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001-010 1/10/13 12:44 PM Page 1 Law as Culture? 1 CONTEMPORARY LEGAL PHILOSOPHISING 001-010 1/10/13 12:44 PM Page 2 2 DISCIPLINARY ISSUES PHILOSOPHIAE IURIS Edited by CSABA VARGA Series Editor Emeritus Professor CSABA VARGA <http://drcsabavarga.wordpress.com> Founder of the Institute for Legal Philosophy, Pázmány Péter Catholic University of Hungary H–1088 Budapest, Szentkirályi u. 28 (visit) H–1428 Budapest 8, P.O.B. 6 (mail) +361-4297230; 4297226 (fax); 4297227 & 4297226 (secretary) [email protected] / [email protected] (secretary) 001-010 1/10/13 12:44 PM Page 3 Law as Culture? 3 CONTEMPORARY LEGAL PHILOSOPHISING Schmitt, Kelsen, Lukács, Hart, & Law and Literature, with Marxism’s Dark Legacy in Central Europe (On Teaching Legal Philosophy in Appendix) CSABA VARGA SZENT ISTVÁN TÁRSULAT Az Apostoli Szentszék Könyvkiadója Budapest, 2013 001-010 1/10/13 12:44 PM Page 4 4 DISCIPLINARY ISSUES A kötet részben az OTKA K 62382. számú projektuma finanszírozásának köszönhetôen készült Cover: Allegoric Justice (1625) on the Mural of St. James’ Church at Lôcse/Leutschau/Leutsovia [now Levocˇa, Slovakia] (photo by the author in 2008) Back cover: Reichskammergericht Wetzlar (Conspectus Audientiae Camerae imperialis) [Audience at the Imperial Chamber Court] (Frankfurt am Main, 1750) from the Städtische Sammlungen Wetzlar ISBN 978 963 277 ??? ? ISSN 1218-0610 © Cs.Varga 2013 Szent István Társulat 1053 Budapest,Veres Pálné utca 24. www.szit.katolikus.hu Responsible publisher: Dr. Huba Rózsa Responsible manager: Olivér Farkas Printed and bound by Prime Rate 001-010 1/10/13 12:44 PM Page 5 Law as Culture? 5 CONTENTS HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Philosophy of Law in Central & Eastern Europe: A Sketch of History [1999] 11 Philosophising on Law in the Turmoil of Communist Takeover in Hungary (Two Portraits, Interwar and Postwar: JULIUS MOÓR & ISTVÁN LOSONCZY) [2001–2002] 23 JULIUS MOÓR [23] ISTVÁN LOSONCZY [29] On the Survival of ILMAR TAMMELO’s Letter and Manuscript Addressed to Professor MOÓR [2009] 41 Professional Distress and Scarcity: ALEXANDER HORVÁTH and the Legacy of Natural Law in Hungary [2005] 45 Hungarian Legal Philosophy in the 20th Century [2011] 51 I. THE PRE-WAR PERIOD [52] 1. Bódog (Felix) Somló (1871–1920) [52] II. THE INTER-WAR PERIOD [55] 2. Gyula (Julius) Moór (1888–1950) [54] 3. Barna Horváth (1896–1973) [55] 4. József Szabó (1909–1992) [57] 5. István Bibó (1911–1979) [58] 6.Tibor Vas (1911–1983) [59] 7. István Losonczy (1918–1980) [60] III.THE POST-WAR PERIOD (COMMUNISM) [661] 8. Imre Szabó (1912–1991) [62] 9. Vilmos Peschka (1929–2006) [63] 10. Kálmán Kulcsár (1928–2010) [65] IV. CONTEMPORARY TRENDS AND PERSPECTIVES [66] 11. Csaba Varga (b. 1941) [66] 12. András Sajó (b. 1949) [69] 13. Béla Pokol (b. 1950) [70] V. OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE LAW TODAY [71] AN IMPOSED LEGACY Looking back [1999] 75 1. On Ideologies and MARXism in general [75] 2. Life of an Intellectual in Communism [79] 3. On MARXism and its Socialist Cultivation in Particu- lar [82] 4. Legal Philosophising [87] 4.1.Approaches to Law [87] 4.2.Ar- riving at a Legal Ontology [91] 5. Conclusion [94] 001-010 1/10/13 12:44 PM Page 6 6 CONTENTS Legal Philosophy of the MARXism of Socialism: Hungarian Overview in an International Perspective [2003] 95 I. DEVELOPMENT AND BALANCE OF MARXIST PHILOSOPHISING ON LAW IN HUNGARY [96] 1. Preliminaries (until 1948) [96] 2. STALINism (from the Soviet Occupation on) [98] a) Liquidation of the »Residues« [98] b) Soviet- type Uniformisation [Gleichschaltung] [99] c) Denial of the Past, with a Dual Effect [99] d) »Socialist Legality«, Drawn from the Bolshevik Memories of the Progressive Past of Western Europe [103] e) Search for the Germs of Scholarly Evolution [103] 3. Institutionalisation Accompanied by Relaxation (from the 1960s) [104] a) Epigonism Becoming the Scholarly Ideal [104] b) STALIN- ism in a Critical Self-perspective [105] c) Disciples Diversified Launching their own Trends [107] d) Comparatism [110] e) (Re)discovery of the Western Legal Philosophy as a Competitor [112] f) A Leading Mediatory Role within the »So- cialist World Order« [114] 4. Disintegration (in the 1980s) [115] a) Attempt at Laying New Foundations for MARXism with Epigonism Exhausted [115] b) Competitive Trends Becoming Exclusive [115] c) Western Legal Philosophy Acknowledged as a Fellow-traveller within the Socialist Orbit Proper [116] d) Hungarian Legal Theory Transforming into a National Corpus [118] e) The Practical Promotion of Some Balance [119] 5. End-game of Legal Theorising as Substitute for a State Religion (in the 1990s) [120] II. MARXIST LEGAL PHILOSOPHISING IN AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE [122] Ad 1: To the Preliminaries [122] Ad 2:To STALINism [124] Ad 3:To Institutionalisati- on Accompanied by Relaxation [125] a) Late Separation from VYSHINSKY’s Theory [125] b) From Ideological Self-closure to an Apparently Scholarly Openness [127] c) From Political Ideology to Genuine Scholarship [130] d) International Recognition of Socialist Jurisprudence as an Independent Trend [135] e) Together with Western Trends [137] Ad 4: To Disintegration [139] a) Loss of Attraction as Mere Epigonism [139] b) Exclusivity of Competing Di- rections [139] c) Fellowship with »Bourgeois« Trends [140] d) An own Trend, Internationally Recognised [141] e) A yet Progressive Role [143] Ad 5:To the Present state [000] III. A TEMPORARY BALANCE [145] Autonomy and Instrumentality of Law in a Superstructural Perspective [1986] 151 1.The Strange Fate of Concepts [151] I. A RELATIONAL CATEGORY [154] 2. Basis and Superstructure:The Genuine Meaning [154] 3. Exerting So- cial Influence as a Conceptual Minimum [156] 4. Relationships within the Prevailing Totality [158] 5. Attempts at Interpretation in Hungary [159] 6. The Lukácsian Stand [162] 7. Lukács’s Recognitions [168] 8. Some Criticism [169] II. THE LAW’S UNDERSTANDING [171] 9. Law Interpreted as Superstructure [171] 10. Conclusions Drawn for the Law’s Understanding [173] 001-010 1/10/13 12:44 PM Page 7 CONTENTS 7 Legal Theory in Transition (A Preface from Hungary) [2000] 177 Development of Theoretical Legal Thought in Hungary at the Turn of the Millennium [2006] 187 1. International Environment [188] 2. The Situation in Hungary [190] 3. Outlook I:The Historico-comparative Study of Legal Cultures and of the Legal Mind [203] 4. Outlook II:The Paradigmatic Enigma of the Transition to Rule of Law [207] 5. Incongruity in Practice [213] 6. Perspectives [214] TWENTIETH CENTURY CONTEMPORANEITY Change of Paradigms in Legal Reconstruction: CARL SCHMITT and the Temptation to Finally Reach a Synthesis [2002] 219 1. Dangers of Intellectualism [219] 2. SCHMITT in Facts [221] 3. SCHMITT and KELSEN [222] 4. On Bordering Conditions [226] 5.With