Merkulova T.A. Commercial Organizations in the Civil Code of Hungary

Abstract: The article describes the forms of cooperative commercial activities, which are regulated by the new Civil Code of Hungary.The author used the information on the history of legal regulation of the legal persons in Hungarian Law, as well as several scientific works on this topic. Attention is drawn to analyzing the provisions of the 3-rd Book of the Civil Code of Hungary, called «Legal Entities».  Based on the research conducted, the author concludes that the Hungarian Civil Code does not divide legal entities into profit and non-profit organizations. In the list of the legal forms given in the Civil Code, there are legal entities which are designed for making profit. They include business associations, cooperative societies, associations and groups of enterprises. This article lays out the general provisions that regulate all of the legal forms of profit-making, as well as the rules which apply to specific forms and types of profit organizations. Significant attention is given to business associations and their subtypes - simple partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships and joint-stock companies. The analysis of the legal status of business associations in the new Civil Code precedes the information on the history of legal regulation of such legal entities, supported by citations of Hungarian legists. This article analyzes the provisions contained in the Civil Code that establish the forms of cooperation of enterprises - associations and groups of enterprises, in particular. The author offers the data on such cooperative forms as early as 1960s, and analyzes their status and place in the existing civil economic circulation.Aside the general scientific methods (such as analysis and synthesis), the author also employed specific methods of research,including formal and logical, theoretic, legal-systemic, historical and comparative Law. Based on the new Civil Code of Hungary, the Author analyzed the changes which occurred in the legal regulation of the legal status of profit-oriented legal entities - business associations, in particular (including simple, limited, limited liability and joint-stock), cooperations, associations and groups of enterprises. Hungary's new Civil legislation establishes two new, previously unregulated legal forms of legal entities - associations and groups of enterprises.

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