Acta Ethnographica Hungarica

Administering Justice — Without State Courts

Administering Justice — Without State Courts
(Administering Justice — Without State Courts)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Ernő Tárkány-Szűcs
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore, History of Law
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 11-25
No. of Pages: 15
Keywords: legal ethnography; family jurisdiction; Churches; ombudsman; Justice of Peace; Romani Kris; European and Hungarian examples for the administration of justice
Summary/Abstract: Many of the drafts and notes of Ernő Szücs Tárkány are in manuscript, and they can offer valuable clues for European legal ethnography. One of them is a manuscript by Tárkány Szücs, both in Hungarian and English, in the Archives of the Institute of Ethnology of the Research Centre for the Humanities, dated 1982 and titled Administering Justice — without State Courts, which has been awaiting publication for forty years. This study is an important milestone, as it demonstrates, based on a broad international perspective, that even in a field that was monopolized by the state very early on, such as administering justice, legal customs have survived to a great extent; and that legal ethnographic approaches make it possible to arrive at valid conclusions of practical importance through an expert comparison of legal phenomena that are distinct in time and space but have common characteristics. The English-language version of the study is being published verbatim (first publication).

Price: 25.00 €

The Contribution of Ernő Tárkány Szücs to Hungarian Ethnography

The Contribution of Ernő Tárkány Szücs to Hungarian Ethnography
(The Contribution of Ernő Tárkány Szücs to Hungarian Ethnography)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Attila PALÁDI-KOVÁCS
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): History of Law, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 27-36
No. of Pages: 10
Keywords: legal inheritance customs; peasant wills; branding marks; local social law; legal folk customs in relation to mining and sheep farming
Summary/Abstract: Ernő Tárkány Szücs was a prominent figure in Hungarian social ethnography between 1944 and 1984. His involvement in the movement for collecting legal folk customs began as a university student in 1941. Among his professors and mentors, he was particularly influenced by György Bónis, Károly Viski, and József Venczel. His first large-scale study, published in 1944, was a presentation of legal folklore from the village of Mártély. At the same time, he investigated the folk laws related to sheep farming and the legal customs with respect to inheritance in the Hungarian villages in Transylvania. He published two substantial volumes containing the wills of peasant citizens of Hódmezővásárhely written between 1730 and 1796, and later the testaments of serf farmers from the town of Makó. He published a data collection containing around 10,000 ownership certificates and an analytical study in German on the branding of horses and cattle, accompanied by illustrations. He carried out research on the legal customs associated with Hungarian mining in the 17th to 19th centuries and elaborated Hungary's draft mining law. His principal work — on Hungarian Legal Folk Customs — is a substantial, comprehensive, and incomparably rich corpus of legal ethnography and the history of law. His work also gained recognition abroad: he spoke at many international conferences and was elected as a member of several international organizations

Hungarian Legal Ethnography in Light of the Oeuvre of Ernő Tárkány Szücs

Hungarian Legal Ethnography in Light of the Oeuvre of Ernő Tárkány Szücs
(Hungarian Legal Ethnography in Light of the Oeuvre of Ernő Tárkány Szücs)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Janka Teodora Nagy
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 37-69
No. of Pages: 33
Keywords: Hungarian legal ethnography; Ernő Tárkány Szücs; Hungarian legal folklore research (1939–1948); European legal customs research
Summary/Abstract: Ernő Tárkány Szücs (1921–1984) was a researcher who created a synthesis of Hungarian legal ethnography, a mediator of his results for European legal ethnographic research, and his scientific work is still an essential part of Hungarian research history. During the most intensive period (1939–1948) of Hungarian legal folklore research — which was delayed compared to European legal customs research — he became a lawyer and a researcher of Hungarian legal ethnography along with legal history professor György Bónis from Kolozsvár (nowdays Cluj-Napoca). Although in the next phase of his life (1950–1975), during the decades of socialism in Hungary, as a practicing lawyer, he could not professionally engage in legal ethnographic research, when he finally had the opportunity to do so in 1975 in the Ethnographic Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, he presented a series of results of Hungarian legal ethnography. One of the most important of these was the publication of a monograph (Tárkány Szücs 1981), which is still considered to be the fundamental work of Hungarian legal ethnography, the conceptual and methodological foundation of the research field, the summary of research findings and at the same time its legitimation. Although the institutionalization of legal ethnographic research had not yet taken place at that time, Hungarian ethnography recognized Ernő Tárkány Szücs's research on legal folk customs as a “one-man” research field. During his research career, Tárkány Szücs continued to take an active role in international scientific life. He always considered it his task to make the findings of European legal ethnography known throughout Hungary, as well as to publish the findings of Hungarian legal ethnographic research in international scientific forums. The 2021 jubilee professional programs and publications of the Tárkány Szücs Ernő Legal Cultural Historical and Legal Ethnographical Research Group — an interdisciplinary research workshop established in 2011 with the aim of processing and enriching his research legacy and publications — were an opportunity to publish new research findings and formulate the ongoing tasks of Hungarian legal ethnography, beyond the evaluation of his research career and Hungarian legal ethnography from the dogmatic and methodological perspective.

