Enforcement of the Hungarian Customary Law in the Reannexed Eastern and Transylvanian Parts of the Country

Abstract

Through the Second Vienna Award, Northern Transylvania and other regions were reunited with the Kingdom of Hungary in 1940. The Hungarian government adopted several decrees in order to extend the scope of Hungarian private law to these regions. Serious discrepancies existed between non-codified Hungarian private law and the Austrian Civil Code (entered into force in 1853) in relation to the rules of matrimonial property law and the law of succession. Despite initial fears, legal professionals could confidently apply Hungarian legal sources (mostly judicial practice). In this study, I attempt to outline the enforcement of written customary law, which was reflected by several judgments. In autumn 1944, the Romanian and Soviet armies occupied the above-mentioned regions, and the scope of Romanian Civil Code was extended to them in 1945.