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The Regulation of Screening of Foreign Direct Investments in the European Union
9-24Views:229This paper examines the framework and cooperation mechanisms set up by Regulation (EU) 2019/452 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2019 establishing a framework for the screening of foreign direct investments into the Union. The Regulation merely gives a framework for the coordination of national legislation, and member states can still decide if they want to set up screening mechanisms and to screen foreign direct investments. The pandemic has accelerated these processes, and more and more European Union member states enacted legislation relating to the screening of foreign direct investments in strategic branches of the economy. The Commission has also issued a Guidance at the end of March 2020, in which it warns about the risk that the Coronavirus related economic shock might have on strategic industries, especially on healthcare related industries. At the same time, recognizing the importance of foreign direct investments for the economy, it pointed out in the Guidance the necessity to find a balance between the need for foreign capital and the protection of European Union strategic industries using appropriate screening tools.
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Is This the Way Labour Law Should Protect the Employee? Review of György Kiss’s New Book
203-212Views:160Our review is about György Kiss's book, its title being Employment Flexibility and the Protection of Employee Status (A Possible Approach to Examining the Content of the Employment Relationship). The work raises the question of the future of labour law regulation, using the results and findings of the past. After describing the roots of Roman law, we can learn about the development of the current form of labour law through the development of the Germanic, Francophone and Anglo-Saxon legal systems. In addition to the historical view, the dogmatic foundations are also outlined in the work, so the content processing of the employment contract takes place on several levels before the author discusses the labour law applicability of the relational contract theory he raises. The description of all these bases makes the work suitable for those interested in labour law to better understand the contractual theories of different legal systems. We want to give an insight into this in the review, so that in addition to presenting the work, our own personal views and opinions will also appear.
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Trends, Directions, Legislative Efforts: the Abolition of the Civil Servant Status
179-195Views:121One 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.
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Decentralization of Welfare Services in France
65-80Views:108The principle of decentralization is widely applied in public administration. Despite the conceptual insecurity decentralization is often linked to the principles of democracy, participation, efficiency providing a normative value for the principle. Practical experiences, however, show that the advantages and disadvantages of decentralization are influenced by historical, economical, social, institutional and cultural context. Decentralization policy to increase the effectiveness of French welfare services could not change the institutional structure with strong historical roots and to improve the service quality. The strengthening of task and competences of the county level led to the failure of decentralization due to the lack of funding, personal and coordination problems.
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Comparison of Enforcement Systems for the Violation of Fundamental Rights of Detainees Stemming from the Condition of Detention in Penitentiaries and the Right to a Fair and Public Hearing within a Reasonable Time
90-110Views:126The violation of fundamental rights of detainees stemming from the conditions of detention in penitentiaries and the right to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time raise complex concerns, because in such cases the applicants have to submit a procedure under the Hungarian Prison Act or a lawsuit concerning the violation of certain rights relating to personality under the Hungarian Code of Civil Procedure or the Civil Code. The legal protection is uncertain, because the rules relating to prison conditions meet with rules of civil procedure and civil code rules. Court decisions do not help to find the way out of this incoherency. The questions mentioned in the present article raise serious dogmatic debates, casting doubt on the efficiency of the remedies.
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A Bécsi Vételi Egyezmény Tanácsadó Testületének a vevő megvizsgálási és értesítési kötelezettségének határidejével, az általános szerződési feltételekkel, valamint a kamattal kapcsolatos véleményei és a nemzeti bíróságok gyakorlata
67-78Views:496A standardizációnak a gazdasági hatékonyság szempontjából egy globális világban óriási jelentősége van. Ez igaz a jogtudomány területére is, és főleg a nemzetközi kereskedelmi jogra. Ugyanakkor, nemzetközi jellege ellenére, ezen a jogterületen is meglepően kevés olyan mintatörvény vagy nemzetközi egyezmény született, amelyek megpróbálták volna egységesíteni az ide vonatkozó anyagi jogot. Ezek közül a legfontosabb az Egyesült Nemzeteknek az áruk nemzetközi adásvételi szerződéseiről szóló, Bécsben, az 1980. évi április hó 11. napján kelt Egyezménye (a továbbiakban: Egyezmény), melyet Magyarországon az 1987. évi 20. törvényerejű rendelet hirdetett ki. Az Egyezményt eddig 89 állam ratifikálta, ami jelentős sikernek számít.
