"When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be."
Lord Kelvin

THE QUALITY OF HUNGARIAN LEGISTLATION 1990-2012


Laws and legislation fundamentally determine equally the life of a nation’s citizens, profit-oriented companies and civil organizations, so the quality of this process has beyond doubt a great importance. But how can we define and measure the goodness of legislation? Law-making has to fulfill two essential requirements. It has to react to changes, and to follow the social, economic, demographic etc. trends. Apart from all these, legistlation has to provide a predictable, calculable environment for people and companies as well to create a trusting atmosphere where people are ready to make long-term plans and decisions.


During the research project, we examine the quality of laws adopted by the Hungarian Parliament between 1990-2012. We would like to analyze the adoption of the laws and their professional background, and the frequency of law changes based on annual data. The stability of the adopted laws and the professional background are important features in a state of legal certainty. The more stable the legal system is, the more legal certainty prevails. Legal certainty is the central requirement for the rule of law. The more legal certainty there is, the easier it is for the government  to create the conditions for economic growth.

PDF (Preliminary Results in Hungarian with English Summary)