Ernő Tárkány Szücs's Legal Ethnographic Research and International Ethnography (1967–1994)

Ernő Tárkány Szücs's Legal Ethnographic Research and International Ethnography (1967–1994)
(Ernő Tárkány Szücs's Legal Ethnographic Research and International Ethnography (1967–1994))

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Szabina Bognár
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore, History of Law
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 71-85
No. of Pages: 15
Keywords: European legal ethnography; research history; history of science
Summary/Abstract: In 1967, Ernő Tárkány Szücs published his article summarizing the results and tasks of European legal ethnography in the columns of Ethnologica Europeana in Paris (under the title Results and Task of Legal Ethnology in Europe). With this, he revived an important tradition of Hungarian legal ethnography: Károly Tagányi published his summary of international research history in German in 1922 (Lebende Rechtsgewohnheiten und ihre Sammlung in Ungarn. Ungarische Bibliothek. Für das Ungarische Institut an der Universität Berlin. Erste Reihe. Vereinigung wissenschaftlicher Verleger. Berlin und Leipzig). At the time of the publication of Ernő Tárkány Szücs's article, he was working as a ministerial official, but in Hungarian academic life he took a backseat. At the same time, however, he was in constant contact with several European representatives of legal folklore. As soon as he had the opportunity, Tárkány Szücs opened up to international scholarship, and became not only an active participant but also a prime mover of the international discourse on legal folk custom research. His recognition was indicated by the fact that throughout Europe, not only his studies published in various world languages but also his papers exclusively in Hungarian were often cited. Although the science policy in his country was not able to integrate the specifically interdisciplinary scientific research of Ernő Tárkány Szücs, or only haltingly, his international recognition was unquestionable all along.

Right of the “Above” and the “Below”. On the Border of Customary Law and Custom: The Legal Customs

Right of the “Above” and the “Below”. On the Border of Customary Law and Custom: The Legal Customs
(Right of the “Above” and the “Below”. On the Border of Customary Law and Custom: The Legal Customs)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Barna Mezey
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 87-97
No. of Pages: 11
Keywords: state law; customary law; legal custom; legal folklore
Summary/Abstract: Recalling certain aspects of the research on Hungarian legal ethnography, the study deals with the relationship between law, customary law and legal custom. Customs of law is a significant field of law, inherited from the ancient legal order and created in the feudal-order society, which existed at the border of custom and formal law. The importance of the living conditions it governed gave rise to the institution of community coercion, which gave its rules a legal character. Eventually, it evolved in the “below” space left to it from the “above” and over time it acquired a tenacity that made it capable of maintaining a legal system in competition with the state, in response to a regulatory question not accepted by “official law.” The compliance and adherence to legal customs was based on the conviction of a community recognizing the need to adopt established rules and not on the competence, prestige, authority, legislative power and privilege of a legislative body.

The Last Four Decades of Research on Wills in Hungary

The Last Four Decades of Research on Wills in Hungary
(The Last Four Decades of Research on Wills in Hungary)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): József Horváth
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): History of Law
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 99-126
No. of Pages: 28
Keywords: will; wills in source publications; value of wills as historical sources
Summary/Abstract: In recent decades, there has been growing interest in the use of wills as historical sources. This period has seen a tenfold increase in the number of source publication volumes and editions published by Hungarian researchers, and an even greater increase in the number of wills published in their entirety. In the period under review, around 70 researchers have been actively working with this source type: besides the archivists spearheading their publication, dozens of legal historians, historians, and ethnographers have been involved in the work. Following an overview of the most important historical research antecedents and a brief appreciation of the work of Ernő Tárkány Szücs in this field, the present study examines the respective work carried out in Hungary during the last four decades, grouped according to the researched periods. With the publication of the Prothocollum Testamentorum of Bratislava, the number of published wills from the late Middle Ages significantly increased, while important findings have also emerged in terms of research on the wills of the nobility. From the early Middle Ages, a significant selection has been made from among the extant testaments originating from various royal free cities (e.g., Nagyszombat [Trnava, Slovakia], Sopron, and Debrecen) and market towns (e.g., Gyöngyös, Győr, and Kecskemét), while a significant number of wills belonging to the Transylvanian nobility have also been published. While large numbers of extant testaments originating from market towns (Nyíregyháza, Szentes, Vác, Zalaegerszeg, etc.) in the 18th and 19th centuries have been published, important publications have also appeared containing the wills of the nobility, clergy, and village serfs. The vast majority of such volumes have included a longer or shorter introductory study, although we might also mention the dozens of important analytical essays published in volumes of collected studies, which illustrate the value of testaments as sources in the fields of social, economic, cultural, ecclesiastical, and legal history.

