MONROE - Property laws in the United States are different than those in Hungary, which is why Nancy Baker, a Monroe lawyer and educator, was called to Budapest for two weeks this spring to teach international law students the differences in the countries' legal systems.
As part of its Senior Lawyer Program, the Center for International Legal Studies (CILS), based in Salzburg, Austria, pairs senior lawyers with at least 20 years of experience with law facilities in Eastern Europe and the former republics of the Soviet Union.
Baker, who has practiced law since 1986, applied to the program, partly out of her love to travel.
"I have traveled for years, since I was young. But I wanted to have a focus of travel that was more than tourism, and stay in one place to get a fuller experience," she said.
The American concept of personal property ownership and common law legal system stretched the understanding of some of the students enrolled in Baker's course.
"Capitalism and individualism is one of the points where we in the United States have a different perspective than the people coming out of a socialist background," she said.
The legal system in Hungary remains predominantly the same civil law system set up under socialism, Baker said.
"We have a common law system, developed from England, which develops on a case-by-case basis through the courts," Baker explained. "In civil law, legislation is written out in detail as a code of law. When a case goes to court, it is settled by a judge with a code of law. There's more central control and less interpretation (of the law)."
Baker said Hungarian law students memorize the code, and, as lawyers - most will become judges who work as government employees - will simply refer to the code for a decision on a case.
"They are suspicious of our jury system, believing it is based on emotion rather than reason," Baker said. "To them, the (U.S.) jury system is subjective, and their (Hungarian system) is objective - and the legislature knows better than the people. They are not comfortable with the unpredictability in our system."
In her own search to understand Hungarian law and culture, Baker discovered that Hungary was still trying to operate with the 1949 constitution written under the Soviet Union after World War II. Their constitution guarantees many social benefits, such as healthcare, work and a clean environment. Now the county is experiencing some of the same economic hardships as the rest of the world.
"They are finding it difficult to support all the constitutional rights. And they have elected a fiscally conservative government, which wants to change the constitution to a free-market system," Baker said.
That change has given rise to questions about property laws, particularly, "what the proper role of government is with respect to private property," Baker noted.
"The core of dissension in government is, where is the line drawn, and how are taxes regulated?" she said.
Law practice in the United States is a "very, very local enterprise," said Baker, who moved her practice to Monroe in 1994, but she believes it is "important to find a root into the global community."
She is ready to travel again for the Senior Lawyer Program, but next time, she'd like to try Mongolia.
"Because it's farther away," she said.
As part of its Senior Lawyer Program, the Center for International Legal Studies (CILS), based in Salzburg, Austria, pairs senior lawyers with at least 20 years of experience with law facilities in Eastern Europe and the former republics of the Soviet Union.
Baker, who has practiced law since 1986, applied to the program, partly out of her love to travel.
"I have traveled for years, since I was young. But I wanted to have a focus of travel that was more than tourism, and stay in one place to get a fuller experience," she said.
The American concept of personal property ownership and common law legal system stretched the understanding of some of the students enrolled in Baker's course.
"Capitalism and individualism is one of the points where we in the United States have a different perspective than the people coming out of a socialist background," she said.
The legal system in Hungary remains predominantly the same civil law system set up under socialism, Baker said.
"We have a common law system, developed from England, which develops on a case-by-case basis through the courts," Baker explained. "In civil law, legislation is written out in detail as a code of law. When a case goes to court, it is settled by a judge with a code of law. There's more central control and less interpretation (of the law)."
Baker said Hungarian law students memorize the code, and, as lawyers - most will become judges who work as government employees - will simply refer to the code for a decision on a case.
"They are suspicious of our jury system, believing it is based on emotion rather than reason," Baker said. "To them, the (U.S.) jury system is subjective, and their (Hungarian system) is objective - and the legislature knows better than the people. They are not comfortable with the unpredictability in our system."
In her own search to understand Hungarian law and culture, Baker discovered that Hungary was still trying to operate with the 1949 constitution written under the Soviet Union after World War II. Their constitution guarantees many social benefits, such as healthcare, work and a clean environment. Now the county is experiencing some of the same economic hardships as the rest of the world.
"They are finding it difficult to support all the constitutional rights. And they have elected a fiscally conservative government, which wants to change the constitution to a free-market system," Baker said.
That change has given rise to questions about property laws, particularly, "what the proper role of government is with respect to private property," Baker noted.
"The core of dissension in government is, where is the line drawn, and how are taxes regulated?" she said.
Law practice in the United States is a "very, very local enterprise," said Baker, who moved her practice to Monroe in 1994, but she believes it is "important to find a root into the global community."
She is ready to travel again for the Senior Lawyer Program, but next time, she'd like to try Mongolia.
"Because it's farther away," she said.