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Marriage and Cohabitation in the New Hungarian Civil Code—Answering the New Challenges

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New Civil Codes in Hungary and Romania

Part of the book series: Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice ((IUSGENT,volume 63))

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Abstract

The new Hungarian Civil Code’s Fourth Book contains family law regulations. It has resulted in the HCC replacing the Hungarian Family Act. The debate on whether family law is an independent branch of the law or part of the civil law is analysed in the thesis, which brings marriage and cohabitation into focus. There are three kinds of partnerships in the Hungarian law, namely marriage, registered partnership and cohabitation; among them, marriage is by far the most prestigious institution. Family law is based traditionally on marriage and it is reflected in the new rules, as well as the detailed and deeply regulated rights and obligations of spouses, which are in the foreground. Solidarity is required from the spouses towards each other henceforward but also their autonomy is supported via marital property agreements. Just to the contrary, cohabitation has remained a contract, even after long debates. Cohabitation as a contract is not contained in the Fourth Book. Nevertheless, if cohabitants have a common child and they live together at least one year, so-called family law consequences may emerge, and these are regulated within family law. This solution endeavours to fulfil the requirement to protect of the child’s best interest. This chapter gives an introduction to the regulation of marriage and cohabitation (registered partnership is mentioned in a nutshell) and sketches the main trends in family law while analysing the shaping of the regulations in the course of the codification process. Finally, some aspects of the new rules are dealt with also in the context of the Principles of European Family Law of the CEFL (Commission on European Family Law).

This chapter was presented at the conference “New Civil Codes in Hungary and Romania I” held on 24th May 2013 at the Sapientia University. The written paper has been partly updated in 2015.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Kőrös András, A PTK. és a családjog kapcsolata – a gyakorló jogász szemével. [The Connection between the Civil Code and Family Law from a practitioner’s view], Polgári Jogi Kodifikáció 1999, 1. 4.

  2. 2.

    Weiss Emilia, Az új Polgári Törvénykönyv és a családjogi viszonyok szabályozása, [The new Civil Code and Regulation of Family Law Relationships], Polgári Jogi Kodifikáció 2000, 2. 5.

  3. 3.

    Weiss 7-8.

  4. 4.

    Kőrös 8.

  5. 5.

    Registered partners cannot use their partner’s surname, at least according to their status. They cannot adopt a child together. Joint adoption means that registered partners are not permitted to adopt a child as adoptive parents together. Step-parent adoption is also excluded so a registered partner cannot adopt the child of his or her registered partner and it is irrelevant whether the child is related by blood or was adopted. Besides, registered partners cannot take part in medically assisted reproduction processes.

  6. 6.

    The Concept and Regulatory Syllabus were published in the Hungarian Official Gazette (Magyar Közlöny). Special Edition, 2003.

  7. 7.

    Concept 13-14. Regulatory Syllabus 37-53.

  8. 8.

    Concept 14. Regulatory Syllabus 42, 50-51.

  9. 9.

    Registered Partnership Act, namely Act No. XXIX 2009 on registered partnership and the facilitation of the proof of cohabitation.

  10. 10.

    Orsolya Szeibert, How cohabitants and registered partners can or cannot be a child’s legal parents in Hungary with a special view to the ‘pater est’ principle for cohabitants, in: Bill Atkin (ed.), The International Survey of Family Law, 2011, Jordan Publishing, 211-220.

  11. 11.

    Kőrös András, „Fontolva haladás“ – az új Ptk. Családjogi Könyve. 3. Rész: A házastársi vagyonközösség. [Cautious progress. The Family Law Book of the New Civil Code, Chapter 3. Community of Property of Spouses.] Családi Jog, 2005, 4, 1-15.; Kőrös András, „Fontolva haladás“ – az új Ptk. Családjogi Könyve. 4. Rész: A házassági vagyonjogi szerződés. [Cautious progress. The Family Law Book of the New Civil Code, Chapter 3. Marital Property Agreement.] Családi Jog, 2006, 1, 11-17.

  12. 12.

    Kőrös András, „Fontolva haladás“ – az új Ptk. Családjogi Könyve. 1. Rész: Az élettársi jogviszony szabályozásának szakértői javaslata [Cautious progress. The Family Law Book of the New Civil Code, Chapter 1. Experts’ Proposal on the Regulation of Cohabitation] Családi Jog, 2005, 2, 1-10.