Hungarian Legal Ethnography from the Perspective of Theoretical Legal Thought

Hungarian Legal Ethnography from the Perspective of Theoretical Legal Thought
(Hungarian Legal Ethnography from the Perspective of Theoretical Legal Thought)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Csaba Varga
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 127-138
No. of Pages: 12
Keywords: legal anthropology; legal ethnology; legal pluralism; custom; living law
Summary/Abstract: The object of folk law research are the customs that prevail in areas covered, or theoretically covered, by state law, which effectively ensure permanent respect for them, largely in a less formalized way. In the respective historical stratum, (folk) legal customs fulfil functions equivalent to the law where, due to the logic of historical development or for other specific reasons, (a) there is a lack of state and legal organization; (b) the state and legal organization fails to reach significant social groups due to its paucity and indifference; or (c) the law fails to be transformed into practice that would lead to the fulfillment of its true functions. In its present-day version, a legal (folk) custom emerges when the state and legal organization has wholly fulfilled the functions in question, and it survives merely within the framework and vestiges of that organization, as a component of the ongoing system of customs, as a complement and embellishment to the state and legal organization, and perhaps with content of only symbolic significance. Against a background of a living peasant society, this was, and to some extent remains, a peculiarity of Central Europe, while in other contexts, starting from different traditions, the related research comes under the domain of legal anthropology, legal ethnology, and legal pluralism. Legal ethnography contributes to the investigation of social ethnographic issues by examining the instruments and institutions of the social order and the way they function. However, in terms of jurisprudence it is simultaneously both strong and weak, since although the idea of living law has revolutionized legal thought, European legal mentality, which rests on the rule-based objectification of modern formal law, nevertheless seeks to reject both the openness that characterizes the primordial quest for peace and the formlessness familiar to peoples living close to nature. In any case, an ethnography with social-theoretical foundations, which would take into account not only legal anthropology but also the socio-ethnographic lessons of legal ethnography, remains a task for the future.

Traces of Legal Anthropology in Hungary in the 20th Century. An Attempt to Define the Folk Concept of Law

Traces of Legal Anthropology in Hungary in the 20th Century. An Attempt to Define the Folk Concept of Law
(Traces of Legal Anthropology in Hungary in the 20th Century. An Attempt to Define the Folk Concept of Law)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Márton Matyasovszky-Németh
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 139-152
No. of Pages: 14
Keywords: legal ethnology; legal anthropology; legal culture; folk law; Romani Kris
Summary/Abstract: The present paper addresses the fragmented history of Hungarian legal anthropology. Although legal anthropology does not have a centuries-long tradition in Hungarian legal scholarship, the activities and publications of the late Ernő Tárkány Szücs, along with those of Sándor Loss and István H. Szilágyi, can be said to have established the scholarly framework for an anthropological understanding of law in Hungary. While not explicitly, all three authors relied on the folk concept of law and contributed to the introduction of a cultural aspect to the study of legal issues. The first part of the present paper discusses the work of the late Tárkány Szücs, the leading personality in the Hungarian legal ethnology movement after 1945, with a particular focus on how the author conceived the research of socialist legal folkways. Although Tárkány Szücs's frame of reference was legal ethnology, it can be argued that his insights into socialist legal folkways brought him close to an anthropological perspective. The second part of the paper presents in detail the research carried out by legal anthropologists in the 1990s, focusing on the work on Romani law carried out by István H. Szilágyi and Sándor Loss. It should be stressed that in this latter research, the methodology of participant observation was applied, thus expanding the toolkit of Hungarian legal scholarship to some extent. In conclusion, the paper argues that a proper understanding of everyday legal practice — including trouble-free cases — is impossible unless legal scholarship is liberated from the constraints of the analytical concept of law and exploits the freedom offered by the folk concept. The reinterpretation and revitalization of the broadly understood legal anthropological tradition — from the late Tárkány Szücs to H. Szilágyi and Loss — can be of significant help in this respect.

