Social Sciences and Law

Abstract

The international situation of history didactics as an academic discipline is characterized by the fact that many basic disciplinary concepts often differ considerably: The same or similar terms denote different concepts or vice versa comparable concepts not only have various names but also hold different positions in the respective disciplinary framework. The best example of this is history didactics, which is understood as the practical methodology of history teaching in the Anglophone community and an academic subdiscipline of historical science in Germany. This is a considerable obstacle to international research. Since the school subject of World History is taught in many countries, an international comparison of curricula and textbooks deserves great scholarly interest. Therefore, this article tries to deal with the terminological clarification of the concepts of World History, Global History and Big History for the discipline of history didactics. The four most important reasons behind the need for world history teaching are connected to transnational, anti-Eurocentric, decolonisation- and anthropogenic-focused history teaching. The paper discusses different approaches and relationships between world history and national historical viewpoints with the method of curricula comparison. The study programs assigned to national history are usually not explicitly referred to as ‘national history’, but simply as ‘History’. Tacitly equating the respective national history with ‘history’ as such indirectly makes ‘world history’ appear as the history of the ‘others’ rather than as a comprehensive or integrative concept.

Összefoglalás.

Háborús helyzet, pandémia, nem mindig rendelkezésre álló energiahordozók és alapanyagok, infláció, szakképzett munkaerő hiánya és ingadozó rendelésállomány határozza meg a termelő vállalatok külső és belső környezetét. A változások sokszor szinte lehetetlenné teszik a nyereségességet és likviditást elváró vállalati tervezést. Válsághelyzetben, korlátosan rendelkezésre álló és gyorsan változó árú erőforrások esetén előtérbe kerül a működőképesség fenntartása és az üzleti partnerek túlélése. A tanulmány néhány menedzsmenteszközt és trendet vesz számba, amelyek segíthetnek a nehéz helyzetbe került gazdálkodó szervezeteknek.

Summary.

War situations, pandemics, limited availability of energy and raw materials, inflation, shortage of skilled labor, and fluctuating stock order, all determine the external and internal environment of manufacturing companies. Hectic changes often make classical corporate planning, which is based on meeting economic objectives (profit, liquidity), almost impossible. In a crisis situation, with limited resources and rapidly changing prices, the focus is on maintaining functionality, taking into account the survival of business and technological partners. The paper will take stock of some industrial management tools and trends that can bail out seemingly hopelessly distressed business organizations. In addition to articles and textbooks on enterprise and process security, a number of management standards and recommendations for resilience and control business and technology processes have been included in the bibliography. Managers have a triple challenge in this area; to select, integrate and implement management systems that meet the expectations of business partners and help optimize and flexibly transform internal value-creating and service-providing processes on demand. Process management that has been developing in recent decades is not a miracle set in crisis situation. The application of management methods, standards, and the recognition of business and technological trends do not guarantee that substitute resources will be sufficient in the right place and time, and that profitable operations will remain sustainable. However, process-oriented companies with controlled resource allocation and business continuity in mind are more likely to survive times of crisis. Their built-in process control systems bring faster reactions to disadvantageous changes.

Complex production systems are moving towards error-free production. Failures, production and logistical disruptions can be detected more quickly and the root causes localized. Industry 4.0 has several technological components, the integration of which is exploited by these modern industrial production systems. Industry 5.0 focuses on human-machine collaboration and relies on the tools of Industry 4.0. Skilled workers with robots create unique products in the division of labor. Industry 5.0 does not mean the automatic, immediate replacement of old technologies. Previous equipment and production systems can also be integrated into a network using sensors. The coordination of standardised management systems with the technological shift of Industry 4.0 is not a bypass.

Abstract

The study discusses the legal governance of historical memory through the presentation of the phenomenon of memory laws. It reflects on the appearance of these laws in the legal system, emphasizes their different definitions and classifications, at all the levels (constitutional, statutory and quasi-legal), and among various areas of legislation. The paper further points out the context and development of Hungarian memory laws, highlighting the special importance of this legislation in the current political and legal situation as well as potential lessons in the wider European context.

Összefoglalás.

