About this book: Introduction to Hungarian Law provides a basic knowledge of legal concepts of Hungary, with special emphasis on practical issues. Hungary’s historical connection to the European legal tradition has enabled the country’s legal system to overcome the legal gap caused by political developments after the Second World War. This practical book, far from a simple second edition of the volume published more than ten years ago, details the full-fledged legal system that has been established prior to and since Hungary became a member of the European Union in 2004, and it contains information concerning the existing legal system. This book provides a comprehensive overview of all major areas of Hungarian law, from constitutional law and administrative law to business law and labour law. What’s in this book: Designed for non-Hungarian practitioners encountering Hungarian law in the course of their work, expert local contributors provide, in English, thorough guidance on legal areas, including the following: constitutional law; administrative law; fiscal and financial law; taxation; family law, property law and succession law; contracts; torts; company law; labour law; copyright and patents; private international law; civil litigation; arbitration; and criminal law and procedure. How this will help you: Practising lawyers in every field, business people seeking international markets and academic researchers, government officials and students will find this volume to be of great practical value. It offers a quick and reliable way into any area of Hungarian law that they may be required to research in order to provide straight and simple answers according to the needs of those who may have to interact with the Hungarian legal system.

More than two decades after the post-communist constitutional transition, Hungary got into the spotlight again. As a result of the 2010 elections, the governing majority gained two-thirds of the seats in parliament, which made constitutional revision exceptionally easy, bypassing extensive political and social deliberations. In April 2011, on the first anniversary of the 2010 election, a brand new constitution was promulgated, named the Fundamental Law. This collection is the most comprehensive account of the Fundamental Law and its underlying principles. The objective is to analyze this constitutional transition from the perspectives of comparative constitutional law, legal theory and political philosophy. The authors outline and analyze how the current constitutional changes are altering the basic structure of the Hungarian State. The key concepts of the theoretical inquiry are sociological and normative legitimacy, majoritarian and partnership approach to democracy, procedural and substantive elements of constitutionalism. Changes are also examined in the field of human rights, focusing on the principles of equality, dignity, and civil liberties.

The new Hungarian Basic Law, which was ratified on 1 January 2012, provoked domestic and international controversy. Of particular concern was the constitutional text's explicit claim that it was situated within a reinvigorated Hungarian legal tradition that had allegedly developed over centuries before its violent interruption during World War II, by German invaders, and later, by Soviet occupation. To explore the context and validity of this claim, and the legal traditions which have informed the stormy centuries of Hungary's constitutional development, this book brings together a group of leading historians, political scientists and legal scholars to produce a comprehensive history of Hungarian constitutional thought. Ranging in scope from an overview of Hungarian medieval jurisprudence to an assessment of the various criticisms levelled at the new Hungarian Basis Law of 2012, contributors assess the constitutions, their impacts and their legacies, as well as the social and cultural contexts within which they were drafted. The historical analysis is accompanied by a selection of original source materials, many translated here for the first time. This is the only book in English on the subject and is essential reading for all those interested in Hungary's history, political culture and constitution.

andquot;The last two decades changed the post-socialist legal orders both quantitatively and qualitatively in such a manner, which can rarely be experienced in history. Though some of its aspects have already been analyzed, a comprehensive study of one of these legal orders in English is still missing. This volume attempts to fill this gap by analyzing the transformation of the Hungarian legal order between 1985 and 2005. It presents the transformation of the Hungarian legal order from three different aspects. Firstly, it analyzes concrete legal questions, like the constitutional problems of accession to the European Union, dealing with the past, the status law, the development of minority protection, and the relationship between international and municipal law. Secondly, it tries to give a general theoretical overview on the last 20 years and– in the issues of law and politics, law and economy, legitimacy of the Constitution, law importation, culture and European integration, changes in legal thinking, and sociological and criminological characteristics of the transition. Thirdly, it takes account of changes in the established areas of Hungarian law and legal science and– like constitutional law, agricultural law, criminal law, criminal procedure, consumer protection, environmental law, administrative law, financial law, civil law, civil procedure and social law.andquot;

This book shows the rise and morphology of a self-identified `illiberal democracy’, the first 21st century illiberal political regime arising in the European Union. Since 2010, Viktor Orbán’s governments in Hungary have convincingly offered an anti-modernist and anti-cosmopolitan/anti-European Unionist rhetoric, discourse and constitutional identity to challenge neo-liberal democracy. The Hungarian case provides unique observation points for students of transitology, especially those who are interested in states which are to abandon pathways of liberal democracy. The author demonstrates how illiberalism is present both in `how’ and `what’ is being done: the style, format and procedure of legislation; as well as the substance: the dismantling of institutional rule of law guarantees and the weakening of checks and balances. The book also discusses the ideological commitments and constitutionally framed and cemented value preferences, and a reconstituted and re-conceptualized relationship between the state and its citizens, which is not evidently supported by Hungarians’ value system and life-style choices.

The year 2017 has been an uneasy one for the EU, with so-called Brexit on the horizon and the rise of populist euroskepticism in a number of Member States. This year, with the tenth anniversary of the Romanian and Bulgarian accession to the Union, is a good year to pause and reflect over the life and future of the Union. In this work, we envision the next decade with Europe 2020 strategy and review the fruits of the 2004 accession in Central and Eastern Europe. What has the Union achieved? Which policy areas are likely to change and how? How successful, and by what measure, has the accession of the 10 Member States in 2004 been? Reviewing European Union Accession addresses a wide range of issues, deliberately without any thematic constraints, in order to explore EU enlargement from a variety of perspectives, both scientific and geographical, internal and external. In contrast to the major works in this field, we highlight the interrelated, and often unexpected, nature of the integration process – hence the subtitle, unexpected results, spillover effects and externalities.

This two-volume book, published open access, brings together leading scholars of constitutional law from twenty-nine European countries to revisit the role of national constitutions at a time when decision-making has increasingly shifted to the European and transnational level. It offers important insights into three areas. First, it explores how constitutions reflect the transfer of powers from domestic to European and global institutions. Secondly, it revisits substantive constitutional values, such as the protection of constitutional rights, the rule of law, democratic participation and constitutional review, along with constitutional court judgments that tackle the protection of these rights and values in the transnational context, e.g. with regard to the Data Retention Directive, the European Arrest Warrant, the ESM Treaty, and EU and IMF austerity measures. The responsiveness of the ECJ regarding the above rights and values, along with the standard of protection, is also assessed. Thirdly, challenges in the context of global governance in relation to judicial review, democratic control and accountability are examined. On a broader level, the contributors were also invited to reflect on what has increasingly been described as the erosion or ‘twilight’ of constitutionalism, or a shift to a thin version of the rule of law, democracy and judicial review in the context of Europeanisation and globalisation processes. The national reports are complemented by a separately published comparative study, which identifies a number of broader trends and challenges that are shared across several Member States and warrant wider discussion. The research for this publication and the comparative study were carried out within the framework of the ERC-funded project ‘The Role and Future of National Constitutions in European and Global Governance’. The book is aimed at scholars, researchers, judges and legal advisors working on the interface between national constitutional law and EU and transnational law. The extradition cases are also of interest to scholars and practitioners in the field of criminal law. Anneli Albi is Professor of European Law at the University of Kent, United Kingdom. Samo Bardutzky is Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.