The Situation of Orphaned Children in the World of Serfs and Peasants

The Situation of Orphaned Children in the World of Serfs and Peasants
(The Situation of Orphaned Children in the World of Serfs and Peasants)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Mária Homoki-Nagy
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 153-166
No. of Pages: 14
Keywords: legal history; legal folklore; Szentes; orphans; guardianship; stepfather; loan; agreements; book of agreements
Summary/Abstract: The present study, authored by a legal historian, examines the relationship between legal history and legal folklore through an investigation, centered on the market town of Szentes, one of a distinctive group of market towns in Hungary's Southern Great Plain, of the legal folklore that emerged at the end of the 18th century as a result of historical antecedents as well as demographic, economic, and social changes. The system of norms and values, the customary law, and the wealth of legal folklore that developed in these towns in the 18–19th centuries in the process of the emergence of the local middle class subsequently influenced the development of civil law at central level. The present study analyzes regulatory practice concerning orphans in the wills of the serfs and peasants living in the market towns of Hungary's Southern Great Plain, preserved primarily in local sources, based on entries in the “Book of Agreements” of the market town of Szentes. It seeks to identify the specific characteristics of guardianship customs in the world of the “lower class,” including how the position of widowed women and their responsibility for their children evolved, as well as expectations concerning stepfathers in the absence of guardianship. It also investigates how it became common practice in the market towns of the Southern Great Plain for the inheritance of the orphans of serfs not to be preserved in kind but rather sold, and, in an effort to preserve its value, the money was loaned out and the resulting interest was used to provide the bare necessities for the orphans.

Legal Reform Efforts and the Legal Traditions of the Transylvanian Saxons up to the End of the 16th Century

Legal Reform Efforts and the Legal Traditions of the Transylvanian Saxons up to the End of the 16th Century
(Legal Reform Efforts and the Legal Traditions of the Transylvanian Saxons up to the End of the 16th Century)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Béla P. Szabó
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 167-187
No. of Pages: 21
Keywords: Transylvanian Saxons; legal transfer; legal irritants; customary law; ius commune
Summary/Abstract: In 1583, the Transylvanian Saxon community obtained from the Transylvanian prince István Báthory the ratification of its own law book, Eygen-Landrecht. For quarter of a millennium, the law book essentially defined everyday law in this unique community in Transylvania, a multiethnic region that has undergone many constitutional changes. The law book can be seen as a compilation of genetically different legal regulations, containing and combining indigenous legal traditions and legal customs with the “scholarly” law (ius commune) developed by university jurisprudence of Italian origin. The present study describes the Saxons' determined quest for laws in the 15th and 16th centuries, relegating to the background the reception paradigm typical of research on the history of law and relying on the theoretical model of the transfer of legal rules and legal irritants. It examines the external and internal circumstances that impacted the Saxons' attempts at legal renewal, and the number of phases involved. It also investigates the temporal, locally bound, and legal-cultural factors that may have played a role in the success or failure of transfer of legal approaches from abroad, and the extent to which what can be regarded as the traditional law of the Saxons was able to resist attempts at renewal. In the last section of the present paper, examples are given that illustrate the encounter between Germanic legal traditions and the transferred ius commune solutions in the Saxons' law book of 1583, highlighting the durability of certain traditional and typical solutions.

Legal Customs and Customary Law in the Jászkun District 1682–1876

Legal Customs and Customary Law in the Jászkun District 1682–1876
(Legal Customs and Customary Law in the Jászkun District 1682–1876)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Erzsébet Bánki Molnár
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 189-205
No. of Pages: 17
Keywords: Jász [Jassic]; Kun [Cuman]; Jászkun District; Jászkun Redemption; legal customs; customary law
Summary/Abstract: Based on archival documents and supplementary ethnographic collections, this study reviews the autonomous community customs and legal traditions of the Jászkun people, starting in the 17th century and autonomously evolving among the jász [Jassic] and kun [Cuman] people in Hungary for centuries and preserved in certain peculiar Jászkun terms and vernacular expressions up until the 20th century. In view of legal ethnography and activity-oriented social history, my study has been divided into four parts: Kun, Jász, Jászkun; Legal customs and customary law before the Redemption (1745); The legal culture of the Jászkun District after the Redemption; The enacted customary law of the Jászkun: the Jászkun Statute. I specifically focused on the 18th century, for at the end of it the Jászkun Statute, the written customary law of the district, approved by the palatine, had been promulgated. The statute incorporated the legal customs practiced by the people of the Jászkun District before 1799 and facilitated the long-term survival of the specific unique features of local society and the high degree of differentiation of their legal practice. The customary laws of the Jászkun are history now, but in more than one aspect they still affect the everyday lives of late descendants.

