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MY HUNGARY: IN HONOR OF KÁROLY BÁRD I recall visiting Károly at the Ministry of Justice. Ihere was an elevator that enchanted me. A conveyer belt kept going around, one had to jump on and off at exactly the right time. I understand that, alas, safety considerations have prevailed. Now for some legal issues I encountered while I was living along the Danube. Capitalism may bring some surprises for low-income workers. Ihe problem in Budapest was deregulating the price of gas. As a result, taxi drivers would have to pay more and did not understand that in the end the passengers would pick the additional charges. Ihey went on strike. Ihey started clogging the bridges between Buda and Pest and made even bicycle traffic impossible. I managed to walk over the famous Freedom Bridge to the Gellért Hotel, where I would freguently hang out in the bars and cafes. Strikes were a new phenomenon in Hungary. No one knew how to handle this one. The army and the police both said they would not intervene. There was no National Labour Relations Board, no legislation, no idea what to do. Finally, the political bosses sat down and came up with a compromise on the gas increase. Democratic capitalism got off to a good start. Gas prices are apparently a sensitive issue. As of the end of 2018, a price increase in France generated major protests and is threatened to undermine the Macron coalition. Pocketbook issues are apparently significant, though no one seems to do much comparative thinking about gas prices. For example, prices in Israel are significantly higher than in Europe. This is a consequence both of taxation and simple economics of supply and demand. The second significant legal event of the 1990’s of this time was the trial of Jozsef Végvari, which focused on another problem new to the Hungarian government in the transition to democracy — freedom of speech. Végvari had been a member of the secret service before the transformation. In a burst of enthusiasm for the new regime, he invited a television crew into the secret file chambers of the Hungarian equivalent of the KGB. He was arrested but then in February 1990 the democratic forces won the election. The problem was what to do with him. It would have been natural to regard him as a ‘good guy’ with his heart in the right place but the disciplined prosecutor implicitly applied the German principle of strict prosecution (Legalitatsprinzip), i.e. no discretion in favour of politically favoured perpetrators. This was the rule of law with a vengeance. Vegväri’s trial before a military court was straightforward but the verdict was unusual and yet characteristic of military justice reflective of hierarchical organizations. They sentenced him to an ‘official censure.’ This might have affected his reputation within the military but would not likely an impact in larger civil society. The closest thing I have witnessed to this is verdicts by student judiciary boards. The Men’s Judiciary Board at Cornell could issue official and unofficial censures, the former going on the student’s transcript. The case that came before + 141 +