  13. 13.

    See on the Fundamental Law and Family Protection Act in family law context: Orsolya Szeibert: Partnerships in Hungary in the Light of the New Legal Developments: Status or Contract? in: Bill Atkin (ed.), The International Survey of Family Law, 2012, Jordan Publishing, 115-122.

  14. 14.

    Decision of the Constitutional Court No. 43/2012 (XII. 20.).

  15. 15.

    Vékás Lajos (ed.), Szakértői Javaslat az új Polgári Törvénykönyv tervezetéhez, [Experts’ Proposal for the Draft of the new Civil Code], Budapest, Complex, 2008.

  16. 16.

    Kőrös András, Alapelvek. In Kőrös András (ed), Családjog [Family Law], Budapest, Complex, 2008, 24-26.

  17. 17.

    Marriage is regulated in the Second Part of the Fourth Book under the title “Marriage” [§ 4:5-85].

  18. 18.

    See the Hungarian answers (Orsolya Szeibert and Emilia Weiss) on the detailed rules of Hungarian matrimonial property regime as regulated in the Family Act in: Katharina Boele-Woelki, Bente Braat and Ian Sumner (eds.), European Family Law in Action Vol. IV: Property Relations Between Spouses, 2009, Intersentia.

  19. 19.

    See the Hungarian answers (Orsolya Szeibert and Emilia Weiss) on the detailed rules of Hungarian spousal maintenance as regulated in the Family Act in: Katharina Boele-Woelki, Bente Braat and Ian Sumner (eds.), European Family Law in Action Vol. II: Maintenance Between Former Spouses, 2003, Intersentia.

  20. 20.

    Cohabitation is regulated as a special contract in the Third Part of the Sixth Book [§ 6:514-517]. Family law consequences are contained in Third Part of the Fourth Book [§ 4:86-95].

  21. 21.

    Pongrácz Tiborné, A párkapcsolatok jellegzetességei. [The Characteristics of Partnerships.] In: Monostori Judit et al. (ed.), Demográfiai Portré 2009, KSH Népességtudományi Kutató Intézet 9-17; Pongrácz Tiborné: A párkapcsolatok jellegzetességei. [The Characteristics of Partnerships.] In: Őri Péter – Spéder Zsolt (ed.), Demográfiai Portré 2012, KSH Népességtudományi Kutató Intézet 11-20.

  22. 22.

    Murinkó Lívia – Spéder Zsolt, Párkapcsolatok. [Partnerships.] In: Monostori Judit – Őri Péter – Spéder Zsolt (ed.), Demográfiai Portré 2015, KSH Népességtudományi Kutató Intézet 9-26.

  23. 23.

    Regulatory Syllabus 40.

  24. 24.

    Katharina Boele-Woelki et al., Principles of European Family Law Regarding Divorce and Maintenance Between Former Spouses. 2004, Intersentia.

  25. 25.

    Principle 1:5 Katharina Boele-Woelki et al. 33.

  26. 26.

    Principle 1:7 Katharina Boele-Woelki et al. 43.

  27. 27.

    Katharina Boele-Woelki et al. Principles of European Family Law Regarding Divorce and Maintenance Between Former Spouses. 2004, Intersentia.

  28. 28.

    Principle 2:5 Katharina Boele-Woelki et al. 96.

  29. 29.

    Katharina Boele-Woelki et al. 97.

  30. 30.

    See also Kőrös András, New Features of Hungarian Matrimonial Property Law in the Draft of a New Civil Code, in Bea Verschraegen (ed), Family Finances, 2009, Jan Sramek Verlag, 677-678.

  31. 31.

    Katharina Boele-Woelki et al., Principles of European Family Law Regarding Property Relations Between Spouses. 2013, Intersentia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Civil Law Department, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

    Orsolya Szeibert

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  1. Orsolya Szeibert
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Correspondence to Orsolya Szeibert .

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  1. Department of Civil Law, Faculty of Law, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

    Attila Menyhárd

  2. Department of Law, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Emőd Veress

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Szeibert, O. (2017). Marriage and Cohabitation in the New Hungarian Civil Code—Answering the New Challenges. In: Menyhárd, A., Veress, E. (eds) New Civil Codes in Hungary and Romania. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 63. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63327-5_13

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