Notaries' Gazette

Austria and Hungary in the light of the development of notaries

Christian Neschwara — 2026-03-31

The history of modern Austrian notary began with the Austrian Notary Act of 1850. The institution of notaries was further developed with the Notaries Acts of 1855 and 1871. The law issued in 1871 is still in force in Austria today. After the First World War, the Austrian notary regulations were in force in several successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The annexation of Burgenland to Austria meant the continuation of Hungarian law in the province for a few years. At the beginning of the regime change, the Hungarian notary restored the civil-type notary system with Austrian help.

Change and Constancy

Sándor Udvary — 2026-03-31

The enforcement of court decisions in civil matters was once exclusively within the jurisdiction of the courts, but today this task has partly merged with notarial duties, because notaries nowadays issue a larger number of enforceable decisions than the courts themselves. Enforcement has always been an area where the legislator had to maintain a delicate balance between the principle of unconditional enforcement of claims and social sensitivity, in other words, between protecting the interests of the claimant or the debtor. This study examines this search for equilibrium through an overview of the history of the rules on wage garnishment and attempts to find answers to some current legal questions through it.

Lawyer profession between 1874 and 1949

Veronika Lehotay — 2026-03-31

The paper surveys the institutional history of the Hungarian bar, highlighting the development of the legal profession as a distinct corporate entity, the consolidation of its organizational framework, and the gradual loss of its autonomy. It asks who counted as a lawyer in different historical eras and what professional, ethical, and legal conditions made it possible to pursue the vocation. Although the legal regulation of the bar took statutory form in Article XXXIV of 1874, the study emphasizes that the traditions of courtroom representation and legal assistance extend back much further in time. From a legal-historical perspective, it maps the regulatory frameworks that shaped admission to the profession and defined the responsibilities borne by its members. In methodological terms, the research builds on earlier scholarship, primarily the conclusions of János Zlinszky. Special attention is devoted to the archival materials of the Miskolc Bar Association, as the operation of local chambers reveals the everyday realities of professional practice. For lawyers, the period between the two world wars brought mounting difficulties: overcrowding, growing state control, territorial change, and discriminatory legislation. After 1945, sweeping reforms reshaped the profession. Independent practice disappeared and was replaced by compulsory collective offices. The paper shows how, by 1949, the formerly autonomous bar had come under direct state subordination.

The role of civil notaries in the development of jurisprudence

Gábor Rokolya — 2026-03-31

During the three-quarters of a century of the operation of the professional order, the notaries of the bourgeois era continuously enriched Hungarian jurisprudence with their works. Bálint Ökröss stands out among them, who wrote both private law and civil procedure law works. An important stage of his work as an author was the founding of the Jogtudományi Közlöny, the standard legal journal that still exists today. Among the notaries, he was the only one elected a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The codification of civil law that developed at the beginning of the 20th century became the subject of the studies and monographs of many notary legal writers, such as Fülöp Weinmann, Lajos Baditz and Szigfrid Holitscher. In his works, Béla Baranyai dealt with the inheritance procedure and the role of the notary in preventive legal protection. The pinnacle of László Fekete's creative work is his two-volume monograph Ars Notarialis. With the exception of Bálint Ökröss, the other notary legal writers regularly wrote articles for the notary's professional journal, while among them Szigfrid Holitscher and László Fekete were also the editors-in-chief of the notary's journal.

Organization and beginnings of the Royal Prosecutor's Office (1871-72)

László Nánásy — 2026-03-31

As part of the judicial reform following the compromise, the Hungarian royal prosecutor's office began operating in 1872. The highest office in the procuratorial organization was the post of Crown Procurator. Direct management of the organization was carried out by the attorneys general. The basic units of the organization were the prosecutor's offices next to the tribunals. In the opinion of Sándor Kozma, prosecutors as citizens can have a political opinion, but „in their official capacity they are outside the contours of the parties.”

Questions concerning the civil liability and responsibility of churches and religious communities

Annamária Schlosser — 2026-03-31

The presented legal cases show that Hungarian civil courts, keeping in mind the commercial traffic security and the protection of creditors, as well as the protection of the personal rights of private individuals, often judge the legal relations of church legal entities in the same way as those of other legal entities. They draw a relatively narrow scope for the applicability of internal rules. However, the specific autonomy of churches and religious communities and the principles of commercial traffic security and protection of creditors may come into conflict. Many of the resulting theoretical issues have not yet been weighed by the courts in practice. With the increasing presence of churches and church legal entities as owners, maintainers and employers in Hungary, it is expected that more and more such theoretical problems will arise in the legal praxis.

Issues concerning the application of the Code of Civil Procedure in notarial proceedings

Bence Bartha — 2026-03-31

When conducting non-contentious civil proceedings under the jurisdiction of the Civil Law Notary, certain provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure in force at the time must be applied. The study begins with the dogmatic fundamentals of the non-contentious law. Then examines various aspects of its application. It highlights the reference rule appearing in the text of the law, as well as certain specific features of the non-contentious notarial proceedings, which may also be referred to as deviating circumstances. Finally, it uses an example to illustrate how the Code of Civil Procedure may be applied in practice.

How much does a lawyer demand?

Antónia Oláh — 2026-03-31

On February 7, 2025, Decree of the Minister of Justice 32/2003. (VIII. 22.) on attorney fees that can be determined in court proceedings (hereinafter: previous decree of the MoJ) was repealed, which had been in force for approximately twenty-two years and ensured a legal framework for courts to determine attorney fees. It was replaced on February 8, 2025, by Decree 17/2024. (XII. 9.) of the Minister of Justice on the fees of lawyers and in-house counsel registered with the Hungarian Bar Association in court proceedings (hereinafter: new decree of the MoJ), which in many respects placed the regulation of lawyers' and in-house counsel's fees in court proceedings on a new foundation. Under the previous decree of the MoJ, there were numerous examples of courts disregarding agreements between litigants and their attorneys and reducing the legal representative's fees, in some cases significantly. This was done despite the fact that the lawyer's fee stipulated in the contract of engagement was typically in line with market conditions and proportionate to the work performed. The legislator intended to remedy this contradictory situation, which was fundamentally criticized by the legal profession, by enacting the new decree of the MoJ, in such a way that the changes made in the decree narrowed the court's scope of action with regard to an essential element[2] of the contractual relationship between the litigant and his attorney, the determination of the lawyer's fees. In my study, I analyze the implementation of the new decree of the MoJ based on the judgments of the Budapest Regional Court, the Budapest High Court of Justice and the Supreme Court, in which the court has already ruled on attorneys' fees based on the rules of the new decree of the MoJ. My objective is to provide an overview of how the legislative intentions behind the decree are being implemented in judicial practice.

Sajtószemle

Tamás Molnár — 2026-03-31

Abstracts

Mária Mirk — 2026-03-31