A historical outline of court organization in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County

Abstract

Following the Second World War, the gradually consolidating party‑state dictatorship dismantled the Hungarian system of justice that had developed organically and was rooted in the traditions of the Dualist era, and subsequently established a Soviet‑style model whose basic structural features were later inherited by the Third Hungarian Republic. The present study outlines the organizational history of today’s Miskolc Regional Court and the district courts within its jurisdiction. The central question of the research is how, in Borsod‑Abaúj‑Zemplén County, the legislator of each period ensured the institutional framework for first‑ and second‑instance judicial services available to citizens. The study also examines how, amid the political and administrative transformations of the period under review, the continuity of judicial operations could be maintained – an interval defined by the changing official designation of the administrative unit.