The series of The Laws of the Medieval Kingdom in Hungary, published by Charles Schlacks, Salt Lake City, distributed by CEU Press (to be ordered at [email protected]). The book contains the bilingual, Latin and English text of the Tripartitum that for well over three centuries lent shape to Hungarian law more than any enactment.

This is the first comprehensive treatment in any language of the history of customary law in Hungary, from the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries. Hungary's customary law was described by Stephen Werboczy in 1517 in the extensive law code known as the Tripartitum. As Werboczy explained, Hungarian law derived from the interplay of Romano-canonical law, statute, written instruments, and court judgments. It was also responsive, however, to popular conceptions of the law's content and application, as communicated through the lay membership of the kingdom's courts. Publication of the Tripartitum was intended to make the law more certain by fixing it in writing. Nevertheless, its text was customized by actual use, in the same way as the statute laws of the kingdom were adjusted as a consequence of court practice and of errors in their transmission. The reputation attaching to the Tripartitum and Hungary's insulation from the Roman Law Reception meant that the Tripartitum continued to retain authority until well into the nineteenth century. Attempts to replace it foundered and it was the principal text on which the courts and the schools relied, not only in Habsburg Hungary but also in Transylvania. Courts, nevertheless, continued to modify its provisions in the interests of rendering judgments that they deemed either to be right or in conformity with developing practices. Even after the establishment of a parliamentary form of government in the nineteenth century, a strong customary element attached to Hungarian law, which was amplified by the association of customary law with national traditions. The consequence was that Hungary maintained aspects of a customary law regime until the Communist period.

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.

This book is about one of the most important elements of the political narratives in the history of Hungary in past and present: the Holy Crown of Hungary. This object is one of the most widely used symbols of modern Hungarian nationalism in our times and has been in use for ages in political culture. Surprisingly less is known how the meaning of the crown has changed over the centuries and how this influenced the development of national identity in the early modern period. Starting point is that the "medieval doctrine of the holy crown" is a modern invention. Teszelszky's research concentrates on the relation between the change in the meaning of this crown and the construction of an early modern national identity between 1572 and 1665. Using a constructivist method of research the author shows how the Habsburg ruler and the Hungarian estates legitimised their political program through an image of the crown and the Hungarian political community. In a short period between the end of 1604 and 1613 during a rebellion in Hungary, a war with the Ottomans and a strive between Emperor Rudolf II and his brother Archduke Matthias, the medieval tradition of the holy crown was revived and redeveloped by Hungarian and foreign historiographers into an ideology which is still present today.

Cooperation across borders requires both knowledge of and understanding of different cultures. This is especially true when it comes to the law. This handbook is the first to comprehensively present selected legal cultures based on a very specific set of structural elements which can be found in all such cultures. Legal cultures are a product of and impacted by certain fundamental and commonly shared ideas on and expectations of the law. In all modern societies these ideas are to a certain degree institutionalized or at least embedded in institutionalized practices. These practices determine the way lawyers are educated and apply the law, how they engage with the ongoing internationalization of law and what kind of values they adhere to. Looking at these elements separately enables the reader to identify similarities and differences and to explain them contextually. Understanding these general features of legal cultures can help avoid misunderstandings or misinterpretations of foreign law and its application. Accordingly, this handbook is a necessary starting point for all kinds of legal comparative studies conducted by academics, students, judges and other legal practitioners.

The Hungarian defeat to the Ottoman army at the pivotal Battle of Mohács in 1526 led to the division of the Kingdom of Hungary into three parts, altering both the shape and the ethnic composition of Central Europe for centuries to come. Hungary thus became a battleground between the Ottoman and Habsburg empires. In this sweeping historical survey, Géza Pálffy takes readers through a crucial period of upheaval and revolution in Hungary, which had been the site of a flowering of economic, cultural, and intellectual progress—but battles with the Ottomans lead to over a century of war and devastation. Pálffy explores Hungary's role as both a borderland and a theater of war through the turn of the 18th century. In this way, Hungary became a crucially important field on which key debates over religion, government, law, and monarchy played out. Reflecting 25 years of archival research and presented here in English for the first time, Hungary between Two Empires 1526–1711 offers a fresh and thorough exploration of this key moment in Hungarian history and, in turn, the creation of a modern Europe.