Is the Hungarian Legal System Converging to a Case Law System? Results of a Computer-Based Citation Analysis of Hungarian Judicial Decisions (original) (raw)
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SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014
It is one of the most popular leitmotif of comparative legal science that civil and common legal systems are converging 2. The primary consideration behind this is, that the role of "precedents" are increasing in civilian legal systems, while statutory law's importance is growing in common law. As McCormick states in the Introduction of a comparative study of precedent: To differentiate 'civilian' to 'common law' systems is a commonplace among lawyers. It is trite learning that precedents count for less in civilian legal systems than in those of the common law, and it has sometimes been doubted, whether they stand for anything much at all in civilian systems. The present work shows, the doubt to be groundless. Here it is shown that precedent counts for a great deal in civilian systems. The tendency to convergence between systems of the two types is a salient fact of the later twentieth century, although there remain real differences, some of great importance. 3 1 The author thanks to the following persons: Tamás Grósz, for the preparation of the computer based statistics, Miklós Szabó for supporting the research in University of Miskolc, Zsolt Czékmann, for coordinating the research of the qualitative part, Péter Darák, for supporting the project, and all of my colleagues, who attended the workshop held at Curia in 27 November 2013, and made valuable contributions to the text.
Analysis of Citation Patterns of Hungarian Judicial Decisions 1
2014
To differentiate ‘civilian’ to ‘common law’ systems is a commonplace among lawyers. It is trite learning that precedents count for less in civilian legal systems than in those of the common law, and it has sometimes been doubted, whether they stand for anything much at all in civilian systems. The present work shows, the doubt to be groundless. Here it is shown that precedent counts for a great deal in civilian systems. The tendency to convergence between systems of the two types is a salient fact of the later twentieth century, although there remain real differences, some of great importance.3
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Citations of previous decisions and the quality of judicial reasoning
Acta Juridica Hungarica, 2015
Inserting citations to authorities into a text, in order to increase the persuasive power of it, and prove the competence of the author, has a long tradition in science and in law. The question is whether this also applies to judicial decisions. This question is especially interesting in a continental legal culture, where following previous cases is not obligatory, there is no stare decisis, and therefore, inserting a reference to a previous case may have a different function. In 2012 we performed a computer-based citation analysis of the court decisions published under FOI act on the offi cial website of the National Offi ce for the Judiciary (Országos Bírósági Hivatal). The article contains four sections. The fi rst and the second sections are dealing with citations within judicial decisions in general, and their signifi cance in different legal cultures. The third section is about the quantitative, while the fourth is about the qualitative part of the research, and tackle the issue whether citations increase the quality of judicial reasoning or not. The answer will be limited to the Hungarian legal culture. Keywords: case law (in Hungary), citations to previous cases, computer based analysis of legal decisions, Hungarian judicial system, judicial reasoning (in Hungary) 1 The Act on Electronic Freedom of Information (Act XC. of 2005. § 16.) introduced the Collection of Judicial Decisions, and publication was started in 2007. Recently the Act on the Organisation and Administration of Courts (Act CLXI. of 2011. § 163.) is regulating the issue. 2 http://www.birosag.hu/ugyfelkapcsolati-portal/anonim-hatarozatok-tara
Is the Hungarian Legal System Converging to a Case Law System ? 1
2014
To differentiate ‘civilian’ to ‘common law’ systems is a commonplace among lawyers. It is trite learning that precedents count for less in civilian legal systems than in those of the common law, and it has sometimes been doubted whether they stand for anything much at all in civilian systems. The present work shows the doubt to be groundless. Here it is shown that precedent counts for a great deal in civilian systems. The tendency to convergence between systems of the two types is a salient fact of the later twentieth century, although there remain real differences, some of great importance.3
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In this article we propose a novel methodology, which uses text similarity techniques to infer precise citations from the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), including their content. We construct a complete network of citations to judgments on the level of singular text units or paragraphs. By contrast to previous literature, which takes into account only explicit citations of entire judgments, we also infer implicit citations, meaning the repetitions of legal arguments stemming from past judgments without explicit reference. On this basis we can differentiate between different categories and modes of citations. The latter is crucial for assessing the actual legal importance of judgments in the citation network. Our study is an important methodological step forward in integrating citation network analysis into legal studies, which significantly enhances our understanding of European Union law and the decision making of the CJEU.
The force of EU case law: A multi- dimensional study of case citations
The power of courts to change law via case law is among the most persistent and contested themes in the study of courts. In this article we empirically investigate whether the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court) is constrained by its case law, and whether this can have a legitimatizing effect on its decision making. In contrast to previous literature on citation networks, which takes into account entire documents in constructing citation networks, we build a network of references to individual paragraphs of judgments, and their adjacent texts. We then analyze the paragraph texts with the aid of keyword extraction and topic modelling. Our findings can explain the legal relevance of citations and cited cases, as well as their normative force.
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Minden jog fenntartva, beleértve a mű sokszorosítását, bővített, vagy rövidített változatban történő kiadását is. A kiadó írásos hozzájárulása nélkül a mű, illetőleg annak része semmilyen formában nem sokszorosítható. lawmaking forced and really accelerated by external circumstances (like the financial crisis) and internal capabilities (like state debt, the heavy inheritance of the past, the moral sinking of the society, etc.) necessarily comes with "some" mistakes as well. And it is also important-the representatives of this aspect say-that the feature and number of these mistakes cannot serve as a reason for someone to doubt the whole legal system or the higher moral status of the political course, assuming that newly created content of these regulation systems coming from real social needs can be justified morally. és az új demokráciákban. [Institutional trust in old and new democracies] Politikatudományi Szemle 2/2012. p. 27. 28 meleG, csilla: A bizalom hálójában-társadalmi nézőpontok. [In the web of trust-social aspects] JURA 2012/1. pp. 72-75. 29 FarKas, zolTán: A hatalom és az uralom fogalma. [The concept of power and regime] Politikatudományi Szemle 2/2011. p. 31.
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