Questions concerning the civil liability and responsibility of churches and religious communities

Abstract

The presented legal cases show that Hungarian civil courts, keeping in mind the commercial traffic security and the protection of creditors, as well as the protection of the personal rights of private individuals, often judge the legal relations of church legal entities in the same way as those of other legal entities. They draw a relatively narrow scope for the applicability of internal rules. However, the specific autonomy of churches and religious communities and the principles of commercial traffic security and protection of creditors may come into conflict. Many of the resulting theoretical issues have not yet been weighed by the courts in practice. With the increasing presence of churches and church legal entities as owners, maintainers and employers in Hungary, it is expected that more and more such theoretical problems will arise in the legal praxis.