Zoltán Megyeri-Pálffi (Debrecen/Bonn): Gyula Wágner’s Architecture as an Element of Hungarian Legal Culture

Abstract

The relationship between law and architecture is an interesting segment of legal culture. Research on such a large topic reveals many important elements which colour the picture of a legal culture. The judicial architecture belongs to this picture. I investigate the period of Hungarian legal history in which the modern court system was built out. This process links to the Hungarian codification, in which foreign models played a determinant role. In light of Hungary’s geopolitical location and history, using a model was always important. This phenomenon is reflected not only in Hungarian legal life, but also in architecture.

The establishment of the modern court system has involved not only the codification of procedural law, but also the construction of the modern courthouses. Planning a court is always a special architectural task which requires special knowledge from architects. One of these architects was Gyula Wágner, who planned more than a dozen judicial buildings. Based on this quantity we can see Wágner’s houses as typical Hungarian court buildings. By focussing on these constructions, I will demonstrate the process of following a model in the sense of codification and also architecture.

Dr. Zoltán Megyeri-Pálffi

Curriculum vitae

Zoltán Megyeri-Pálffi studied law and political science at the Faculty of Law of the University of Debrecen, where he received his doctorate degree in 2012. Since 2008, he has been working at the chair for legal history there. Since 2013, he has held the post of assistant professor and teaches Hungarian administrative and constitutional law history as well as general legal history. Further, he has been studying architecture since 2011 at the technical faculty of the University of Debrecen. Dr. Megyeri-Pálffi was guest researcher at the faculty of law of the University of Vienna and most recently at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt. Since August 2015, he is Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Law as Culture”.