The Authority and Liability of the Bankruptcy Trustee Based on the Second Hungarian Bankruptcy Act of 1881

After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, the Hungarian economy developed quickly, and the Hungarian political elite sought ways to help it grow with a new, up-to-date regulation. To that end, the National Assembly adopted a new commercial code in 1875, a new promissory note act in 1876 and a new bankruptcy act in 1881. In this paper, I examine the liability of bankruptcy trustees on the basis of leading cases of the Hungarian Supreme Court whose decisions determined the Hungarian legal practice. It is an interesting part of Act XVII of 1881 because it has a close connection to the general private law. Since bankruptcy trustees were responsible for determining the amount of bankruptcy assets, the issue of creditor control of the trustee’s activity was important. In addition, the provision of the Hungarian bankruptcy act concerning the bankruptcy trustee’s liability was the same as the German Bankruptcy Act of 1877, thus creating a good opportunity to compare the German and Hungarian viewpoints in this question.