A szerző a két világháború közötti magyar katonai büntetőjog meghatározó jelentőségű törvényét és az ehhez kapcsolódó speciális végrehajtási kérdéseket állítja a középpontba. Az 1931-ben született jogszabály sajátos történelmi és történeti időszakban született meg, hiszen a trianoni békediktátum szinte a teljes ellehetetlenülés határára sodorta Magyarországot. Vitathatatlan, hogy az ezt követő közel egy évtizedig tartó konszolidációs folyamat és annak sikere a XX. századi magyar politikatörténet egy kiemelkedően sikeres időszakaként azonosítható. A történelmi kényszer és Magyarország nemzetbiztonsága minden tiltás ellenére megkövetelte a honi haderő életben tartását, amelynek részeként a speciális jogi környezetet is korszerűsíteni kellett. Az Osztrák–Magyar Monarchia idejéből származó normarendszer revízió alá került, és minden szempontból az európai mércéket is meghaladó szabályozás született. Ezeket az anyagi jogi és végrehajtási normákat járja körül a tanulmány, érintve e legfontosabb dogmatikai csomópontokat. Rövid történeti kitekintés után bemutatjuk a katonákra vonatkozó büntetési rendszert, majd a végrehajtásra vonatkozó azon regulák számbavételére kerül sor, amelyből a korabeli katonai büntetőjogi és végrehajtási filozófia jól érzékelhetővé válik. Ennek megfelelően megjelennek többek között az infrastruktúrára, a személyzetre, az elhelyezési körülményekre, a fogvatartottak jogi helyzetére vonatkozó, vagy az intézet szélesebb körben értelmezett biztonságára vonatkozó rendelkezések. A tanulmány végén a jelenleg hatályos megoldás főbb elemeinek esszenciális bemutatása valósul meg, és elvi síkon megfogalmazódik a jövőre vonatkozó nemzetbiztonsági szempontokat is megjelenítő lehetséges irány is.

Summary.

The author focuses on the decisive law of the Hungarian military criminal law between the two World wars, which has been relatively understudied so far, and on its specific implementation issues. The legislation born in 1931 came at a particularly historic time, as the Treaty of Trianon put Hungary almost on the edge of total impossibility. It is indisputable that the process of consolidation for nearly a decade and its success can be identified as an outstandingly successful period in the 20th-century Hungarian political history. Despite all prohibitions, the historic necessity and the national security of Hungary demanded the survival of the national armed force, which required the modernization of the special legal environment. The system of standards from the period of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was revised and the legislation also exceeded the European standards in all aspects. These financial, legal, and execution standards are discussed in this paper, touching upon these key doctrinal points. After a brief historic overview, the punishment system for soldiers is presented, followed by the enumeration of the rules of execution, from which the philosophy of the time of the military penal and execution is framed well. These include the provisions on infrastructure, staff, accommodation conditions, the legal status of the detainees, or the security of the institution in a broader sense. The paper concludes with an essential presentation of the main elements of the current solution and a possible way for the future is formulated.

Abstract

With special focus on free speech, as well as on classroom surveillance (proliferating in the Covid-pandemic digital learning environment), the paper aims to identify contextual dimensions for academic freedom as a matured legal concept – and one to be assessed via a business and human rights approach, due to its peculiar position between the public and private spheres. The project is triggered by the fact that despite its widespread usage in international documents and domestic constitutions, academic freedom remains underdeveloped in terms of conceptual tools, operationalizing mechanisms, monitoring methods and benchmarking schemes. There are also competing notions on how to best conceptualize it: as an individual right, a set of requirements for autonomous institutional design, a field to be regulated for market service providers or public commodities, a tool for international policy making, or academic ranking – not to mention the challenge of how to incorporate challenges brought by social justice movements. These considerations all require different policy tools and adjacent legal targeting.

Abstract

Investigating disadvantaged children is a priority area concerning education and health. However, little attention has been paid to pandemic-specific research in recent years. In the present study, we aim to explore the attitudes toward distance education in a sample (N = 305) of 7–8th grade students studying in disadvantaged settlements concerning the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Attitudes towards distance education were measured using a 16-item tool. Factor analysis was applied to detect the factors of attitudes towards distance education. Variables influencing these factors were measured by linear regression analysis including well-being, perceived stress and support, academic achievement, and sociodemographic background. The results indicate that four factors (learning difficulties, poor health, time saving and safety, and distance learning preference) can be distinguished. The effects of gender, type of settlement, deprivation and objective financial status is significant regarding distance learning preference and perceptions of poor health. Regarding health indicators, a protective role of support from teachers and a hindering role of stress indicators were found. The role academic performance was insignificant. Overall, the factors influencing attitudes towards distance education partly follow the trends of the factors influencing perceptions of traditional education. However, it is necessary to stress the crisis nature of the pandemic.

