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VIKTOR ZOLTÁN KAZAI discussion at the Institute of Social Sciences we were guests at Zsöfia Mihancsik’s late night radio show. At the time the show aired, I was in Finland. I remember telling a Finnish friend of mine while listening to Radio Kossuth that perhaps I should not return to Hungary. But in the end, nothing came out of it. V. Z. K.: In your dissertation you formulate your credo as follows: “In my work I try to stick with what a scholar is intended to do, and I am careful not to step into the shoes of the politician. This is why I also refrained from the otherwise typical trait of legal scholarship, namely to self-confidently formulate categorical, authoritative proposals to amend the law. Instead, I outlined available solutions and sought to explore their preconditions and possible outcomes.” To me this seems to say that at the time, you refrained from assuming a political role. In 1989 however, you broke off your research at the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg to take on the role of deputy minister at the Ministry of Justice. What made you change your mind? Or is there no contradiction here? K. B.: I think we all carry this dichotomy within us. It’s really great when we can put our ideas into practice. Long before I was called to the ministry, I thought it would be worthwhile to explore the Strasbourg case-law, an area nobody dealt with in Hungary at the time. When I was offered this position, I started out with the ambition to prepare Hungary for joining the European Convention on Human Rights. In Freiburg, I was contemplating getting a job at a Western university. Quite honestly, I felt that Hungarian academia was much too confined. Yet I was perhaps the first teacher at the university to be called to such a high position. At the time, the position of deputy minister carried great prestige. Meanwhile, as a scholar, I have always kept to the Weberian approach that it is not my job to tell others what to do, but to outline the various opportunities that are available, including the factors necessary for their realization. GOVERNMENTAL WORK BETWEEN 1989 AND 1997 Role change: from researcher to politician V. Z. K.: You served as Deputy Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice under the Antall, Boros, and Horn governments. Your job description was of considerable breadth: including the development of criminal law legislation, clemency cases, the preparation and implementation of international treaties, the representation of Hungary in human rights complaints against the state, and for a short period even the harmonization of EU law, etc. Let us begin perhaps with the criminal law legislation tasks that covered both substantive, procedural, and penitentiary law. I + 28 +
