Prof. Dr. Balázs Gellér, Head of the Department of Criminal Law at our Faculty, was awarded the Eötvös Károly Award by the Budapest Bar Association on 10 April 2026 which was presented to him by Dr. Gábor M. Tóth, President of the Budapest Bar Association.
The Eötvös Károly Award, established in 1990 by the Presidency of the Budapest Bar Association, is named in honour of Károly Eötvös, a lawyer, politician, