Since the adoption of the 2011 Fundamental Law, there has been an increased interest in Hungary in the characteristics of historical and written constitutions. The Fundamental Law refers several times to the historical constitution and to its achievements among the methods of constitutional interpretation. These provisions are a challenge not only for the legislature and other public bodies, but also for legal scholarship. In the field of legal studies, and constitutional history in particular, it is important to explore and interpret the concept and sources of the historical constitution and the constitutional system of its period in a comprehensive manner. Thus, our main objective is to investigate the historical constitution of Hungary, describing its development in the various historical periods. We also seek to situate the historical constitution within the context of Hungarian constitutional ideas. The investigations also cover the decisions of the Constitutional Court. In this context, we want to examine the extent to which the Court has referred to the historical constitution and the criteria used to determine its achievements. Our aspiration is a comprehensive reconstruction of the conception of the historical constitution as conceptualized by the Court. The research also seeks to answer the question of how the representatives of Central-Eastern and Western European public law scholarship, in particular, view the concept of the historical constitution and the written constitution, as well as their relationship, although the distinction between the two types of constitution seems relevant only since the appearance of the modern written constitutions.
The research raises several basic questions: 1) what are the conceptual features, procedural and practical peculiarities of historical and written constitutions; 2) from what period can these types of constitutions be separated; 3) what were the characteristic principles and basic institutions of the historical constitution of Hungary in the past; 4) how can the recently created terms of “historical constitution” and “the achievements of historical constitution” be interpreted within the current constitutional law; 5) what can be the contribution of a narrative based on the achievements of the historical constitution to the interpretation of the constitution.
As a result of the research, a more comprehensive and sophisticated analysis of the historical constitution is expected to emerge than before.
The expected results of the research may also be of international interest due to certain doctrines of the Hungarian historical constitution and the peculiarities of its development, such as the doctrine of the Holy Crown or the theory of the so-called “material” and “formal legal continuity”, which became significant in the 20th century.
The results of the research can also be utilized in raising awareness of the specific nature of Hungarian constitutional development, which is significant also in the European context, in the international discourse on constitutional law, legal and general history.
Publications (including papers, journal articles, academic books in Hungarian and foreign languages) and the publication of mostly unknown manuscripts from the heritage of public lawyers dealing with certain periods and institutions of the historical constitution, typically in the interwar period, also contribute to these objectives.
Principal Investigator: Gábor Schweitzer
The participants of the research team: