The Contribution of Lawyers to Legal Folk Life Research in Kalotaszeg and Collection of Transylvanian Legal Customs between 1939 and 1948

Abstract

The collection of legal customs with the participation of lawyers between 1939 and 1948, closely related to the process of the Hungarian private law codification, might prove to be an interisting source for the legal sciences and the history of law. The research on legal folk life has strong bonds with the territories of Transylvania. These researches resulted in significant scientific publications and served as important sources for further research. The collected material was also an important step in the discovery of archaic traditions.

In our study, after reviewing the internationat and Hungarian history of research, we wish to reassess some details of Transylvanian legal folk life described between 1939 and 1948 in light of the achievements of related research.

The present study examines the contribution of lawyers to legal ethnographical research in the Kalotaszeg area and to the collection of legal customs in Transylvania. We also wish to emphasize the achievements made by György Bónis and Ernő Tárkány Szücs connected to this topic and territory that have been partly preserved in the news.