Győző Concha’s Theory on the Separation of Powers

Abstract

This paper tries to present a theory of separation of powers that is not typical in the mirror of two important works of the one of the most important Hungarian scholars of German type constitutional theory (Verfassungslehre) and administration theory (Verwaltungslehre), Győző Concha. The study presents some general questions and the most influential theories of the topic (the British Locke, Blackstone; the French and Swiss–French Montesquieu, Vattel, Constant, Berriat Saint-Prix; the German Mohl, Stein, and Gneist, too) and pays attention to the etymological problems and question of separation of powers in the different major and less major legal cultures (Latin politica trias; English separation of powers; French séparation des pouvoir; German Gewaltenteilung, and Gewaltentrennung (the second version in Austria and German-speaking territories of Switzerland); Italian separazione dei poteri; Spanish separación de poderes; Portugese separação de poderes; just as the Romanian separaţia puterilor; and Russian pазделéние властéй (razdelenije vlastej), too. Our article applies various methodologies of etymology, conceptual history (Begriffsgeschichte), and history of ideas (Ideengeschichte), and a typical analysis of Legal Doctrines (Rechtsdogmatik). This essay demonstrates the most important characteristics of Győző Concha’s life-work. Our paper compares the different variations of separation of powers related to adequate parts of Concha’s Politica: Constitutional
Theory – Administration Theory from 1891, 1893, and 1895/1905; and a shorter study entitled The Principles of the Separation of Powers (1892). We concluded that Concha criticised the mistakes of the confused separation of powers-related German legal literature (and sometimes the French one, too), and constructed his own theory of a strongly modified, inventive (original) version on Stein’s theory, based on the previous antecedents of the Hungarian Historical Constitution (and constitutional law).