A gyakorlatban a legnagyobb problémát egy ilyen jellegű egyezménynél az egyes rendelkezések egységes értelmezése és alkalmazása jelenti. Az Egyezmény 7. cikkének (1) bekezdése foglalkozik az egységes alkalmazás követelményével, amit némelyek úgy értelmeznek, hogy a bíróságoknak és választottbíróságoknak az Egyezmény alkalmazása során precedensként figyelembe kell venniük más nemzeti bíróságok korábbi döntéseit. Ez az álláspont annyiban problematikus, hogy a precedens rendszer a bíróságok közötti hierarchián alapszik, és ebben az esetben az egyes nemzeti bíróságok vagy választottbíróságok között ilyen nem létezik. Sajnos a szerződést kidolgozó Nemzetközi Kereskedelmi Jogi Bizottság (UNCITRAL) nem foglalkozik az Egyezmény gyakorlati alkalmazása során felmerülő kérdések megválaszolásával. Mivel egyre több kérdés merült fel az utóbbi évtizedekben, 2001-ben magánkezdeményezésre, elismert nemzetközi szakértők, jogtudósok létrehozták az Egyezmény Tanácsadó Testületét (CISG Advisory Council). A Testület feladatának tekinti az Egyezmény egységes értelmezésének elősegítését, és e célból tanácsadó testületi véleményeket fogalmaz meg. A gyakorlatban ezek a vélemények elősegíthetik az Egyezmény világszerte egységes alkalmazását, habár semmiféle kötőerővel sem bírnak.
Ugyanakkor, mivel ilyen sok különböző jogrendszerben alkalmazzák, érdemes folyamatosan nyomon követni, hogy az egyes nemzeti bíróságok az Egyezmény egyes rendelkezéseit hogyan értelmezik a gyakorlatban, és hogy figyelembe veszik-e a Tanácsadó Testület véleményeit. A jogegységesítés folyamata ugyanis nem áll meg az Egyezmény elfogadásával, hanem a joggyakorlat közös mederben tartására is kiterjed, ennek pedig a legjobb módja a folyamatos „kommunikáció” biztosítása a bíróságok között, azaz az egyes nemzeti bíróságok ítéleteinek az elérhetővé tétele, elemzése. Ezt a feladatot szeretné betölteni a jelen tanulmány is, amely a különböző nemzeti bíróságoknak az utóbbi néhány évben született döntéseit, valamint az Egyezmény Tanácsadó Testületének véleményeit vizsgálja három témakörben: a vevő megvizsgálási és értesítési kötelezettségének határideje, az általános szerződési feltételek, valamint a kamat kérdése.
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Then and now: laws on first and second generation biometric systems
78-90Views:201Although the security benefits these technologies offer security benefits to our society, their widespread application can involves and clearly leads to serious legal issues and concerns, including technological encounters, disputes and grave concerns for individual citizens’ rights of privacy. Various forms of identification, such as driving licenses, passports, and other identity cards, are progressively being combined with biometric information used by ever-changing and more advanced systems. With no doubts, it can stated as well that the use of them will be spread to other sectors too. Therefore, It safe to assume that this noticeable prosperity of personal information will involve and ache for more advanced data protection measures, encryption technologies, and other safeguarding measures, both to inspire their acceptance and use by the civilian population and to keep this critical information from falling into the wrong hands.
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The Financial Intermediation System in the Service of Environmental Protection or Green Financial Solutions
129-140Views:200In the present study, we have presented the activities and measures of the financial sector that support environmental protection and take into account climate change. To this end, existing international organizations have adopted documents to promote the use of climate-neutral green financial solutions by consumers, and new international organizations have been set up specifically for this purpose. The most successful of such organizations is NGFS, which currently has more than a hundred members. We have seen that the Hungarian National Bank has also taken a number of measures, announcing a program to green the financial sector.
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Detrimental effects of tax havens and the case of the Dutch tax system
45-67Views:249Nowadays, multinationals have become so strong that they can easily compete with states. Consequently, they have the opportunity to develop several tax minimalization strategies such as transfer pricing, inversion, hybrid entities etc. All these have a negative impact on the world economy and state budgets. Despite detrimental effects, certain countries try to cooperate with multinationals by transforming themselves into tax havens. In this framework, they provide multinationals with various kinds of tax advantages such as deductions, low tax rates and preferential tax rulings (“sweetheart deals”). Although, the general attitude towards tax avoidance in the European Union is negative, particular member states’ tax systems display several characteristics of tax havens. In this regard, it should be noted that multinationals regularly use the loopholes and other advantages of the Dutch tax system to minimise their tax liability. The following study – after a brief view to the characteristics of tax havens– will illustrate these options by highlighting the fact that the country – despite the denial of the respective governments – still displays several characteristics of - tax havens.
