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• A Philosophical Approach to Law

  11-22

  Bjarne Melkevik

  Paksy Máté(Translator)

  Views:

  155

  Bjarne Melkevik’s book is one of the best comprehensive treatments of legal philosophy currently available in Canada. First of all, the reader will find in the form of a long introduction a bookchapter translated into Hungarian, which is a general description of Melkevik’s jurisprudential views, provided by Mate Paksy. The chosen chapter organizes the reflexions on legal philosophy into three interrelated ques- tions. Melkevik’s first, thought-provoking question is as follows: why do we need legal philosophy? He views legal philosophy not as foundational legal scholarship, but mainly as an elucidation of public, reflexive argumentation on law which isn’t at

  odds either with an empirical methodology. The second question concerns whether studying legal philosophy is useful for lawyers. Here Melkevik endorses again a post-positivist position according to which both law and legal philosophy are essentially practical discourses. Though the third part of the paper is heavy with disciplinary boundary-drawing, which emerges from questioning the place of legal scholarship vis-à-vis other, more empirical branches of social sciences such as history or anthropology, Melkevik’s reflexions here are still inspired by a sort of Neo-Kantian legal philosophy and Habermas’ communicative ethics.

• The Legal Status of Women in the Balkans from the 19th Century to the Present

  101-123

  László Heka

  Views:

  255

  One of the most important pieces of legislation in Serbian history was the Serbian Civil Code (SCC) of 1844, which remained in force for more than 100 years. It dates back to the time when the country was still part of the Ottoman Empire and survived the state law regimes of the Principality of Serbia, the Kingdom of Serbia, the Kingdom of Serbs-Croats and Slovenians and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia before being liquidated by socialist Yugoslavia in 1945. From the moment it was created, there had been serious criticism, such as that it was modelled on the Austrian civil code and thus did not correspond to Serbian legal-social relations, and so there was no indication that it would be a durable piece of legislation. In its 100-year history, most of the criticism concerned the discriminatory provisions on women. Mostly, the legal situation of married women was detrimental, as they had no capacity to act, and were represented by their husbands. Their proclaimed equality took place in 1946, but they actually received the same legal status as men in the late 20th century.

• Aspects and consequences of the Kingdom of England’s legislative regimes regarding the Hanseatic League, the Dutch Republic and Scotland

  68-77

  Daniel Haitas

  Views:

  233

  The article surveys elements of the Kingdom of England’s relations with the Hanseatic League, the Dutch Republic and Scotland throughout certain periods of history. There is a particular focus on legal measures and regulations adopted by England with regards to the traders of the Hanseatic League in the 14th and 15th centuries and Dutch traders in the 17th century. In relation to Scotland, there is an overview of how restrictions enacted by England helped to contribute in part to the Union of 1707, and of some consequences which followed on from this important historical development. The study can be said to be of interest in terms of certain developments taking place in Europe at the present time. 

• The Temporal Scope of the German Criminal Code

  149-172

  József Stál

  Views:

  351

  The problem of temporal scope is also reflected in Germany’s criminal law. Its essence is the usage of the more lenient law in the case of the difference between the law of perpetration and the law of decision-making. The German Criminal Code has a 150 year history, with the original version being around 170 years old. It’s respectable age allows us to conclude that it has a stable character, however due to its countless modifications there has always been a significant problem – and there still is today – in relation to its interpretation. This study also provides a brief outlook on the regulation of the temporal scope in other German-speaking countries.

• Determining the Period of Criminal Legal Limitation

  99-113

  Dávid Hadházi

  Views:

  296

  In my essay I examine the statutes of limitation in criminal law. Firstly, I give a general description of limitation, of its position in the Criminal Code and of its legal theory. Secondly, I review the legal history of limitation demonstrating the system of limitation in our first criminal code. After that, I outline the regulations concerning the period of limitation and then describe the way limitation is enforced in the statute of criminal procedure. Finally, I draw the conclusions of my essay in the form of a proposition de lege ferenda.

