Acta juris Hungarici, 1932 (1. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)

1932 / 3-4. szám - Autonomous municipal administration in Hungary. (A magyar önkormányzati közigazgatás.)

AUTONOMOUS MUN1C1PAL ADMINISTRATION IN HUNGARY. BY BÁRON JÚLIUS DE WLASSICS, President of the Court of Administirative Justice, President of the Upper House of the Hungárián Parliament. The County system founded by King Stephen (1000 —1038) is the corner stone of Hungary's historical constitution and her most precious inheritance. The Hungárián Counties have for many generations fulfilled the funetions of local Civil Service and have been the principal defenders of the Constitutional rights of the Hungárián people. For a thousand years of the nation's life, Hungárián territory has been repeatedly occupied by enemies and during the periods of such adverse fortune, the Counties always maintained their jurisdiction and so upheld the public spirit of the people. Not only during periods of enemy incursions into the country was the work of the Local Authorities carried on, but during many centuries they protected the constitutional rights of the people against the attempts of Viennese absolutism to crush the spirit of independence of the Hungárián people. The public of Hungary have throughout the ages looked with jealous eyes at any attempt made by the Governemnt to altér the organisation of Local Civil Service, and, indeed, when a Parliamentary system was introduced in the middle of the last century whereby Ministerial responsability to Parliament was established as a principle, the legislature endeavoured to harmonise its new powers with the preservation of the powers of the Counties. 1 !