The school of liberal legal philosophy has existed in Hungary since the end of the 19th century. It comprised the following thinkers, who had formed teacher-disciple relationship:
Pulszky, TAmiogost (1846-1901, The Theory of Law and Civil Society, London, 1888.)
Pikler, Gyula (1864-1937, The Psychology of the Belief in Objective Existence, London, 1890.) Somló, Bódog (1873-1920, Juristische Grundlehre, Leipzig, 1917) Moór, Gyula (1888-1950, Macht, Recht, Moral, Szeged, 1922.)
Horvath, Barna (1896-1973, Rechtssoziologie, Berlin-Grunewald, 1934.)
Bibó, István (1911-1979, Democracy, Revolution, Self-Determination, New York, 1991.)
All these thinkers were considered to be excellent scholars not only in Hungary but across the whole world. Moreover, each of them had published some books in other countries. Without exaggeration, they can be described as legal philosophers who gained worldwide recognition dvring their lifetime.
However, during the Cold War, especially from 1956 to 1989 in Hungary, the scholars had been officially disregarded because of their non-Marxist thought.
After the Cold War, they were allowed to study freely and some of their works had begun to be published in Hungary. We have gradually been able to obtain a perspective of their lives. In this paper, I would like to describe some characteristics of their thought, with reference to the Hungarian historical and scientific conditions in that period.
