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.
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.
1: The Legal Landscape
2: Customary Law and the Tripartitum
3: Customary Law, Legislation, and Letters
4: Customary Law and Medieval Courts
5: King and Nobility
6: The Nobleman and His Land
7: Crime and Prosecution
8: Medieval Procedure and Judicial Decision Making
9: Early Modern Legal Institutions
10: Codification after the Tripartitum
11: Courts and the Law in the Long Eighteenth Century
12: Custom and Law in the Modern Period
Conclusion: Customary Law in Hungary
Martyn Rady has taught at the UCL School of Slavonic and East
European Studies since 1990, where he is Professor of Central
European History. He was a Leverhulme Trust research fellow in
2010-12 and he has an honorary doctorate from the Károli Gáspár
University of the Reformed Church in Budapest. He was for ten years
part of the team that edited and translated the corpus of the laws
of medieval Hungary and is General Editor of the Slavonic
and East European Review. His previous books include Medieval Buda
(1985), and Nobility, Land and Service in Medieval Hungary (2000).
He has also edited and translated several of the leading Hungarian
and Czech medieval
chronicles.
Martyn Rady's monograph is a remarkable overview about a large part
of Hungarian legal history. Not only does it provide an insight
into the history of sources and judicial organization, but it also
demonstrates the essence and development of many important legal
institutions in the field of private law, criminal law, procedural
law and constitutional law.
*Laszlo Komaromi, Parliaments, Estates & Representation*
This book benefits from Radys extensive knowledge not only on the
Hungarian and Latin languages but also his commitment to central
European history and his long-standing research interests into
customary law. ... Not only is it a welcomed addition to the
scholarship of Hungarian, but also legal, feudal and central
European histories.
*Matthew Martin, SLOVO*
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