It is with great pleasure that I hand over to the Dear Reader the special issue of Fontes Iuris issued on the occasion of the next congress of FIDE, to be held in Budapest on 18-21 May upon the invitation of Pázmány Péter Catholic University, the professional host of the event. FIDE is a French abbreviation: Fédération Internationale pour le Droit Européen that is International Federation for European Law. The abbreviation covers a not-for-profit organisation founded in Belgium long ago, in 1961, at a time when French had priority over all other languages in the conference halls and corridors of European institutions. An old-school, Francophile lawyer like me, who has always been interested in international perspectives, feels somewhat nostalgic about that age. That period was not only the heyday of the hegemony of French language but perhaps, along with it, also of the common European development of law, of the formation of the law of the European integration, the acquis communautaire. Pour, that is for something: the relationship of the organisation to European law is not neutral. The objective of its members is not only the research of this law, but, in the end, the improvement of European legislation, the promotion of harmony between the law of the Union and those of the member states. The hallmark of the Hungarian member organisation of FIDE, registered in 2004, is a number of extraordinary personalities of the Hungarian legal community. Related to its foundation, one must highlight Jenő Czuczai, visiting professor of the Collège d'Europe in Bruges, currently a legal adviser to the Legal Service of the Council of the EU, who is, as a founder, a permanent member of the governing council of FIDE; László Kecskés, the Jean Monnet professor of European Law; professor János Martonyi, Head of Department, former Foreign Minister; whereas professors Ernő Várnai and Miklós Király were presidents of the Hungarian association in the last years. The current President of the Hungarian association, Péter Darák, is the President of the Curia; its Vice President is András Varga Zs., a Constitutional Court Justice, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of Pázmány Péter Catholic University.
The development of European Union law is not simply the ever-growing corpus of the acquis communautaire. The point is not that European Union law must extend its force to ever larger areas of more and more branches of law. It is an important question, with regard to European Union law and, in general, the development and the future of European legal systems, how the legal systems of the member states, the law of the Union and international law harmonize. The papers appearing in this special issue search for an answer, in different special areas of the law, to the question of what perspectives and limits constitutional law, the law of contracts (civil law), criminal law, the law of criminal procedure and the acquis have on sustainable development. The article by András Varga Zs. entitled Final Conferral of Sovereigntyor Limited Power-Transfer?, and that by Tamás Sulyok, 'Erga omnes Effect of Member States' Constitutions and Composite Constitutionality, are looking for an answer to the ultimate question, the issue of sovereignty. Tamás Sulyok recognises the supremacy of Union law to those of the member states but offers, in lieu of an absolute interpretation thereof, a relative interpretation of the thesis: in case of a collision of the constitution of a member state with the law of the European Union, the constitutional courts of member states and the Court of Justice of the European Union should clarify, in a dialogue on the merits of the issue, which law and which judicial forum has the last say in any given case. The conclusions of András Varga Zs. are in harmony with this. The member states do not transfer their sovereignty to the European Union, but only certain scopes of competence, and that transfer is neither unconditional, nor final. Although the Union law has primacy, this principle is limited by those laws of the member states which form the core of constitutional identity, as clarified in the judgements of the Constitutional Court of Germany. According to the author, this limitation should also be carried out in the near future by the Constitutional Court of Hungary.
In her article, Division of Competences between Member States and the European Union in Criminal Procedural Law, Krisztina Karsai analyses the system of Union law authorisations in the areas of the law of criminal procedure, criminal law enforcement and, partly, substantive criminal law. She states that thematic authorisations are broad, which generally allows the conclusion that the EU policies of an area based on freedom, security and justice have gained considerable ground in the past twenty years.
The article Miklós Király contributed to this issue bears the humble title Some Remarks on the Limits of Harmonisation of Contract Law in the European Union. In reality, the author, himself a former president of the Hungarian Association for European Law, offers the Reader a deep and thorough assessment of the plans the European Union has worked out for the harmonisation of private law, and, in particular, contract law. In ultimate analysis, he seeks answers to the question of how to create a sui generis European legal regime in certain fields parallel to national laws, and how this could pave the way towards the adoption of a future Common European Sales Law.
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Whereas in issues that touch the core of the constitutional identity of the member states, further integration attempts or an affirmative and expansive attitude on the part of the Court of Justice of the European Union are likely to provoke controversy nowadays, there are fields where the value added by further integration is universally recognized. A case in point is environmental protection and sustainable development. In his study, From Sustainability to Circular Economy -Development of EU Strategies and Its Legal Consequences Gyula Bándi develops his argument departing from a brief reflection on some of the thoughts included in the Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis Laudato si', On Care for our Common Home. The result is a fascinating intellectual exercise in translating the pope's vision into the technical language of legal instruments and other measures the EU can dispose of.
Finally, let me call the attention of the Reader to a few thoughts of Péter Darák, President of the Curia, shared with the professional audience in an interview prepared with him. He said: "When European lawyers discuss current problems of European law, they actually participate in an intellectual dialogue of member states." I am convinced that the future of
European integration depends, to a large extent, on the quality of the dialogue at different levels among all the participants. In this, however, lawyers, and among them, judges, have a special position: we are commencing to rediscover this aspect nowadays. The European Union was born as a community of markets, but from the beginning this community had law as its language, just like mathematics is a language usable for describing physical reality. Péter Darák further added: "I could not be an administrative court judge in any other country because, in my opinion, only those can be good judges, [...] who know what the people are like in a given country, and this presupposes a deep understanding." These words express well that law cannot ultimately be interpreted as an abstract idea or a collection of rules. His ideas, on the other hand, make me reflect on the natural limits of European integration and legal harmonisation: law really exists within a given national and historical framework. It is, however, also true that in our age we must strive with all our powers for the harmony and balance between the global and the local. ■
Visszaugrás
