About the Court of Honour

Abstract

The authors, as practising law enforcement experts, examine the historical antecedents of the current system of Courts of Honour in Hungary, which are not bound by previous legislation and norms. They look into the past and present of the commissions, which were not composed of professional judges in the past, but which are still deciding on the service relationships of professional members of law enforcement bodies, which were once established to investigate cases concerning the honour of a body or community with the aim of protecting the honour and reputation of the body. Travelling through time, from the 13th century penitential regulation of the Order of St John through the Visegrád curia militaris of Charles I, established for the internal investigation of knightly affairs and dissensions, to the “officer’s honour” of the military bodies of the Kingdom of Hungary, and then analysing the functioning of the socialist courts of honour after the Second World War, the article arrives at the legal institution of the courts of honour of today, regulated by the law of the service. In the words of Gusztáv Fabinyi, we point out that, although its institutions have changed from era to era, its purpose has always remained the same: to serve material justice in the truest sense of the word, to cultivate, strengthen, and establish the military spirit, chivalry, and nobility of thought in the officer corps – to reprimand in minor cases and to remove permanently from the corps in more serious cases those individuals whose conduct is contrary to the feelings of the educated and noble-minded individual.

Keywords

• court of honour
• history
• disciplinary punishment
• indignity
• health damage