Reflections on the Application of the Limitation Rules in the (New) Hungarian Civil Code, with Special Regard to the Enforcement of Claims Arising from the Infringement of the Pre-emption Rights

Abstract

Provisions on prescription have been revised during the codification of the new Civil Code of Hungary, Act V of 2013. Despite the early proposals, its core system has not changed a lot. Nevertheless, several details, especially in other fields of Civil Code were amended, so the framework of the application of basic the rules of prescription (i. e. its period, the commencement, suspension, or renewal of the period). Not only the right to performance of an obligation is subjected to prescription, but also any rights or claims stemming from relationships under Civil Code. In my opinion, the Article 6:21 Civil Code suggests a dichotomous model for all the legal consequences when a statutory time prescribed for enforcing claims or exercising rights has lapsed: a period may be preclusive (the right is extinguished) or extinctive (the right cannot be enforceable in judicial proceedings anymore). In the following, this study concentrates on a particular time period for enforcing the legal consequences (challenging the contract on the ground of relative ineffectiveness) in case of the infringement of preemption right.