A közjegyzői intézmény átalakulása a rendszerváltáskor, 1987-1991

The last socialist regulation on notaries pertaining to state-employed notaries came into force on 1 April 1984. However, this legislation was not enough to improve the situation of notaries in merit. The swift change of the economy and politics compelled a judicial reform, including radical changes in and acceleration of the notarial reform process. On 29 May 1988, university professor Kálmán Kulcsár was appointed Minister of Justice who was devoted to public law reforms. The other factor constituting the acceleration of notarial reform was the Austrian Chamber of Civil Law Notaries. The comprehensive regulation pertaining to civil law notaries was devised by Judit Bókai. The Bókai article on notarial reform generated debate due to its novel approach. Those conferences, study trips and preparatory trainings which paved the way for the establishment of the Hungarian notarial profession as a liberal profession were key factors in converting the Hungarian notariat into a Latin-type notarial institution. The Austrian Chamber of Civil Law Notaries (ÖNK) and the Austrian Academy of Civil Law Notaries (ÖnotAK) decided in the summer of 1989 to organise the 1st Colloquium of Central European Notaries in Keszthely. Consequently, a professional collaboration was launched between the Hungarian and Austrian notaries, which worked on a regular basis up until the setting up of the new notarial system. On 29 November 1990 the first draft version of the legislation on civil law notaries was put on the table as the result of the mutual effort of Judit Bókai and István Vida, head of department in charge of codification. Parliament enacted the Act on civil law notaries on 10 September 1991. It may be said that notwithstanding the bulk of legislation passed during transition the Notaries Act has well stood the test of time. Upon the renewal of the notarial profession, the Act favourably combined former legislation on civil law notaries and contemporary principles concerning notarial regulation in use in Western Europe. The co-existence of a number of favourable societal and economic factors enabled the notarial profession to change tracks and run its course as an institution which is still thriving as to date

Az állami közjegyzői intézmény kiépítése és működése, 1950-1956

The Political Committee of the Central Management of the Hungarian Communist Parties (MDP KV) passed a resolution on the restructuring of the Ministry of Justice on 19 October 1950, and consequently in order to improve the cadre situation. As a result of a collective redundancy fifty-nine notaries were dismissed from the notarial institution that has been reorganized at the beginning of the same year, and concurrently fiftyseven judges and prosecutors were reassigned as notaries. Thus the number of stateemployed notaries was 153 at the beginning of 1951. The political dismissals at the end of 1951 succeeded in removing those judges and notaries, which were targeted as civil elements by the Ministry, or deemed to have held social democratic views. In 1951 further 18 notaries were dismissed. Henceforth, the structure of the notarial staff at the courts was completely changed; they represented a different social class as before. According to the resolution of the Secretariat of the Central Management of the Hungarian Communist Parties passed on 15 April 1953 by 31 May further 230 “hostile elements” had to be removed from the judicial apparatus, which goal was over-achieved by dismissing 244 lawyers. The law students and those who graduated from political academies, who were hired instead of the dismissed judges, prosecutors and notaries were not able to carry on with the cases in merit, whether contentious or non-contentious. Consequently, there was a turn in the cadre policy of the Hungarian Communist Parties regarding the justice system. The judicial dismissals carried out in several waves between the end of 1950 and 1953 resulted in a situation where both the institution and its operators, the notaries, had to be rebuilt. The Ministry of Justice made attempts to provide training for the notaries and improve their position, however such endeavours and ideas were not sufficient and failed to consolidate the situation; also, it was during these times that the view that the activities of the state-employed notaries had a secondary function within the socialist judicial system developed

Leszámolás a polgári közjegyzőkkel : 1945-1956

In 1945 the civil law notaries, deputy and trainee notaries had to undergo a kind of due diligence or scrutiny before the competent verification committee. Only those notaries were allowed to practise their profession who have passed such examination. After the political change of 1949 and following the nationalization of the notarial profession, there were endeavours to eliminate persons from society who held rightist pro-Horthy views, thus those notaries as well, who were not allowed to pursue their practice as state employees. To this end apart from the available legal instruments the State Security Authority (SSA), which was formed in 1948 by the gradual restructuring of the Political Police Department that had operated within the Ministry of Home Affairs was also deployed. Notaries against whom there was not sufficient evidence for conviction could have been deported subject to a decree issued by the Minister of Home Affairs in the Horthy era. The most severe type of retribution against notaries were the so called show trials. In these cases the notaries as defendants were ancillary figures in the lawsuits targeted against particular groups of society (churches, military, ethnicities) and launched by the SSA. Agents of the SSA permeated through the whole society. The show trials were constructed based on agents’ reports, which had a dual purpose: they served to intimidate and deter members of society, and to ruin the life of prominent persons who were respectable and exemplary figures in their own societal sphere. In the light of preserved documents it is clear that tens of thousands of innocent people were dragged through the mire during the Stalinist Rákosi regime, so that the system could be maintained through communist terror. However, the victims selected by the regime were not enemies of the system. Their bringing to heels was meant to mould the terrorized population into masses of obedient subjects