Hungarian law is the result of a thousand-year history and the reflection of an equally ancient historical constitution. The fundamental acts of the constitution marked at the same time the most notable stages of this history. Thus the Golden Bull of 1222, the law of ancestral assets of 1351, the law that creates the office of Count Palatine of 1485, the law of 1608 which establishes the bicameral system, the liberal legislation of 1848, etc. The structure of the constitution is not entirely governed by these laws, but fundamentally by customary law.
For constitutional law, see Hungary (XXXIV, p. 683). – From the point of view of public law all laws are of equal importance. Notable among these, by reason of the subject, is the 1879 law on citizenship. The principle of equality before the law has been in force since 1848.
The noble titles, the coats of arms, etc., represent only an ornamentation of class in the solidly democratic structure. Remains of private noble law, such as certain particular rules of succession law and the property rights of spouses, are about to disappear. The trust was severely limited by law XI of 1936 and subordinated to the general line of national policy, which is characterized by laws XXXVI of 1920 (agrarian reform) and XXVII of 1936 (colonization).
Citizenship can be acquired by birth, legitimacy, marriage and through special naturalization measures, and can be lost by expulsion from the state, decree of deprivation of civil rights, absence, legitimacy and marriage. Foreigners can obtain a residence permit under certain conditions. Fundamental civil rights, never ignored by the constitution and only extended to wider social strata and specified by the legislation of 1848, are protected by numerous laws and ordinances.
Similarly to the public law system, private law is also not codified as a whole. Customary law is the same source as law. The unity and organic nature of the legal system are not based on previous cases, but are based on the so-called right of decision of the supreme court. Pursuant to law XXXIV of 1912, the law implementing the code of civil procedure, this court has a detailed ruling right for the purpose of safeguarding the unity of jurisdiction. The legal collection of customary law unifies jurisprudence without stiffening it and is the best preparation for any codification, an excellent compromise between the opposing requirements of legal security and legal progress. L’ ancient Hungarian noble law was superseded by the legislation of 1848. The nation took up arms in the war of liberation for the defense of the rights then guaranteed by documents, mentioned only in their principles, institutionally not elaborated. The full realization of the then progressive-bourgeois legal system was reached only with the compromise with Austria in 1867. After the repression of the uprisings for freedom (1848-1849) the constitution was abolished and the Austrian civil code was imposed on Hungary.. The order of the land registry of December 15, 1855 derives from that time and is still fundamental today. The curial conference of 1861 settled the disputes with decisions on judicial competence, which were conceived as provisional, but whose private law provisions remained decisive even after the re-establishment of the constitution (inheritance law). From this epoch until 1914 the entire legal system was built in accordance with the dominant currents. A somewhat incomplete but characteristic commercial and exchange legislation already existed before 1848 (1840), but a complete commercial code was obtained only with the XXXVII law of 1875, which took into account especially the customs union with Austria and the intense business relations with Germany. In 1876 there was the masterful change law: law XVII. The bill of exchange only followed in 1908 (law LVIII). The legal matter elaborated in the commercial and exchange law was integrated in 1930 with stories on the limited liability company and on the factual one (law V). Until then there were various forms of commercial companies: the general partnership, the limited partnership, the limited company, the cooperative (commercial law, para. 61). The matter of pledge notes, grain pledge notes, licenses, patents, copyrights, insurance, etc., was regulated by a series of special laws and ordinances. Commerce was governed, if not completely, but largely by written law. General private law is not collected in a unitary code, despite the fact that its first project was already ready in 1900. The last project (from 1928, with 2171 paragraphs) does not become law, because with its transformation into law it would cease the legal unity with the territories of the successor states in which the Hungarian civil legislation is still in force. The part of the project relating to debt relations already exerts, even without the form of a law, a great influence on judicial practice. The new law on mortgages (law XXXV of 1927) is an autonomous development of the mortgage connected with the land registry. The same happens with laws XIII of 1924 (responsibility of hoteliers) and X of 1923 (responsibility for animals sold). As most important parts of the prudent liberal legislation partially codified between 1867 and 1914 are to be mentioned: the 1877 protection law compiled on the Prussian model (law XX), the law on testamentary dispositions (law XVI of 1876) and finally the law on compulsory civil marriage (law XXXI of 1894). The most important provisions of these laws, cited here only as an example, are: to) The age of majority begins with the completion of the 24th year of age. Those who are under the age of 12 have no legal standing. Marriage makes women of age. Minors are subject to parental authority or guardianship. Minors, who have reached the age of 18, can be declared of age. A minor, who has reached the age of 14, can freely dispose of his earnings as he provides for his own maintenance. The legal situation of natural children is regulated by ordinances in accordance with the new social requirements (ordinances 3982, 1916. IM and 25.700, 1925. IM). The child whose parents were not married to each other during conception and birth is natural. This son bears the name of his mother and is in kinship relationships and ‘ inheritance only with the mother and with her relatives. However, the impediment to marriage due to consanguinity continues to exist before the paternal family. Parental responsibility rests with the mother as natural and legal guardian. For Hungary 2015, please check dentistrymyth.com.
The father must provide for the maintenance of the child up to the age at which he is able to earn (usually up to the age of 16). In circumstances determined by social status, he must also provide for the maintenance of the child for the duration of higher education. The presumption of paternity exists when the father has had intimate relations with the child’s mother not earlier than 302 days and not later than 181 days from the child’s birth. Against the mother only the exception of loose conduct can be asserted. Each mother is entitled to help with childbirth and the postnatal period (2 weeks of maintenance before and 4 weeks after the birth). Abandoned children are welcomed by the state kindergarten. The maintenance obligation is also up to the father’s heirs. Parents are required to support the children employed in their company without compensation (this matter is included in an entire chapter of the draft code of private law: §§ 245-264). Minors can marry only with the consent of the person exercising parental authority: males after reaching the age of 18, females after reaching the age of 16. b) They cannot marry between themselves: relatives in a straight line, brothers, a brother with a descendant of another brother, a spouse with a relative of the other spouse in a straight line, finally the parties, one of which in agreement with the the other has threatened the life of their spouse or the spouse of the other party. No one can enter into a new marriage if the previous one is still valid. In addition to these impediments to marriage, there are also numerous prohibitions.