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Rule of Law – Active State: Reconstructing the Conception of the Rule of Law in Zoltán Magyary’s Theory
9-26Views:167Zoltán Magyary was an internationally recognised Hungarian professor of law who carried out research in modern theories of administration and state theories. Defending the values of the rule of law and taking action against the anomalies of legal formalism were among his major scientific goals. According to him, one of the most important functions of a legal system is the protection of human rights, therefore he accepted the view that courts must have the authority to review administrative decisions. At the same time, he stated that the effective and productive functioning of administrative institutions and the executive power is a priority in a legal system. Due to the fact that he did not provide a complete analysis of the correlation between the rule of law and the effective functioning of administrative institutions, he opened the possibility for posterity to give various and different interpretations of the issue.
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Luxembourg v Strasbourg – Legal Impediments in the Process of the Accession of the EU to the ECHR
101-119Views:117The accession of the European Union (EU) to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has been on the agenda of the EU for long. Although the Lisbon Treaty settles this question in theory by obliging the EU to accede, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) resorted to its rights laid down in the Treaties and published its Opinion 2/13 on the matter by the full Court. This opinion scrutinizes the draft document concerning accession. According to the opinion the EU cannot accede to the ECHR in the present form because the draft document is not in compliance with the special characteristics and features of EU law, therefore it would require the amendment or reorganisation of the whole EU legal system. By this judgement the ECJ outlines the legal impediments in the way of the accession. The main objective of our article – after summarizing the brief history and legal framework of the accession – is to present and evaluate the critical elements of accession determined by the ECJ and predict the decision’s possible consequences.
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Additional Remarks on the Question of Civil Service Law as a Branch of Law
120-133Views:449The study focuses on the relationship between civil service law and labour law. In Hungary, there have been significant changes in the last decade regarding the regulation of civil service law. The types of the civil service legal relationships have increased, the forums and procedural rules for adjudicating civil service law related disputes have changed, and the number of public employees providing public services has rapidly decreased. This is of particular importance because the existence of these branches of the law is determined by legislation as well. The study concludes that the ability of civil service law to become an independent branch of law will be determined not by 'internal' developments but by legislative ambitions.
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Reconstruction or Abolition of University Autonomy: Tendencies and Proposals During the System-Level Crisis of Higher Education
170-180Views:115The 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.
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Digitization at Work: Expanding Horizons with Loopholes
61-80Views:420The focus of the study is on the emergence and spread of digitization in employment. In this context, the study presents the forms of work that use digitization. On the other hand, it describes the labour market effects of digitalization. The study looks in detail at how COVID-19 has changed the role of teleworking and the home office in employment. This is followed by the presentation of the Hungarian labour law regulation, which deals exclusively with telework. The study makes two proposals to address the codification gap. On the one hand, in connection with application-based work, the introduction of the status of a person with a similar legal status to an employee, which was regulated in the draft of the Labour Code. On the other hand, to impose employer obligations (retraining, job offers) in connection with the spread of automation and robotics in order to prevent dismissal.
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Likeness of Police Officers: Freedom of the Press and the Right to Facial Likeness at the Crossroads of Civil and Fundamental Rights
110-128Views:161The Constitutional Court of Hungary, proceeding in its new competence regarding the „real” constitutional complaint obtained from 1 January 2012, is allowed to adjudicate the motions initiated against concrete judicial decisions which are deemed to be contrary to the Fundamental Law of Hungary. Within this procedure the Constitutional Court places the protection of the freedom of expression and freedom of the press above the protection of personality rights. The Court consistently annuls judicial decisions that declare infringement of personality rights on grounds that a press agency published recognizable facial likeness of police officers being on duty during demonstrations. The present paper analyses the course during which the Constitutional Court does enforce the constitutional requirements elaborated in its former practice and, thereby, repeals the ordinary courts’ decisions if those favour the personality rights of police officers over the freedom of the press.