The historical development of compensation for damage caused by wild animals in Hungary

Abstract

From the very beginning, human history has been marked by interactions with wildlife, one of the most typical manifestations of which is the damage caused by wild animals to human goods.  This phenomenon has typically been responded to by the different national legal systems, and the Hungarian legal system is no exception, where the development of the legislation governing the settlement of damage caused by wild animals has always been closely linked to the development of the body of law on hunting. The present study seeks to present the historical arc of the development of the Hungarian legal regulation of compensation for damage caused by wild animals from the beginning to the present day, focusing on the interrelationships between the way in which the transformation of social and economic conditions has been reflected in the Hungarian legislation on hunting law and the way in which the latter changes have induced the development of the regulation of compensation for damage caused by wild animals.