Hungary - Attachment of Assets
Andrea Vincze is Adjunct Professor of Law and Fellow of the Institute of International Commercial Law at Pace Law School (White Plains, USA). She is admitted to practice in New York. She has been teaching and researching the UN Convention of International Sale of Goods (CISG), international commercial arbitration, investment arbitration, ADR, ODR, global consumer law and European Union law in Hungary and in the USA. She has published numerous articles on international arbitration topics and the CISG. Ms. Vincze is a member of the Online Dispute Resolution Committee of the Consumer Sales Initiative "ConsumerShield" and Vice-President of a consumer protection organization in Hungary. Previously she was an assistant professor of law at the University of Miskolc (Hungary) and coached students for the Willem C. Vis International Arbitration Moot. She received her juris doctor degree at the University of Miskolc (Hungary), her LL.M. in Comparative Legal Studies at Pace Law School (USA), and is writing her Ph.D. on ICSID arbitration at the University of Miskolc.
Originally from Attachment of Assets
In Hungary, the attachment of assets is governed by Act No. 53 of 1994 on Judicial Enforcement (1994. évi LIII. törvény a bírósági végrehajtásról, abbreviated in Hungarian and hereinafter referred to as “Vht.”), in conjunction with the Hungarian Code of Civil Procedure (Act No. 3 of 1952, hereinafter: HCCP). This chapter will focus on temporary injunctions (that may be ordered under the HCCP for attachment of assets prior to termination of the lawsuit1) and security injunctions (that may be ordered under the Vht. to secure an asset after a judgment is made, as part of the execution of a judgment2), in comparison with the general procedure of execution of judgments under Part II Vht. The general provisions on execution of judgments under Part II Vht. govern certain aspects of security injunctions.
Before going into the details, a brief description of the regulatory background is necessary. While the Vht. is the law directly governing the attachment of assets, the HCCP provides for the general rules of civil procedure and it is applicable as background law in matters not governed by the Vht. or other specific laws.
The Vht. governs the enforcement of court decisions and the decisions of other authorities resolving disputes, as well as the enforcement of claims based on certain documents. The Vht. generally does not govern the enforcement of obligations established by administrative authorities or agreed upon in settlements during the course of administrative proceedings.3