Summary

Relative legal notions are notions which exist in parallel in different branches of law (also the term “cross-usage of notions is used); however, despite their complete or partial grammatical identity, they may be defined differently in various branches of law. This is nothing extraordinary in itself, since using relative legal notions in law is natural and probably also necessary.

As an important basis, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court has underlined that, considering the principle of the integrity of the legal system, civil law notions should be defined in penal law similarly to civil law. In case law, deviations from the above general principle have been justified with systematic-teleological (the Criminal Chamber has used the expression ‘various tasks of branches of law’, yet, the tasks of civil law and penal law as well as their difference have not been specified) or criminal-political considerations. This kind of a statement, or rather the courage of the Supreme Court to give such clear guidance in what is essentially a dogmatic issue, is significant and worth highlighting. An attempt is made in the article to define this statement of the Supreme Court.