The Szekler Tizes as an Autonomous Village District and Neighborhood Community

The Szekler Tizes as an Autonomous Village District and Neighborhood Community
(The Szekler Tizes as an Autonomous Village District and Neighborhood Community)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): János Bárth
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 207-220
No. of Pages: 14
Keywords: szeklers; village district (tizes) autonomy; neighborhood community; village district (tizes) property and its utilization; village district (tizes) identity
Summary/Abstract: The Hungarian ethnographic group known as the Szekler people live in the Eastern Carpathians, a mountainous area that formed the eastern border of historical Hungary prior to 1920, and since 1920, with a minor interruption, the center of Romania. The traditionalist Szeklers designated those village districts that enjoyed ethnic autonomy by the name tizes (tenth). The author of the present study endeavors to illustrate, on the basis of written documents, the nature of the tizes as a Szekler village district and neighborhood community and how it functioned in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. In Szekler villages in the modern era, a village district was considered to be a genuine tizes if it had a tradition of self-governance and a variable level of autonomy, and if it was regarded as a self-governing unit of the settlement and society. The population of the tizes formed a local social, neighborhood group, whose sense of the tizes was consistent with the village-level consciousness of other, similar groups. From a settlement perspective, the village comprised several tizes, each one a unit of the settlement. In social terms, the village community was a combination of several tizes communities. In most cases, the Szekler tizes in the modern era had a distinguishing name, an elected leadership, property, basic self-governance, policing and penal jurisdiction, and its own records and administration. In the 17th to 19th centuries, the village districts and neighborhood communities designated by the word tizes may have owned property (e.g., forests, pastures, meadows), animals (bulls, boars), work-related equipment and objects (plow, drill, fire-fighting equipment, chest, stamp, documents), buildings and institutions (church, chapel, cemetery, school, cultural center, cross), and employees (bellringer, forester, herder). In most Szekler inhabited regions in the early 21st century, reminders of the former tizes are to be found only in the form of geographical names and vernacular data. The traditional form, role, and function of these historical autonomous village districts are best preserved in the region once known as the county of Csík in the former Kingdom of Hungary (now Ciuc, Romania). In the merged villages of Csíkszentgyörgy (now Ciucsângeorgiu, Romania) and Csíkbánkfalva (now Bancu, Romania) there are eight functioning tizes still in existence in the third decade of the 21st century. For this reason, the life of the tizes of Csíkszentgyörgy and Csíkbánkfalva has been chosen as the subject of the present study.

District Wardens in the Cities of Northern Hungary in the 18th to 21st Centuries

District Wardens in the Cities of Northern Hungary in the 18th to 21st Centuries
(District Wardens in the Cities of Northern Hungary in the 18th to 21st Centuries)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Tivadar Petercsák
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 221-232
No. of Pages: 12
Keywords: tizedes (“tenth”); fertálymester / viertelmeister; district warden; election; tax gathering; law and order; heritage preservation
Summary/Abstract: In Hungarian settlements, tizedek (tenths), streets, divisions, and fertályok (viertels, quarters, or districts) were areas that enjoyed a certain autonomy. They were led by elected “decurions,” “street captains,” or “captains” in Hungarian-populated settlements, and by viertelmeisters, or district wardens, in German-speaking settlements. These officials liaised between the municipal authorities and the local community. From the 16th century until the mid-19th century, the decurions and district wardens had official powers, kept the population informed about national and local regulations, helped carry out local censuses, collected taxes, and organized public works. They played a key role in maintaining law and order in their neighborhoods, and in ensuring protection from fire. In the northeastern region of present-day Hungary, we have information concerning the history of the district wardens in the cities of Eger, Gyöngyös, and Miskolc, while in the case of Eger the tradition is still in existence today. There were decurions in Eger as early as the end of the 17th century, who were replaced by district wardens from the 1710s. The position existed in Gyöngyös from the middle of the 18th century until 1874. In Miskolc, there were district wardens from 1794 to 1800. After a hiatus of half a century, the position was then restored, while in 1884 the parallel position of “section warden” was abolished. In Eger, district wardens were active until 1949, then, after a forced interruption in the Socialist era, the institution was revived in 1996, becoming an important element in local identity through its heritage preservation activities. The present study introduces the different eras in the institution of the district warden, its changing functions, its organizational structure, its symbols, and its various forms of social interaction. Eger is the only city in Hungary in which this centuries-old office is still preserved today, justifying the inclusion of this living custom in the UNESCO National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2014.

