A Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár évkönyve 25. 1998 (Debrecen, 1998)
Tanulmányok - M. Antalóczy Ildikó: A debreceni városi bíróság szervezete és működési rendje a XVIII. században
22 magistrate, has found that the Senate, consisting of elderly citizens, stood out from the community of Debrecen not only through their legal status, their leading role in the town’s community, not only through the fact that the majority came from the ranks of the lesser nobility and were true representatives of the local citizenship, not only because they consistently displayed Christian attitudes and, civic moral qualities, but also with their humanistic education, well informedness based on experience, wellversedness in legal matters. Some of the members even had fairly deep education in jurisprudence. The author also describes the activity of other judiciary personnel: educated members of the lower classes with legal education (notaries, attorneys), she deals separately with the lawyers, experts (physicians, surgeons, midwives), with their salaries and fees, as well as the lower-ranking officials of jurisdiction and law enforcement, from haiduk soldiers, to the hangmen. When studying the working order of the Debrecen judiciary bodies, the author selects two years of the 18th century, in which important reforms were made. In 1717 three judiciary posts, working in weekly turns, were organised and filled in from the members of the Senate. Under the 1771 edict of the Governor General’s Council two “classes” (boards) were established to do judgement in civil affairs, while the criminal affairs were tried on Saturdays “in pleno Magistratu” (before the full Senate), following, in part, the already well established practice. (The figures characteristic of the local jurisdiction of those times were calculated by the author through the statistical processing of data from the proceedings of the municipal courts.) The royal control of the municipal courts took place through the Governor General’s Council. Control began in 1726 under a decree by Charles III, and it was tightened during the reign of Marie Theresa - as a sign of the unifying policy of enlightened absolutism, taking under control more and more aspects of the previously fairly autonomous municipal jurisdiction. M. Antalóczy Ildikó: A debreceni városi bíróság...
