Hungarian Judicature in the 19th and 21st Centuries

Examples of the Court of Appeal in Győr

Abstract

1 January 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Court of Appeal (so-called “Ítélőtábla” or “Table”) in Győr and Debrecen. were opened in Győr and Debrecen. This completed the existing court organisation in Hungary, consisting of district courts (formerly municipal courts), regional courts (formerly county courts), regional courts of appeal and the Curia. The anniversary provides an opportunity and occasion to look back and describe the process of establishing the courts of third instance, this time in relation to the establishment of the Court of Appeal in Győr. The study attempts to draw a parallel between the process of establishing the courts in the 19^th and 21^st centuries.

The first half of the study examines the centralisation efforts of the neo-absolutist period, then the decentralisation processes of dualism (the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy), the political struggles for the establishment of the court in Győr (especially against the supporters of Sopron and Szombathely) and also the day-to-day work of the so-called Royal Table. The second half of the treatise describes the process of reorganising the higher judiciary, which had fallen into a 50-year slumber after 1949. As the study shows, it happened with a very fluctuating intensity. The struggles of the political forces and the constitutional investigations were also discussed. In the context of the history of the 20^th century, the authors describe the struggle of Győr and Kőszeg to re-establish the Court of Appeal and then summarise some of the experiences of this court’s jurisprudence in the 21^st century – in terms of territorial and subject matter jurisdiction, case numbers and other aspects.