• Reflections from the Viewpoint of Legal History on the Muslims in Hungary

  11-23

  Gábor Hamza

  Views:

  103

  The Islamic religion, on the basis of Act No. XVII promulgated in 1917 in the Kingdom of Hungary, was given the status of a „recognized” religion i.e. religious community (in Hungarian: „elismert felekezet”, in Latin „licita religio”). By virtue of this act the Islamic religion received the same legal status as the Baptist church in 1905. It has to be pointed out that according to the census taken in 1910 in the Kingdom of Hungary, including Croatia-Slovenia which enjoyed a large degree of autonomy, there were only as many as 757 citizens belonging to the Islamic religious community. In this study we examine the legal status of the Muslim Community in Hungary until the end of World War I. As a main conclusion it can be stated that the law of Muslims (ius personarum) had never became a part of the legal system of Hungary, and that Islamic law never confronted the ius patrium.

• Is the New Regulation Justified? Applicability of the New Rules of Self-defense in Case-law

  129-147

  Viktória Deák

  Views:

  263

  In the history of the regulation of self-defense, Act C of 2012 has resulted in the most substantial change. The greatest innovation in the act is the introduction of the situational self-defense, which creates an irrebuttable presumption that the unlawful attacks carried out under certain circumstances shall be considered as attacks against life. The new regulation has been criticized a lot, mostly because there are fears that the new rules of law will be misused. Through the case-law of the Supreme Court relating to self-defense in the last ten years, this study intends to reveal whether it was justified to include the situational self-defense in the new law or whether the concerns in connection with situational self-defense can be considered legitimate.

• Actual Challenges of Delimitation of Continental Shelf on the Example of the Arctic

  67-83

  Erzsébet Csatlós

  Views:

  161

  The concept of continental shelf as an inherent right to coastal State has a history of almost a hundred year but its legal status has several gaps which need to be resolved in the forseeable future. Delimitation of continental shelf between States with adjacent or opposite coasts has been a problematic issue since the elaboration of the legal concept of continental shelf but the present essay aims to highlight some other problems emerging since the first application of Article 76 of UNCLOS. These legal problems are related to the procedure of establishing of the outer limits of continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. The essay examines these legal problems and demonstrates the challenge caused to the Arctic continental shelf as an example.

• The Legal Status of the Inventor in the First Hungarian Patent Act

  19-33

  László Papp

  Views:

  98

  The first Hungarian Act on Patents was adopted in 1895. The study examines the regulation of the inventor’s legal status in this act and the problems the legislature had to solve. In the first part of the study the inventor’s rights are described regarding the inventor’s personal and valuable rights and interests. By the beginning of the 20th century license became the most important valuable right and interest, although its regulation could not be found in any act. In fact, a decision of the Patent Court in 1928 declared the regulation of leasehold valid, which raised greater and greater difficulties in legal application from the second half of the 20th century. The second part of the study examines the inventor’s obligation of payment and functioning. The latter is one of the special features of the intellectual property system which is regulated by the Industrial Property Union.

• The Financial Supervisory Agencies of the European Union and the Question of the European Administrative Procedure

  Bálint Teleki

  Views:

  206

  The agency-type organs have a history of several decades in the European Union. In the last few years there were two different tendencies leading towards the establishment of regulatory (or decentralised) agencies with strong powers, especially in the field of financial supervision. The first of these tendencies was the fall of the neoliberal dogma of the self-regulating market – as a consequence of the 2008 financial-economic crisis – which led to the priorities of the decision-makers being reset in favour of a stricter regulation than that of the New Public Management era. The other tendency was that the debate about a European administrative law started to live. The European Supervisory Authorities of the financial sector, which were established after the crisis, are regulatory agencies with strong powers. However, some of their competences are so strong, that it poses questions regarding the legal protection of the participants of the market. Moreover, the case-law related to their function seems to overwrite the accepted norms of delegation of competences within the institutional framework of the European Union.

• Deepfake: a Blessing or a Curse? Legal Regulatory Aspects

  157-178

  Csongor Herke

  Views:

  235

  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.

• Luxembourg v Strasbourg – Legal Impediments in the Process of the Accession of the EU to the ECHR

  101-119

  Zoltán Angyal

  Lilla Nóra Kiss

  Views:

  124

  The 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.

• ’The more speech, the better’: Review of the Book of András Koltay on New Media and Freedom of Speech

  Gergely Gosztonyi

  Views:

  255

  At first glance, the new book of András Koltay seems to be a translation of his recently published volume, New Media and Freedom of Expression: Rethinking the Constitutional Foundations of the Public Sphere (Hart International, 2019). Therefore, one would expect that the work itself does not provide any new information to those who already know the original in English. That could not be less true. As we get to the bottom of this false impression, the review shows the many virtues and minor mistakes of the book.