Customary law in Hungary : courts, texts, and the tripartitum / Martyn Rady.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rady, Martyn, 1955- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Customary law--Hungary.

Customary law.

Law--Hungary--Sources.

Law.

Hungary.

Genre:

Sources.

Physical Description:

xii, 266 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2015.

Summary:

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 Werböczy in 1517 in the extensive law code .known as the Tripartitum. As Werböczy 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 alter 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. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The Legal Landscape 1

Historical Introduction 1

The Nature of Customary Law 8

2 Customary Law and the Tripartitum 15

Stephen Werboczy and his Tripartitum 15

The Tripartitum and the Sources of Customary Law 21

3 Customary Law, Legislation and Letters 27

The Romano-Canonical Tradition 27

Letters and the Loca Credibilia 37

Legislation and Statute 43

4 Customary Law and Medieval Courts 49

The Tripartitum and the Decisions of Judges 49

Courts of the Royal Presence 50

Protonotaries and the Composition of Courts 55

5 King and Nobility 65

Classification and Legal Positivism 65

Origin and Meaning of Nobility 67

Election and Succession 75

The Right of Resistance 78

6 The Nobleman and His Land 85

Aviticitas and Alienability 85

The Assumptio and Usurious Contracts 93

Guardianship and Wardship 98

The Peasantry 102

7 Crime and Prosecution 109

Criminal Cases 109

Perfidy (Nota infidelitatis) 112

Public Prosecution and Witchcraft 116

8 Medieval Procedure and Judicial Decision Making 121

Sources of Procedural Law 121

The Summons 123

Trial and Retrial 127

Judicial Decisions and Decision Making 134

9 Early Modern Legal Institutions 141

The Division of the Kingdom 141

The Organization of Justice 143

Roman Law and the Transylvanian Saxons 152

Jurists and Legal Education 156

10 Codification After the Tripartitum 165

The Quadripartitum and the Tripartitum 165

The Corpus Juris Hungarici and its Antecedents 168

The Einrichtungswerk and the Commissio Systematica 175

Public Law, the CJH and the Historians 184

11 Courts and the Law in the Long Eighteenth Century 191

Customary Law and the Lower Courts 191

The Courts of the Curia 199

Bankruptcy and Sequestration 211

12 Custom and Law in the Modern Period 215

The Limits of Reform 215

Neo-Absolutism and the High Judge Conference 221

Courts and the Legislative Deficit 230

Rendelet, Court Practice and Rhetoric 235.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-257) and index.

ISBN:

9780198743910

0198743912

OCLC:

907130961