Dr. Peter Hack

One of the perks of the JSBP program is that I’m required to write a blog post every week about the Wednesday lectures that we get to attend together as a group. There’s nothing I enjoy more than getting to sit down for a couple of hours and listen to an esteemed figure talk about the Hungarian legal system.

I’m just kidding around of course! I truly am lucky to be exposed to another country and some of its most prominent political leaders. Last Wednesday JSBP went to Corvinus and were fortunate enough to hear Dr. Peter Hack speak. Hack was on the Hungarian Parliament for more than a decade, and is an extremely accomplished law professor. He was a truly and entertaining and interesting speaker who managed to transfer quite a bit of information into my tiny brain during his quick lecture.

The Hungarian legal system is much different from our own. Hack was very honest about the European model of law, and made some succinct points about its advantages and disadvantages. Our own legal system is very much dependent on the events that take place while court is in session. Lawyers argue with one another in an attempt to win over the favorable opinions of a fully layperson jury. The Judge often acts as a mediator and master or courtly affairs. In the European (and specifically Hungarian) system, Judges, along with lawyers and police officers, rely mostly upon the pretrial investigation to determine whether a suspect is innocent or guilty. There very often are no laypeople involved in the process in any way shape or form.

The positives to eliminating the layperson jury from the trial process and having much of the decision-making power within the confines of the Judge’s mind are numerous. Oftentimes trials go by faster and more efficiently. Lawyers are likely to be more interested in finding the objective truth of the case, rather than simply being inclined towards winning for their client. The factor of jury bias is also eliminated from the process (e.g. the OJ trial- even though lets be honest, how many white men have been let off for murder in America’s history?)

The danger to the European system, in which Judges get to make the verdicts rather than juries, are that so called “objective” judges have the potential to be too powerful and jaded. Hack stated that he had a problem with the fact that young lawyers in Hungary never have to work outside of the court system before they become judges. A limited view of everyday people and a narrow perspective into the big picture of society outside of the legal system can lead to extremely cynical decision makers.

My takeaway- Don’t get arrested in Hungary fools.

Love,

Mama’s Boy