MVV368K Modern Hungarian Legal History and the Impact of the European Legal Development on the Hungarian Law

Faculty of Law
Autumn 2023
Extent and Intensity
0/1/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
Prof. Dr. Eszter Cs. Herger, DSc (seminar tutor), doc. JUDr. Bc. Jaromír Tauchen, Ph.D., LL.M. Eur.Int. (deputy)
doc. JUDr. Pavel Koukal, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
Dr. Patrícia Dominika Niklai (seminar tutor), doc. JUDr. Bc. Jaromír Tauchen, Ph.D., LL.M. Eur.Int. (deputy)
Guaranteed by
doc. JUDr. Bc. Jaromír Tauchen, Ph.D., LL.M. Eur.Int.
Faculty of Law
Contact Person: Mgr. Věra Redrupová, B.A.
Supplier department: Faculty of Law
Timetable of Seminar Groups
MVV368K/01: Mon 6. 11. 16:00–17:40 041, 18:00–19:40 041, Tue 7. 11. 16:00–17:40 041, 18:00–19:40 041, Wed 8. 11. 14:00–15:40 041
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 30 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 25/30, only registered: 2/30
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 80 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
The course is only offered to students with basic legal historian knowledge. At the end of the course, students should be able to: - know basic assumptions of the discussed legal historical aspects, - distinguish between Hungarian legal developments and European trends, - understand the importance of the methods of comparative legal history.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course, students should be able to: - recognize different forms of deficiencies in the rule of law based on the examples of Horthy's Hungary and the socialist period; - identify the factors influencing private law as demonstrated by the development of Hungarian private law between 1920 and 1990.
Syllabus
  • Changes in Family Law I (The secularisation of marriage law. The obstacles to marriage and the form of marriage in the light of canon law. Models of divorce law in European legal culture. The practice of Hungarian divorce law in the civil era and its impact on contemporary Hungarian marriage law. European models of matrimonial property law. Modern Hungarian matrimonial property law in the civil era and its impact on contemporary Hungarian matrimonial property law.)
  • Changes in Family Law II (The development of state child protection in the age of modernisation. The interpretation of children's rights. Changes in the status of legitimate and illegitimate children from traditional law to emancipation. The enforcement of the "best interests of the child" in the Hungarian divorce law. The "best interests of the child" in the regulation of parental custody.)
  • Developments in Public Law I - Written constitution vs historical constitution: the case of Hungary. The constitution and the Hungarian “national spirit”. The constitutional status of the Hungarian Kingdom within the Habsburg Monarchy between 1867-1918. The relevance of the Pragmatic Sanction (1722/1723) and the codification of the settlement (1867). The constitutional institutions of the liberal Hungarian state. The collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy and Hungary in 1918: the period of the first Hungarian Republic.
  • Developments in Public Law II - The inter-war period: a monarchy without a monarch. The status of the governor as a head of state. The concept of continuity and the doctrine of the Holy Crown. Historical constitution vs new direction of public law: authoritarian constitutional ideas and the Hungarian constitution before WWII. The formation of the second Hungarian Republic (1946-1949). The adoption of the Stalinist constitution (Act 20 of 1949) The collapse of socialist “constitutionalism” and the formation of the third Hungarian Republic in 1989/1990.
  • Changes in Public Law III (The main aspects of Public Law within the course: Church – State – Education – Minorities, especially: The importance of public education regarding the modernization of public administration and the relationship between the state and churches. Questions on the regulation of public education in 1848: the public education bill of József Eötvös. Neoabsolutist era and the Austrian Concordat of 1855 from the aspect of denominational- and state schools. The Hungarian and Austrian public educational acts of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Establishment of common state schools at the end of the 19th century. The Hungarian Soviet Republic’s efforts to reduce the influence of the churches on education. Ideological education and cultural policy in the Horthy-era: Kunó Klebelsberg and Bálint Hóman.)
  • Outline
  • 1. Changes in Family Law I (Prof. Dr. Eszter Cs. Herger DSc) 2. Changes in Family Law II (Prof. Dr. Eszter Cs. Herger DSc) 3. Changes in Public Law I (Associate Professor Dr. habil Gábor Schweitzer) 4. Changes in Public Law II (Associate Professor Dr. habil Gábor Schweitzer) 5. Changes in Public Law III (Assistant Lecturer Dr. Patrícia Dominika Niklai)
Literature
  • Gönczi, Katalin, Charakteristika und Tendenzen der ungarischen Rechtswissenschaft im „langen 19. Jahrhundert“. In: Rechtswissenschaft in Osteuropa: Studien zum 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert. Frankfurt am Main 2010, 117-163
  • Szente, Zoltán: The Constitutional Law in Hungary. Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands: Wolters Kluwer 2022
  • Schweitzer, Gábor: Responses in Hungarian Constitutional Theory to the so-called anti-Jewish Laws (1938 – 1943). JOURNAL ON EUROPEAN HISTORY OF LAW 2014 : 2 pp. 67-72. , 6 p. (2014)
  • Anatokolskaja, Masha, Harmonisation of Family Law in Europe: A Historical Perspective. A tale of two millennia, Antwerpen – Oxford 2006
  • Boele-Woelki, Katharina et al, Principles of European Family Law Regarding Property Relations Between Spouses, European family law series. Cambridge – Antwerpen – Portland 2013
  • Coester-Waltjen, Dagmar, Human Rights and the Harmonization of Family Law. In: Boele-Woelki, Katharina –Sverdrup, Ton (Hrsg.): Challenges in Contemporary Family Law. Antwerpen 2008, 3-14
  • Máthé, Gábor (Hrsg.): Die Entwicklung der Verfassung und des Rechts in Ungarn. Budapest 2017
  • Schweitzer, Gábor: Fundamental Law – Cardinal Law – Historical Constitution: the Case of Hungary since 2011. JOURNAL ON EUROPEAN HISTORY OF LAW 4 : 1 pp. 124-128. , 5 p. (2013)
  • Hörcher, Ferenc – Lorman, Thomas (ed.): A History of the Hungarian Constitution. Law, Government and Political Culture in Central Europe. London – New York, I. B. Tauris, 2019
  • Niklai Patrícia Dominika: Hungarian Cultural and Educational Policy (1932–1944) with Special Regard to the Practice of Baranya County. Jogtörténeti szemle 2021. 61–65.
  • Herger, Eszter Cs., The Introduction of Secular Divorce Law in Hungary, 1895-1918: Social and Legal Consequences for Women. Journal on European History of Law Nr. 3/2012 138-148
  • Herger, Eszter Cs., Alimony in Hungarian Family Law in the 19th Century. Journal on European History of Law Nr. 2/2011 43-50
  • Coing, Helmut, Europäisches Privatrecht Band II: 19. Jahrhundert, Überblick über die Entwicklung des Privatrechts in den ehemals gemeinrechtlichen Ländern. München 1989
Teaching methods
lectures, discussions
Assessment methods
The students will write an essay of approximately one-page in the final class session offering their personal reactions to whichever materials or topics covered in class that they find most important or personally engaging. They will have wide latitude here and they may draw on any of the materials covered, including the initial literature or any of the instructor’s presentations.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
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