Az Erdélyi Fejedelemség törvénykezése
The laws of the Principality of Transylvania

Summary/Abstract: The jurisdiction of the Principality of Transylvania evolved as a result of a process which lasted many decades, side by side with the state, uniting the characteristics of the pre-Mohács Hungarian Kingdom and the novel characteristics of the new state. The year 1619 could be regarded as the end date of this process. The jurisdiction of the Principality is characterized by unity as well as diversity with regard to the basic statute and the procedures. The unity is due to the fact that, with the exception of the saxon natio, all others, the nobility of Transylvania and the Partium, as well as the judicial praxis of the Szeklers, relied in varying degrees upon the dispositions of the Decretum Tripartitum, composed by Werbőczy, and thereafter, upon the parliamentary articles from 1619, composed as a result of the harmonization process initiated by Gábor Bethlen. A more pronounced tendency towards unification, manifested by the princes, can be observed in the 16th and the 17th century. The diversity is due to the various systems of common law of the different natios, which had to be accepted for the sake of the state’s stability.

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