The Hungarian Kbtk. in the light of 19th century European criminal codifications

Abstract

The present study is a revised and edited version of  the paper presented at the conference organised by  the University of Public Service Faculty of Public  Governance and International Studies on November  29, 2019, entitled ‘Criminal Code of Infringements on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of the adoption of Article XL of the Act of 1879’. The study  examines the European models of the Hungarian  infringement code edited by Károly Csemegi using  the comparative legal history method. In his investigations of the French Code Pénal of 1810, the Belgian Penal Code of 1867, and the German Criminal Code of 1871 he focuses on the analysis of the parts containing infringements and the comparison with the Hungarian regulations. The author states that the Hungarian Kbtk., although it took European patterns into account, did not follow any of them in a slavish manner. Although the substantive law of the infringements was regulated at European level, the organisational changes necessary for the effective conduct of the proceedings were not made, so that a uniform and general infringement court modeled on the French and Belgian models was not created, neither were the material and personal conditions.