Technikatörténeti szemle 9. (1977)

A MÉRÉS ÉS A MÉRTÉK AZ EMBERI MŰVELŐDÉSBEN című konferencián Budapesten 1976. április 27–30-án elhangzott előadások I. rész - Debreczeny Á.–Vajda P.: A Bláthy-féle fogyasztásmérő, az áramfogyasztás gyakorlati mérőmódszerei

In an increasing number of countries, the jurisdiction was faced with the question of whether the illegal use of electric current may be qualified as a „theft" (21). It could not be regarded to be an embezzlement either: a preliminnary condition of this crime is also a physical object. The act of fraud could not be stated either because there was no evidence to the effect that the current consumer had the intention (at the time of signing the contract) of consuming more current than he was entitled to do. The legal disputes concerning electricity were being conducted in the plane of generalities, about the definition of the essential features of electricity (22). Essentially, the underlying problem was to what extent could electricity be qualified as an object or thing. The merely scientific disputes and theories could not help to overcome this difficulty. Finally, the German jurisprudence bypassed this question by stating that the relevant paragraph of the law is applicable to electricity as an object. This concept is right because the motions of molecules inside the bodies are generated by human activities with the objective of gaining electric power. Elsewhere the argument was raised that by availing himself, without paying for it, of the electric power generated by the power plants, one will cause a financial loss to the power plant — just like somebody using a work performance illegally and free of charge, thus gaining an illegal financial benefit. (He who travels on a train without buying a ticket utilizes the energy facilities of the railway company in an illegal manner, which is liable for punishment as a fraud.) Even if free utilization of electric power cannot be regarded to be an act of theft, the company providing the electric power is entitled to legal protection against people who utilize electric current in an unauthorized manner. From this aspect, the watt-hour meter performs an important function as the standard measure of the work delivered to the consumer. At the beginning, only legal precedence was available for the formulation of the questions of electric power consumption and current stealing. The first comprehensive coaction of authoritative precedence in the subject ,.electricity law" was published by the German Meili in 1898, providing an ample source for further law-making. In the same year, Reuling elucidated also that the term ,.electric work" is inappropriate, which has to be replaced by that of „electric energy or power". Afterwards, it is not work proper but the product thereof that has to be judged from a legal aspect. The difficulty of the condition is well characterized by the fact that in the German linguistic area alone, over 80 bulky volumes and monographs were published on this subject before the first third of this century. A summary of the subject, which is applicable even today, was made in 1931 by a German jurist, F. List (23). In Hungary, the questions of the utilization and expropriation of electric power were regulated by rules of law at a relatively early date, 1907. (24). Act III/1907 on the development of Hungary's states that „Electric power (energy) that can be utilized for technological purposes, is herewith placed under the same legal protection as the movable properties. Accordingly, an illegal expropriation of the above mentioned powers by any means... is liable to punishment ... in compliance with the regulations of Act V/1878 ... concerning theft."