Abstract

In 2005 the Hungarian school-leaving examination system underwent a significant transformation. In case of history the aim was to give a greater role to the development of students' knowledge acquisition and source analysis skills by more focusing on students' work with historical sources in classes. However, it was clear that the achievement of these goals would also depend on the new exam tasks. Those determine whether the reform will be able to get real change. So I carefully examined those tasks of the past fifteen years exams that contained primary sources. I wanted to give an accurate picture of which types of tasks were most frequent and how they could be assessed in terms of the original objectives of the reform and the competency requirements of the school leaving examination. Based on the conclusions drawn from the results of the investigation, I formulate proposals for changing the composition of the exam tasks and preparing for writing the tasks.

Abstract

The study presents the impact of the historical origin of the making and application of law through a specific example. The regulation of nationality, a pivotal field of constitutional law, is considered a sovereign right of the Hungarian state which is exercised in line with Article G) of the Fundamental Law and Act No. LV of 1993 on Hungarian Citizenship. Hungarian naturalization practice, however, significantly changed in the wake of the amendment of the respective act: Hungarians living outside the borders have been entitled to preferential naturalization since 2011. This study aims to prove that this legislative action, which remarkably followed the designation of the day of the conclusion of the Trianon Peace Treaty as the Day of National Unity the previous year, was obviously influenced by historical considerations. The primary objective of preferential naturalization was to grant Hungarian nationality to persons of Hungarian origin whose ancestors had lost their Hungarian nationality in the aftermath of historical events involving the transfer of territories to neighbouring states. The study's point of departure is the Trianon Peace Treaty, the first major instrument to have a profound effect on the nationality of millions of Hungarians. The study explores the peculiar interpretation and application of treaty provisions relating to territorial changes and reveals the flaws in legal regulation which further contributed to the formation of a large community of Hungarians living outside the borders. Having surveyed the historical background, the analysis proceeds to examine the impact of historical traditions on the underlying motives and current domestic regulation of preferential naturalization. Evidence includes the broad scope of eligible persons, the wide range of documents accepted to prove descent, the verification of the required command of language, and the practical implementation of the procedure of naturalization. Research findings convincingly display the far-reaching effects of historical traditions on the regulation and practice of preferential naturalization in Hungary.

Abstract

Mediation as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism has a very long history, especially outside of the adjudicative space. It has gradually also found its way as an adjunct to the court system in the form of court-annexed mediation. As proven by quantitative studies, mediation in the region of Central and Eastern Europe is still, however, a relatively novel and underutilized instrument. Thus, this study explores the role of judges in court-annexed mediation using the case of the Czech Republic. It presents a piece of empirical research built on a single qualitative case study of mediation practice as seen and understood through the experience of district court judges. The latter represent the core actors that contribute to shaping mediation practice through their attitudes and activities, influenced by their own interpretation of phenomena, when entering into the process at the pre-mediation phase – when the activity of the judge is foreseen by the legislative framework to be the most significant. Offering a comprehensive description of the research methodology, the study also aims to contribute to academic debate that calls for more case/comparative studies of relatively unexplored phenomena in the wider region of Central and Eastern Europe.

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on the uncertainty and controversy associated with the substantial compliance standard as part of the strict compliance principle in the letter of credit law, as well as the possibility of applying new technology to solve such problems. The letter of credit confirms a payment under international sales contracts and contains a promise from the bank to pay the seller if they can present the complying documents as required in the letter of credit. Thanks to the basic principles of a letter of credit, it is stable and trustworthy. Such basic principles as well as the practice of letters of credit are recognized in the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credit of the International Chamber of Commerce.

To retain the commercial utility of the letter of credit, the strict compliance principle should be revitalized and consistently applied. However, this principle is not associated with exact standards, which leads to the scenario that courts apply different standards. Such a situation might reduce the commercial utility of letters of credit. Hence, the financial industry is trying to apply new technologies such as blockchain, smart contracts, and the Internet of Things to support the strict compliance principle, and try to reduce the uncertainty related to the substantial compliance standard.