The Importance of Individual Self-Governance in Labour Law

Abstract

According to László Kelemen, a contract is a lex contractus, a real source of law, when material right enables human self-determination to create law. In the field of civil law, this individual self-governance indeed widely prevails, whereby legal entities themselves shape the law to legally unregulated relations of life and to some parts of them which are not arranged. In labour law, the legislative power of individuals must be re-discovered in employment contracts, to which it is essential to enforce the principle of partnership.

Section 13 of the Labour Code also establishes a hierarchy of the rules on employment, and the said hierarchy is broken by the principle of more favourable treatment for the employee, which means relatively cogent and relatively dispositive rules in civil law. At the same time, the regulatory technique of the Labour Code clearly demonstrates a respect for the principle of freedom of contract and the promotion of self-governance.

The essay presents the thinking of Hungarian Labour Lawyers including the author on the nature of Labour Law. The author draws the attention to the principle of partner relationship within the Hungarian Labour Code, showing the opportunities in the Hungarian Labour Law regulation for flexibility.