On May 8, at the Pázmány Day, the Senate of Eötvös Loránd University will award Dalibor Čepulo, professor emeritus of the University of Zagreb, with the title of doctor et professor honoris causa. On this occasion, he will give a lecture in English at the ELTE Faculty of Law titled "The Croatian-Hungarian Settlement of 1868: A Hybrid Framework and Modern Governance".

The lecture focuses on the Croatian–Hungarian Settlement of 1868, which established the legal framework demarcating Croatian autonomy from joint affairs under central government control. This lecture offers a critical re-evaluation of the Settlement, arguing that its inherent hybridity—a synthesis of pre-modern constitutionalism and modern governance—created a doctrinal impasse that positivistic scholarship has failed to resolve. The analysis explores how this 19th-century interpretative paradigm persists through the unresolved debate over whether Croatia-Slavonia was a ‘state’ or a ‘province’. Such an academic status quo suggests that a shift toward a broader doctrinal perspective is essential for a comprehensive analysis of the era’s institutions. Consequently, the lecture argues that Croatian autonomy should be interpreted as a ‘hybrid zone’ rather than through a strictly positivistic lens. It further demonstrates how the Settlement, despite its constraints, provided the formal institutional space necessary for the formation of modern Croatian institutions. By placing Croatia in a comparative context with autonomous Finland and Iceland, this lecture elaborates a distinct ‘autonomous path’ of state-building within the broader European experience. Ultimately, this critical case study helps to understand similar processes shaping governance and sovereignty in a contemporary context.