In Hungary, there is no comprehensive law on culture or art. Act CXL/1997 is often referred to as the Law on Culture, but in fact it regulates three sub-sectors only: libraries, museums and local socio-cultural activities. The other fundamental piece of cultural legislation is Act LXIV/2001 on the Protection of Cultural Heritage. After 2010, when Fidesz, the governing party gained constitutional power, the only constituting cultural policy Act of the NER was the Act on the Hungarian Arts Academy – MMA. Otherwise, a series of parliamentary acts kept modifying the earlier basic cultural laws, including ones on the archives and films. Between 2010 and 2019, no fewer than eight acts made wide ranging changes to the Cultural Heritage Act of 2001, in connection with the several stages of the fundamental overhaul of this sector.
A new era began in 2019, when the Prime Minister announced a focus on the cultural transformation of the country, in the ideological and political sense of the term. The Acts on the National Council for Culture and the Institutions of Cultural Strategy, as well as on the Foundation for Hungarian Culture, brought about a totally new hierarchy of decision-making and of institutions. The accelerated reorganisation of the cultural arena went hand in hand with that of the institutional structures of higher education, research, and media. A large number of government decrees accompanied and specified these two parliamantery acts.
List of the existing cultural legislation
| Title of the Act | Year of adoption |
| Act on Archives | LXVI / 1995 |
| Act on Libraries, Museums, Archaeology and Local Culture (“cultural law”) | CXL / 1997 and LXVII / 2017 |
| Act on the Protection of Cultural Heritage | LXIV / 2001 |
| Act on Films | II / 2004 |
| Act on Performing Arts | XCIX / 2008 and XVII / 2020 |
| Act on the Hungarian Academy of Arts | CIX / 2011 |
| Act on Hungarian World Heritage | LXXVII / 2011 |
| Act on the Special Protection of Borrowed Cultural Property | XCV / 2012 |
| Act on the National Council for Culture and the Institutions of Cultural Strategy | CXXIV / 2019 |
| Act on Modifying the Public Employment Status of People in Public Cultural Institutions | XXXII / 2020 |
| Act on the 2023 European Capital of Culture | CIXII / 2020 |
| Act on the Foundation for Hungarian Culture | XVI / 2021 |
List of laws with relevance to culture
| Title of the Act | Year of adoption |
| Acts on Public Finance and Public Servants | XXXIII / 1992 and CXCIX/ 2011 |
| Act on the Use of a Specified Amount of Personal Income Tax in Accordance with the Taxpayers’ Instruction (“1% law”) | CXXVI / 1996 |
| Act on Authors’ Rights | LXXVI / 1999 |
| Act on the Hungarian Language | XCVI / 2001 |
| Act on Volunteering | LXXXVIII / 2005 |
| Act on Simplified Contribution to Public Charges (EKHO) | CXX / 2005 |
| Act on Media Services and Mass Communication | CLXXXV / 2010 |
| Act on Civic Society | CLXXV / 2011 |
| Act on National and Ethnic Minorities | CLXXIX / 2011 |
| Act on Local Governments | CLXXXIX / 2011 |
| Act on Tourism | CLVI / 2016 |
| Acts on Art University Foundations and Transfers of Assets to them | XXXV / 2020 and LXXII / 2020 |
| Act on Public Interest Foundations Performing Public Functions | IX / 2021 |
Hungary has ratified all the relevant international conventions and is party to all treaties, but they have never exerted significant effect on processes inside the country. The monitoring of those conventions, and the ensuing reporting activities are in most case formal and superficial, which was also the case regarding the obligations of the country within the Soviet Bloc.
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