Ernő Tárkány Szücs's Legal Ethnographic Research and International Ethnography (1967–1994)

Abstract

In 1967, Ernő Tárkány Szücs published his article summarizing the results and tasks of European legal ethnography in the columns of Ethnologica Europeana in Paris (under the title Results and Task of Legal Ethnology in Europe). With this, he revived an important tradition of Hungarian legal ethnography: Károly Tagányi published his summary of international research history in German in 1922 (Lebende Rechtsgewohnheiten und ihre Sammlung in Ungarn. Ungarische Bibliothek. Für das Ungarische Institut an der Universität Berlin. Erste Reihe. Vereinigung wissenschaftlicher Verleger. Berlin und Leipzig). At the time of the publication of Ernő Tárkány Szücs's article, he was working as a ministerial official, but in Hungarian academic life he took a backseat. At the same time, however, he was in constant contact with several European representatives of legal folklore. As soon as he had the opportunity, Tárkány Szücs opened up to international scholarship, and became not only an active participant but also a prime mover of the international discourse on legal folk custom research. His recognition was indicated by the fact that throughout Europe, not only his studies published in various world languages but also his papers exclusively in Hungarian were often cited. Although the science policy in his country was not able to integrate the specifically interdisciplinary scientific research of Ernő Tárkány Szücs, or only haltingly, his international recognition was unquestionable all along.