The joint academic event hosted by the Department of Philosophy and Sociology of Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Debrecen and the Subcommittee on Legal Theory and Sociology of Law of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences featured contributions from participants including Krisztina Ficsor (Assistant Professor, Department of Legal Philosophy and Sociology of Law, University of Debrecen), Attila Badó and Mátyás Bencze (Professors at the Faculty of Law, University of Szeged), Balázs Fekete (Professor at the Faculty of Law, Eötvös Loránd University), Péter Takács (Professor at the Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law, Széchenyi István University in Győr) and Mátyás Bódig (Professor of the School of Law at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland), the latter of whom joined the discussion online.
The first issue addressed in the discussion of the experts in legal theory and the philosophy of law was how legal education could bring to the fore an approach that considers legal knowledge as not merely a matter of technical or dogmatic expertise but one that also involves the resolution of moral problems. According to chairperson Krisztina Ficsor, the program in Debrecen focuses on enabling students to acquire and develop critical thinking skills.
- There are cases in legal practice that can only be resolved correctly if the legal practitioner also carries out a substantive analysis of the moral principles behind the legal source to be applied. One of the key tasks of putting legal theory into practice is to uncover the justifying principles upon which the law is founded. Therefore, it inevitably follows that legal theory cannot be pursued without commitment to specific values- said Assistant Professor Krisztina Ficsor, representing the Faculty of Law of the University of Debrecen.
On the basis of a number of other considerations, the participants in the discussion agreed and reached the same conclusion.
It was also pointed out that there are values like, for example, the principle of the rule of law, the rejection of which itself calls into question one’s professional identity as a legal practitioner.
Eventually, by reflecting on the imminent process of drafting a new constitution, the participants in the discussion explored the role of legal professionals in establishing or reshaping the rule of law, as well as if they might play a part in the shaping of autocratic systems.
To conclude the event, Head of the Department of Legal Philosophy and Sociology at the Faculty of Law of the University of Debrecen and former Dean of the Faculty József Szabadfalvi was honoured on the occasion of his 65th birthday with a Festschrift prepared specifically for this event by his colleagues and representatives of other faculties of law across Hungary.
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