Legal Folklore among the Petty Nobility of the Káli Basin

Legal Folklore among the Petty Nobility of the Káli Basin
(Legal Folklore among the Petty Nobility of the Káli Basin)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): József Gelencsér
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 233-254
No. of Pages: 22
Keywords: gentry; curial settlement; law; customary law; legal custom; vineyard
Summary/Abstract: In the Káli Basin in the Balaton Uplands, four of the eight settlements bordering each other (Balatonhenye, Köveskál, Kővágóörs, Monoszló) were inhabited by petty nobles belonging to the gentry, living in curial villages, with a great deal of autonomy, self-governance, and within the framework of their established legal norms and legal customs. They lost most of their privileges in the mid-19th century, but some of their old and new legal customs survived until the mid-20th century. The study reviews part of their extensive living conditions, essentially from the last third of the 18th century. The way of life in this region, known for high-quality grapes and livestock, has changed a lot in the more than 200 years. The study describes each typical component of this life in view of the provisions of established law, customary law, and legal customs. Considering legal distinctions, it addresses secular and ecclesiastical administration, legal relationships regarding vineyards, certain work customs, succession laws, and the vestiges of petty nobility that survived into the 20th century. The role of certain legal customs contrary or complementary to the laws (contra legem, praeter legem) is also mentioned. The study provides a brief overview, or at least a taste, of the special (petty noble) legal folklore of the Káli Basin, which is rich in legal customs.

A rendtartó történész: Tanulmányok Imreh István születésének századik évfordulójára

A rendtartó történész: Tanulmányok Imreh István születésének századik évfordulójára
(The Orderly Historian: Studies for the Centenary of the Birth of István Imreh)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Éva Mikos
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Cultural history, Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 255-259
No. of Pages: 5
Keywords:
Summary/Abstract: Fejér, Tamás – Gálfi, Emőke (eds.): A rendtartó történész: Tanulmányok Imreh István születésének századik évfordulójára. [The Orderly Historian: Studies for the Centenary of the Birth of István Imreh]. Kolozsvár/Cluj Napoca – Budapest: Erdélyi Múzeum Egyesület – Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont. 2021. 427. ISBN 978-606-739-195-4 ISBN 978-963-416-288-9

Price: 25.00 €

Németek Magyarországon 1950–1970

Németek Magyarországon 1950–1970
(Germans in Hungary 1950–1970)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Bence Ament-Kovács
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 261-264
No. of Pages: 4
Keywords:
Summary/Abstract: Tóth, Ágnes: Németek Magyarországon 1950–1970. [Germans in Hungary 1950–1970]. Budapest. Társadalomtudományi Kutatóközpont – Argumentum Kiadó. 2020. 578. ISBN 978-963-446-819-6

Price: 25.00 €

Népi jogélet a Káli-medencében

Népi jogélet a Káli-medencében
(Legal Folklore in the Káli Basin)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Szabina Bognár
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 265-267
No. of Pages: 3
Keywords:
Summary/Abstract: Gelencsér, József: Népi jogélet a Káli-medencében [Legal Folklore in the Káli Basin]. Székesfehérvár. Szent István Király Múzeum. 2019. 544. ISBN 9786155413254, ISSN 1216-7967

Price: 25.00 €

„Öszve eskettettek illyen egyezkedés mellett…” Drávaszögi és szlavóniai református ígéretlevelek és házassági egyezségek

„Öszve eskettettek illyen egyezkedés mellett…” Drávaszögi és szlavóniai református ígéretlevelek és házassági egyezségek
(“Married Under the Following Agreement…” Calvinist Promissory Letters and Marriage Contracts from Drávaszög and Slavonia)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): János Bednárik
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 269-271
No. of Pages: 3
Keywords:
Summary/Abstract: Jukić, Zita (ed.): „Öszve eskettettek illyen egyezkedés mellett…” Drávaszögi és szlavóniai református ígéretlevelek és házassági egyezségek. [“Married Under the Following Agreement…” Calvinist Promissory Letters and Marriage Contracts from Drávaszög and Slavonia]. Jogi Kultúrtörténeti, Jogi Néprajzi Kiskönyvtár 9. Eszék: “Zrinyi” Magyar Kultúrkör. 2021. 193. ISSN 2064-888X, ISBN 987-953-49581-0-0

Price: 25.00 €

„Száz plusz tíz” – jubileumi kötet

„Száz plusz tíz” – jubileumi kötet
(“One Hundred Plus Ten” – Jubilee Volume)

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Gabriella Matla
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 273-275
No. of Pages: 3
Keywords:
Summary/Abstract: Nagy, Janka Teodóra – Bognár, Szabina – Szabó, Ernő (eds.): „Száz plusz tíz” – jubileumi kötet. Tárkány Szücs Ernő (1921–2021) Tárkány Szücs Ernő Jogi Kultúrtörténeti és Jogi Néprajzi Kutatócsoport (2011–2021) [“One Hundred Plus Ten” – Jubilee Volume. Ernő Tárkány Szücs (1921–1984) Tárkány Szücs Ernő Legal Cultural Historical and Legal Ethnographical Research Group (2011–2021)]. Szekszárd. Pécsi Tudományegyetem, Kutúratudományi, Pedagógusképző és Vidékfejlesztési Kar – Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont, Néprajztudományi Intézet. 2021. 457. ISBN 978-963-429-793-2, ISSN 2064-888X

