A History of the Hungarian Constitution : Law, Government and Political Culture in Central Europe.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- List of Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- 1. Introduction -- A New/Old Constitution -- Scope and Structure -- A Historical Overview - The Medieval Kingdom -- The Habsburg Era -- Reform, Revolution and Reorganization -- From Dictatorship to Dictatorship -- A New Era of Constitutionalism -- 2. Law and the Ancient Constitution in Medieval and Early Modern Hungary -- Introduction -- The Royal Succession -- Diets and Statutes -- Liberties, the Golden Bull and the Right of Resistance -- Conclusion -- 3. The Birth of the Constitution in Eighteenth-Century Hungarian Political Thought -- Taxes and Compromises -- The Constitution and the Common Good -- Nation and Confrontation -- 4. Resurrecting the Past, Reshaping the Future: The Rise of the 'Ancient Constitution' at the Diet of 1790/1 -- The Ancient Constitution versus Josephinian Absolutism -- The Ancient Constitution of the Middle Nobility -- Ürményi's Speech on the Ancient Constitution -- Draft Constitutions for the Diet -- Religion -- Conclusions -- 5. Reforming or Replacing the Historical Constitution? Lajos Kossuth and the April Laws of 1848 -- The Historiographical Issue and Eyewitness Accounts of Early 1848 -- Hungary and Europe in 1848: Parallels and Differences -- The Last Days of the Process that Led to the April Laws -- Conclusions Drawn from the Slow-Motion Historical Narrative -- Continuity or Break? 1848 and the Constitutional Tradition in Hungary -- Once More on Péter's Views and The Enduring Relevance of 1848 -- 6. Reform Fever and Disillusionment: Constitutional Codification Fiascos of the Hungarian Liberals after the Settlement of 1867 -- A Constitutional Moment in 1867 -- The Years of Change -- Penal Code -- Police Act -- Two Models of State: Aristocracy or Democracy?.

7. The Use and Abuse of Flexibility: Hungary's Historical Constitution, 1867-1919 -- The Benefits of Autonomy -- Reasons for Dissatisfaction -- The Post-1867 Constitution Framework -- Exploiting Ambiguities -- The Growing Power of the State -- Delegitimization and Destruction, 1918-19 -- 8. Law I of 1920 and the Historical Constitution -- Prologue -- The Concepts of a Continuity of Form and of Substance -- The Debate over the Future Form of Government in Hungary -- The Points of Separation with the Arrangement of the State between 1867 and 1918 -- Conclusion -- 9. Law I of 1946 and Law XX of 1949: Continuity or Discontinuity in Traditional Hungarian Constitutionalism? -- Thesis and Overview -- A Constitutional Moment? The Years 1945 and 1946 -- Law I of 1946: An Overview -- Codification of Human Rights and Fundamental Constitutional Principles -- The Status of the President of the Republic -- General Assessment -- Law I of 1946 in the Light of Former Constitutional Traditions -- Towards a More 'Empathic and Realistic' Reading of Law I of 1946 -- The Emergence of the Hungarian Workers' Party as a Political Power Centre -- Law XX of 1949: An Overview -- General Assessment -- The Afterlife of Law XX of 1949 -- Conclusion -- 10. Is a Revival Possible?: Theoretical Reflections on the Historical Constitution -- Introduction -- The Historical Constitution in the New Fundamental Law -- Reasons for Rejecting the Idea of the Historical Constitution -- What is a Constitution? -- What was the Historical Constitution? -- Is there a Differentia Specifica? -- The Constitution: An Interplay between Written Norms, Judicial Interpretations and Unwritten Norms -- Empirical Counter-Arguments -- Conclusion -- 11. Epilogue: On the Future(s) of the Historical Constitution -- Preliminary Considerations -- The Utility of the Revival -- The Desirability of the Revival.

Final Considerations -- Primary Sources on Hungarian Constitutional History: Appendix I: The Golden Bull of 1222 -- Appendix II: The Rákos Declaration (1505) -- Appendix III: Extracts from Stephen Werbőczy's Tripartitum (1517) -- Part One, Chapter 3 -- Part One, Chapter 9 -- Appendix IV: The Laws of 1687 -- Law I [The Coronation Oath] -- Law II -- Appendix V: The Laws of 1790/1 -- The Royal Oath Sworn by Leopold II upon his Coronation -- Article X of 1790/1 -- Article XII of 1790/1 -- Article XVI of 1790/91 -- Appendix VI: Robert Townson's Translation of Law XXVI of 1790/1 -- Appendix VII: The 'April Laws' of 1848 -- Law III of 1848 -- Law IV of 1848 -- Law V of 1848 -- Law VIII of 1848 -- Law XVIII of 1848 -- Law XX of 1848 -- Appendix VIII: Law XII of 1867 -- Appendix IX: The Declaration of the First Hungarian Republic (November 1918) -- Appendix X: The Preamble to the Constitution of the Hungarian Socialist Federal Republic of Councils (1919) -- Appendix XI: The Preamble to Law I of 1920 -- Appendix XII: The Preamble to Law I of 1946: On the form of Government of Hungary -- Appendix XIII: The Constitution of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949): Constitution of the Hungarian People's Republic -- Section One -- Section Two -- Section Three -- Section Four -- Section Five -- Section Six -- Section Seven -- Section Eight -- Section Nine -- Section Ten -- Section Eleven -- Appendix XIV: Excerpts from the Constitution of the Republic of Hungary: (As Amended by Act No. XXXI. of 1989) -- Chapter I -- Chapter XII -- Appendix XV: The Fundamental Law of Hungary -- National Avowal -- Bibliography.

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