Codification of civil law in Hungary: The Civil Code as a part of the system of law

The law is a heterogenous body of legal norms wherein regulation is contrasted to law. Law is an autonomous order of society where norms are created via judicial adjudication by deciding individual cases. Written law, like a civil code, does not distinguish in terms of interpretation of rules, concretisation of general clauses on a case-by-case basis, and prioritisation among competing rights. The courts actually construe the law instead of applying it. Private law is built on a bottom-up-approach even in codified legal systems. Private law transmits social values that are to be assessed as described in Walter Wilburg’s Bewegliches System. Thus, courts do not apply but actually create law; the same is the case in the system of private law based on a written law. The civil code, where it exists, determines methodology and structure of argumentation, provides legal framework for social and economic phenomena, establishes basic evaluation, may implement direct policy, and may confirm, reflect, or overrule trends in court practice.

Keywords: civil code, courts, evaluation, law and regulation, methodology, lawyers, law making, ad hoc legislation