Price: 25.00 €

Tárkány Szücs, Ernő: Rechtsgeschichte und Volksbräuche (Ausgewählte Studien)

Tárkány Szücs, Ernő: Rechtsgeschichte und Volksbräuche (Ausgewählte Studien)
(Tárkány Szücs, Ernő: Legal History and Folk Customs (Selected Studies))

Publication: (1/67/2022)
Author(s): Ernő Szabó
Contributor(s):
Language: English
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Issue: 1/67/2022
Page Range: 277-279
No. of Pages: 3
Keywords:
Summary/Abstract: Tárkány Szücs, Ernő: Rechtsgeschichte und Volksbräuche (Ausgewählte Studien). (Herausgegeben von Janka Teodóra Nagy und Szabina Bognár). Budapest. Gondolat Kiadó. 2021. 320. ISBN 978-963-556-186-5

Price: 25.00 €

Acta Ethnographica HungaricaActa Ethnographica Hungarica

Articles list

Administering Justice — Without State Courts

Administering Justice — Without State Courts (Administering Justice — Without State Courts)

The Contribution of Ernő Tárkány Szücs to Hungarian Ethnography

The Contribution of Ernő Tárkány Szücs to Hungarian Ethnography (The Contribution of Ernő Tárkány Szücs to Hungarian Ethnography)

Hungarian Legal Ethnography in Light of the Oeuvre of Ernő Tárkány Szücs

Hungarian Legal Ethnography in Light of the Oeuvre of Ernő Tárkány Szücs (Hungarian Legal Ethnography in Light of the Oeuvre of Ernő Tárkány Szücs)

Ernő Tárkány Szücs's Legal Ethnographic Research and International Ethnography (1967–1994)

Ernő Tárkány Szücs's Legal Ethnographic Research and International Ethnography (1967–1994) (Ernő Tárkány Szücs's Legal Ethnographic Research and International Ethnography (1967–1994))

Right of the “Above” and the “Below”. On the Border of Customary Law and Custom: The Legal Customs

Right of the “Above” and the “Below”. On the Border of Customary Law and Custom: The Legal Customs (Right of the “Above” and the “Below”. On the Border of Customary Law and Custom: The Legal Customs)

The Last Four Decades of Research on Wills in Hungary

The Last Four Decades of Research on Wills in Hungary (The Last Four Decades of Research on Wills in Hungary)

Hungarian Legal Ethnography from the Perspective of Theoretical Legal Thought

Hungarian Legal Ethnography from the Perspective of Theoretical Legal Thought (Hungarian Legal Ethnography from the Perspective of Theoretical Legal Thought)

Traces of Legal Anthropology in Hungary in the 20th Century. An Attempt to Define the Folk Concept of Law

Traces of Legal Anthropology in Hungary in the 20th Century. An Attempt to Define the Folk Concept of Law (Traces of Legal Anthropology in Hungary in the 20th Century. An Attempt to Define the Folk Concept of Law)

The Situation of Orphaned Children in the World of Serfs and Peasants

The Situation of Orphaned Children in the World of Serfs and Peasants (The Situation of Orphaned Children in the World of Serfs and Peasants)

Legal Reform Efforts and the Legal Traditions of the Transylvanian Saxons up to the End of the 16th Century

Legal Reform Efforts and the Legal Traditions of the Transylvanian Saxons up to the End of the 16th Century (Legal Reform Efforts and the Legal Traditions of the Transylvanian Saxons up to the End of the 16th Century)

Legal Customs and Customary Law in the Jászkun District 1682–1876

Legal Customs and Customary Law in the Jászkun District 1682–1876 (Legal Customs and Customary Law in the Jászkun District 1682–1876)

The Szekler Tizes as an Autonomous Village District and Neighborhood Community

The Szekler Tizes as an Autonomous Village District and Neighborhood Community (The Szekler Tizes as an Autonomous Village District and Neighborhood Community)

District Wardens in the Cities of Northern Hungary in the 18th to 21st Centuries

District Wardens in the Cities of Northern Hungary in the 18th to 21st Centuries (District Wardens in the Cities of Northern Hungary in the 18th to 21st Centuries)

Legal Folklore among the Petty Nobility of the Káli Basin

Legal Folklore among the Petty Nobility of the Káli Basin (Legal Folklore among the Petty Nobility of the Káli Basin)

