Walker, In re, Mackintosh- Walker v. Walker SOME CASES IN THE LAW RELATING TO THEATRES..... STATISTICS, CIVIL JUDICIAL, 1907 ... ... SUDAN AND EGYPT, THE COURTS OF THE THEATRES, SOME CASES IN THE LAW RELATING TO ... ... 416 ... UNIVERSITIES, THE LAW OF THE ... ... 40, 136, 277, 407 THE LAW MAGAZINE AND REVIEW. IN No. CCCL.-NOVEMBER, 1908. I. HUNGARIAN LAW.1 N giving a hearty welcome on the part of the Association of Hungarian Jurists and on my own part too, to the distinguished guests visiting our country, I desire to fulfil an obligation which is the fundamental condition of any intercourse between hosts and guests, that viz. :—of introduction. It is true that, as a rule, it is the foreign guest who introduces himself: for he knows whom he is visiting, whereas the host is not as a rule acquainted with the identity of his guest. In the present case, however, it is just the reverse. You who have come from Great Britain, France, Germany etc., do not require to enlighten us about your countries and their respective institutions: in fact we should be liable to be accused of a want of erudition, did we not know you and your respective countries. On the other hand, unfortunately, we cannot presume that our own country and its peculiar institutions are as familiar to you as yours are to us; in fact we have often been obliged to recognise that the ideas entertained abroad concerning the conditions of Hungary are anything but correct, and that on this point very erroneous conceptions have been circulated. This is 1 An address delivered at Budapest on the 22nd September, 1908, at the 25th Conference of the International Law Association. particularly the case with our legal institutions: and that is the reason why I have begged for permission to offer some information concerning our legal institutions to the members of that association whose particular calling it is to encourage international intercourse and further mutual acquaintance in the field of law, and which has honoured us so deeply by choosing the Capital of Hungary as the scene. of its this year's conference. The erroneous conceptions to which I have referred, are undoubtedly a result of the peculiar political relations of Hungary and Austria, which act indirectly upon the international position of the former country. The fact namely, that Hungary and Austria are ruled over by one and the same Monarch, and that the "personal union" involves a certain community of government—(e.g., in military affairs and questions of foreign politics) in consequence of which community, Hungary does not as a rule appear in international relations independently, but in union with Austria, as "Austria-Hungary," or the "Austro-Hungarian Monarchy," has given rise to the erroneous conception that Hungary is not an independent sovereignty, and does not possess absolute legislative and executive power of her own. She is, in fact, believed to be merely a subordinate part of the Monarchy (considered as one sovereign unit), endowed at the most with a certain kind of self-government, a province like either Bohemia or Galicia, from which she is distinguished merely by the form and scope of her autonomy. This erroneous conception is all the more difficult to remove, as on the one hand past history, in the days when the name of Hungary did not even appear in the title of the Monarchy, which was simply called "Austria," has thoroughly implanted it in men's minds, and, on the other hand, even to-day the independent sovereignty of Hungary and its legal entity as an independent factor in international relations is, externally at least, not thrown into proper relief. In dealing with this fallacy,-which, were it correct, would render it impossible for us to welcome this International Association independently of Austria, or to take an independent part in its debates, as indeed in all international conferences,-I may refer, in the first place, to the fact that there is no such thing as Austro-Hungarian citizenship, as there would naturally be, were the two States one political unit. Austro-Hungarian citizens, as one often hears citizens of either State described abroad, do not exist there are either Austrian subjects or Hungarian subjects. In this respect Austria is just as much a foreign State in respect of Hungary, and vice versa, as any other foreign country. I may refer further, to the fact that Austria and Hungary have no common Legislature: each of the two States has its own independent Parliament; and each of the latter is possessed of an entirely distinct organisation. Laws in force in Hungary can only be passed by the Hungarian Legislature (consisting of the Upper and Lower Houses), with the sanction of the Monarch as the duly crowned king of Hungary: the Austrian "Reichsrat " has just as little power over the territory of Hungary as the Hungarian Parliament has over that of Austria. Even for the above-mentioned "common" affairs (i.e., military affairs and foreign politics) there is no "common" Parliament,— the bills relating thereto are passed separatim, by the Hungarian Parliament for Hungary, and by the Austrian "Reichsrat" for Austria. The so-called "delegations" do not either constitute a common Parliament: for, apart from the fact that the said delegations are merely committees deputed by the two Legislatures which sit and pass resolutions separately, and do not vote in one body unless conflicting resolutions are carried in the two committees, their sphere of action is essentially confined to the determination of the estimates of the common War and Foreign Offices, and does not include the creation of laws or legal forms in respect |