses the evolution, objectives, and instruments of fiscal conditionality legislation of the European Union. The author provides a detailed analysis of the relevant elements of the existing legislation, as well as the recent judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the subject. The paper demonstrates that the Financial Conditionality Regulation is not an instrument for protecting the rule of law in general, but its general purpose is to protect the EU budget by enforcing the fundamental requirements deriving from the rule of law.

A deepfake is a video, audio or other content (e.g. image) that is completely or partially fabricated or created by manipulating existing, real content. Just as fake news calls into question the authenticity of real news, deepfake also calls into question the authenticity of real content. At the same time, deepfake has many advantages in addition to its often mentioned dangers. Following a historical overview of deepfake, the study describes these benefits and dangers, and then discusses possible legal responses after presenting tools for detecting deepfake.

One of the most spectacular changes to the Hungarian employment system in recent years is that many former civil servants (‘közalkalmazott’) have lost their status and come under the scope of the Labour Code or have been subject to newly created status laws. As the Act on Civil Servants (‘Kjt.’) applies now only a few groups of civil servants,  having been emptied out by successive reforms, it is not surprising that the future existence of the Act and of the autonomous status of civil servants is being called into question. But what factors have led to the gradual, and in recent years accelerating, decline of the Kjt.? Is the 'disappearance' of civil servants the result of internal processes that rationally follow from the development of the law, or is it the result of independent economic and political considerations? What was the original role of the Kjt. in the system of employment relationships and how can its ‘emptying’ be understood in an international and historical context? The study argues that this process is not an inevitable consequence of legal doctrinal developments, but rather the result of legislative efforts to abolish the uniform legal status of human service providers. Hungarian legislation is no exception to the neoliberal and neo-Weberian trends, while the comparative advantages previously enjoyed by civil servants are eroding and the regulation is becoming highly fragmented.

Although the prosecution of crimes dates back to the creation of the human society, the „science” of investigation in the modern sense, i.e. forensic science, appeared only in the 19th century, and the first comprehensive university textbook on forensic science was published in Hungary in 1965. In the 60 years since then, thanks to the explosion of scientific and technical knowledge, forensic science has undergone radical changes. Edited by Csaba Fenyvesi, Csongor Herke and Flórián Tremmel, the book on Forensic science provides a comprehensive introduction to the concepts of forensic science, the most important elements of criminal technique and criminal tactics. The book is a valuable contribution to the field of forensic science and provides a realistic picture of both the present and the possible future of forensic science. This book review discusses the importance of the book for forensic science, based on certain specific institutions of forensic science.