A rendtartó történész: Tanulmányok Imreh István születésének századik évfordulójára

A rendtartó történész: Tanulmányok Imreh István születésének századik évfordulójára (The Orderly Historian: Studies for the Centenary of the Birth of István Imreh)

Németek Magyarországon 1950–1970

Németek Magyarországon 1950–1970 (Germans in Hungary 1950–1970)

Népi jogélet a Káli-medencében

Népi jogélet a Káli-medencében (Legal Folklore in the Káli Basin)

„Öszve eskettettek illyen egyezkedés mellett…” Drávaszögi és szlavóniai református ígéretlevelek és házassági egyezségek

„Öszve eskettettek illyen egyezkedés mellett…” Drávaszögi és szlavóniai református ígéretlevelek és házassági egyezségek (“Married Under the Following Agreement…” Calvinist Promissory Letters and Marriage Contracts from Drávaszög and Slavonia)

„Száz plusz tíz” – jubileumi kötet

„Száz plusz tíz” – jubileumi kötet (“One Hundred Plus Ten” – Jubilee Volume)

Tárkány Szücs, Ernő: Rechtsgeschichte und Volksbräuche (Ausgewählte Studien)

Tárkány Szücs, Ernő: Rechtsgeschichte und Volksbräuche (Ausgewählte Studien) (Tárkány Szücs, Ernő: Legal History and Folk Customs (Selected Studies))

Short Description

Acta Ethnographica Hungarica
Acta Ethnographica Hungarica

Administering Justice — Without State Courts
(Administering Justice — Without State Courts)

The Contribution of Ernő Tárkány Szücs to Hungarian Ethnography
(The Contribution of Ernő Tárkány Szücs to Hungarian Ethnography)

Hungarian Legal Ethnography in Light of the Oeuvre of Ernő Tárkány Szücs
(Hungarian Legal Ethnography in Light of the Oeuvre of Ernő Tárkány Szücs)

Ernő Tárkány Szücs's Legal Ethnographic Research and International Ethnography (1967–1994)
(Ernő Tárkány Szücs's Legal Ethnographic Research and International Ethnography (1967–1994))

Right of the “Above” and the “Below”. On the Border of Customary Law and Custom: The Legal Customs
(Right of the “Above” and the “Below”. On the Border of Customary Law and Custom: The Legal Customs)

The Last Four Decades of Research on Wills in Hungary
(The Last Four Decades of Research on Wills in Hungary)

Hungarian Legal Ethnography from the Perspective of Theoretical Legal Thought
(Hungarian Legal Ethnography from the Perspective of Theoretical Legal Thought)

Traces of Legal Anthropology in Hungary in the 20th Century. An Attempt to Define the Folk Concept of Law
(Traces of Legal Anthropology in Hungary in the 20th Century. An Attempt to Define the Folk Concept of Law)

The Situation of Orphaned Children in the World of Serfs and Peasants
(The Situation of Orphaned Children in the World of Serfs and Peasants)

Legal Reform Efforts and the Legal Traditions of the Transylvanian Saxons up to the End of the 16th Century
(Legal Reform Efforts and the Legal Traditions of the Transylvanian Saxons up to the End of the 16th Century)

Legal Customs and Customary Law in the Jászkun District 1682–1876
(Legal Customs and Customary Law in the Jászkun District 1682–1876)

The Szekler Tizes as an Autonomous Village District and Neighborhood Community
(The Szekler Tizes as an Autonomous Village District and Neighborhood Community)

District Wardens in the Cities of Northern Hungary in the 18th to 21st Centuries
(District Wardens in the Cities of Northern Hungary in the 18th to 21st Centuries)

Legal Folklore among the Petty Nobility of the Káli Basin
(Legal Folklore among the Petty Nobility of the Káli Basin)

A rendtartó történész: Tanulmányok Imreh István születésének századik évfordulójára
(The Orderly Historian: Studies for the Centenary of the Birth of István Imreh)

Németek Magyarországon 1950–1970
(Germans in Hungary 1950–1970)

Népi jogélet a Káli-medencében
(Legal Folklore in the Káli Basin)

„Öszve eskettettek illyen egyezkedés mellett…” Drávaszögi és szlavóniai református ígéretlevelek és házassági egyezségek
(“Married Under the Following Agreement…” Calvinist Promissory Letters and Marriage Contracts from Drávaszög and Slavonia)

„Száz plusz tíz” – jubileumi kötet
(“One Hundred Plus Ten” – Jubilee Volume)

Tárkány Szücs, Ernő: Rechtsgeschichte und Volksbräuche (Ausgewählte Studien)
(Tárkány Szücs, Ernő: Legal History and Folk Customs (Selected Studies))