The Fundamentals of Hungarian Private Law

Abstract

Editor: Jozsef, Benke | Title: The Fundamentals of Hungarian Private Law | Publisher: University of Pécs, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Department of Private Law, Pécs, 2020 | ISBN 978-963-429-484-9 (pdf) | ISBN 978-963-429-485-6 (epub) --- Although the process of the Hungarian private law codification has a long duration and it was also rich quantitatively and qualitatively as well, the successful outcomes of this long lasting proceeding are represented by our former Civil Code of 1959 (this Hungarian Civil Code abbreviated as HCC or former or 1959 HCC) and our Civil Code in effect of 2013 (abbreviated as new HCC or NHCC or 2013 HCC). Many results of the codification attempts remained, namely, voluntary sources of law, since these were used in the judicial practice, albeit could not come into force legally. The first meaningful and comprehensive effort of Private Law codification in our country, which has a more than 1100 years old statehood, was the so-called Tripartitum opus juris consuetudinarii inclyti regni Hungariae often called simply as Tripartitum. This opus contained the systematised conglomerate mainly of the Hungarian nobility (or aristocratic) feudal customary private law. It was elaborated by István Werbőczy in 1514 under the reign of Vladislaus II of Hungary (1490–1516). The Tripartitum had got the royal assent but it had never been promulgated as law, therefore courts could only have been using it as a de facto source of law. The key significance of the Tripartitum was the fact that this was the main legal source, which had made Hungarian private law independent of the Roman and of the Canon Law for centuries. Some old institutions have survived the centuries and remained in effect also in the NHCC, such as e.g. the idea of the lineal succession (see Book 7 § 67 = Section 7:67).