14th General Meeting of the National Chamber of the Judicial Officers of Hungary

An Exceptional Adaptation to New Technologies

The meeting opened in the presence of Dezso Avareszi, State Secretary for justice and Jacques Isnard, president of the UIHJ.
In his short speech, the president of the UIHJ presented a brief panorama of the Legal Community topicality. He extended on the consequences from the judgment of the European Court of Human rights which recognized the action of judicial officer considered as an essential element of the Rule of law while underlining how much it was important for the State to take care to give to the judicial officers the suitable means to carry out an effective enforcement.
Training was also put forward with the pressing need for including in our statutes the requirement for all new judicial officers to be titular of a law degree.
Jacques Isnard, who was present here 14 years ago, at the time of the first general meeting, said how impressed he was by the progress of the profession in Hungary and by the remarkable action taken by President Krejniker and his board: they knew to hoist the Hungarian judicial officers in the very first plan in Europe in particular with an exceptional adaptation to new technologies.
Lastly, president Isnard highly congratulated the Hungarian fellow-members for their massive participation to the activities of the UIHJ, specifying that the delegation of this country was the most numerous at the day of studies in Brussels in February 2008.
The State Secretary for justice, Mr. Avarkeszi, commented on the measurements taken by the Hungarian State in the legal field in order to reinforce the effectiveness of justice. Among the evoked measurements is the cross-border electronic management which objective is to make it less expensive and more rapid.
In addition, the program of reforms as regards enforcement which must intervene will be inspired by these same criteria, which will facilitate their implementation.
In his short speech, Miklos Krejniker, President of the national Chamber of the judicial officers of Hungary, initially intervened to recall that the profession of enforcement agent was created in Hungary in 1881 and that its evolution requires a permanent vigilance to face the constant challenges. The new law on enforcement does not make an exception to this rule. Moreover the concern of reinforcing the effectiveness of enforcement measures should not prevent from taking care to consolidate the rules of legal security.
The new law tends to extend the privilege of the mortgagee and to privilege the service of legal documents.

A New Form of Public Sale of Immovable Goods

The major innovation relates to the rules of public auctions relating to immovable goods, which will allow, as from 2009, the use of electronic offer, correlatively to the physical bidding. A demonstration of the new system was carried out by Ferenc Csaszti, Vice-President of the Chamber and by Attila Vincze, technician, who described the main features of the program: widening of publicity, anonymity of the bidders, better possibilities for higher bid....
The Hungarian chamber conceived an “one line” system opened to all categories of interested parties, simple visitors, potential bidders, judicial officers, etc
The site of the sales is very attractive since it proposes in addition to the notices of invitations to tender, the sales conditions, pictures of the buildings, the last results of the sales...
Any interested party, identified beforehand for security reason, must initially contact an office of judicial officer. He then receives the indication of a correspondent who will allow him to enter the site, to take note of the sales conditions and to possibly make offers. To preserve anonymity the consultant can constantly change pseudonym.
The judicial officers check the credibility of the interested party and connect themselves through a secured card comprising their digital signature.
The judicial officers direct the sale.
A specific training program was prepared by the chamber to allow a perfect control of the system by the profession when in January 2009 this very new form of public auction sale comes into effect.
The Hungarian chamber which launched out in a development policy of the profession articulated around its adaptation to new technologies has the appearance of a precursor. Its experiment deserves to be followed.
It could inspire other countries and would thus precede the image of what will tomorrow be the great profession of enforcement in Europe.