The Hungarian Law Book Fair, based on the French model, can contribute to the increase of our common knowledge and to raising the level of public discussion culture - said the head of state in his welcome speech at the first such event, which was organized with the intention of creating a tradition, presenting legal books.
The celebration of legal books, organized with the cooperation of the Hungarian Lawyers' Association and the Constitutional Court, was held in the Károlyi-Csekonics Palace in Budapest on Saturday.
In his speech, János Áder quoted Ferenc Deák's letter to Baron Zsigmond Kemény, in which he stated: every minute we spend on learning, every penny we spend on supporting science and its publications, is also a sacrifice on the altar of the homeland.
Tamás Sulyok, the president of the Constitutional Court, emphasized in his greeting that the publication of a book is always a celebration, and then he reminded us that there were political regimes that saw books as enemies, burned them, crushed them, and banned them. He added: the best of legal book creation is celebrated at the event, which fills a real gap : the concentrated attention of the legal public to book novelties.
He reminded me that it was not so long ago when the intellectual image of Europe was represented by two books, the Bible and the work Corpus iuris civilis of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, the first codified collection of Roman law.
He raised the question of what kind of works can have such a global influence in today's world, and whether the book itself, as a material phenomenon, can still have such an influence. He added: there is no exact answer to this, but the book defines our past, our present, and our future.
László Trócsányi, the president of the Magyar Jogász Egylet, recalled in his greeting: there is a tradition of publishing legal books in Hungary since the reform era, before the Second World War there were several publishing houses that were nationalized in the 1950s, and "a dark period came" when "the lawyer was an enemy", and thus the legal culture could not develop either.
He recalled: only three faculties of law were in operation, because in the eyes of the authorities, there was no need for truth-seeking, committed lawyers. It was a difficult time, legal book publishing was under the control of censors. He added: after the system change, there are now 18 law book publishers and 8 law faculties, which proves that the democratic system needs law and lawyers.
At the ceremony, the organizers awarded the President of the Republic János Áder with a commemorative medal, as well as Constitutional Judge Ágnes Czine, the vice-rector entrusted with the rector's duties of the Károli Gáspár Reformatory University.
At the first Hungarian Law Book Fair, the joint recognitions of the Hungarian Lawyers' Association and the Constitutional Court were also presented.
Source: MTI
