The “Flags of Freedom and Progress”

Imre Madách’s Legal Reform Program of 1843–1844

Abstract

One of the most important forums for the legal thinking of the young Imre Madách, for his legal reform programme, so to speak, was the National Assembly of 1843–1844 in Pozsony. At this reform assembly, important legal institutions were discussed that were supported by the national reform opposition at the time. In the debate on the draft criminal law (by Ferenc Deák) that was being drawn up at the time, Madách spoke up at the county level and advocated, for example, the abolition of the death penalty and the establishment of jury courts. In connection with religious freedom, he also supported the equal treatment of mixed marriages and pushed for the establishment of a local industrial association.

In his speeches at the county assemblies, he addressed the political role of the counties and, with his reform-oriented attitude, attempted to influence the decisions of the Nógrád County General Assembly regarding the instructions of the two deputies.

Due to his active role at county level during the revolution and war of independence of 1848–1849, he had to interrupt his legal and political activities and spent some time in prison. When the opportunity to convene a national assembly arose for the first time in 1861, he no longer had to write inflammatory speeches to the members of the county assembly, but was able to continue his reformist activities in the National Assembly as an elected representative of Nógrád County.