KELSEN in Transubstantiation [230] 6. Polarisation as the Path of Theoretical Deve- lopment [232] KELSENian Documents in Hungary: Chapters on Contacts, Including the Genesis of Autobiography [2006] 235 1. Preludes [235] 2. The Search for MOÓR’s Bequeath [235] 3. MOÓR’s Collegiality [238] 4. BIBÓ as a Disciple Translating [241] The »HART-phenomenon« [2002] 245 I. THE HART-MIRACLE [246] 1. The Scene of Britain at the Time [247] 2.The Personal Career [250] 3.The Opus’ Career [252] 4.Verbal Socio- logism [255] 5. Growing into the British Pattern [259] II. THE HART- PHENOMENON [260] 6. Origination of a Strange Orthodoxy [261] 7. Mas- tering Periods of the 20th Century [263] 8. Raising the Issue of Reception in Hungary [265] Literature? A Substitute for Legal Philosophy? [2007] 269 1.The Enigma of Law and its Study [269] 2. “Law and Literature” [271] 3.Varieties of “Law and Literature” [247] 4.The German Study of Artistic Representations [287] 5. Some Literary Reconsiderations [285] 6. Con- clusion [287] 001-010 1/10/13 12:44 PM Page 8 8 CONTENTS APPENDIX The Philosophy of Teaching Legal Philosophy in Hungary [2007] 291 I.WHY AND HOW TO PHILOSOPHISE IN LAW? [291] II.THE STATE OF TEACH- ING LEGAL PHILOSOPHY [294] III.THE PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING LEGAL PHILOSOPHY [296] IV.PROGRAMME AT THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF HUN- GARY [300] 1. Graduate Studies [300] a) Basic Subjects [301] b) Facultative Seminars [305] c) Closing Subjects [309] d) Written Memoranda and the The- sis [312] 2. Postgraduate Studies [313] 3. Conclusion [317] V.PERSPEC- TIVES [318] Index of Subjects 321 Index of Normative Materials 328 Index of Names 329 001-010 1/10/13 12:44 PM Page 9 Law as Culture? 9 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 001-010 1/10/13 12:44 PM Page 10 10 DISCIPLINARY ISSUES 011-022 1/10/13 12:45 PM Page 11 Philosophy of Law in Central and Eastern Europe A Sketch od History 11 PHILOSOPHY OF LAW IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE A Sketch of History* Central and Eastern European philosophy of law started its independent life in the second half of the 19th century by gradually distinguishing itself from the trends prevailing in the region, mainly German and Austrian ones, but also from French and Italian influence. Its formation bore the imprints of natural law, dominant in Europe at the time. In Central Europe this was primarily transmitted through ANTON MARTINI’s book on the principles of natural law.1 IMMANUEL KANT’s and GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HE- GEL’s philosophies contributed to their influences. For his contemporaries, HEGEL was the main symbol of philosophical protest against officialdom. He opposed the German historical school’s respect for the past, with GUS- TAV HUGO’s textbook on natural law in 1798 as its first expression. Under the guise of natural law, conservative ecclesiastical actions com- peted with enlightening secularisation, feudal patriarchalism with contrac- tual theories (designed for confirming or rejecting privileges), and refutation of the ius resistendi with approval of revolutionary republican ideas. Political use of a CHRISTian natural law competed with the fashionable science of the law of reason (called as Vernunftrecht), launched at Budapest.2 By that time, national languages had already gained ground in legal philosophy,3 replacing Latin and German.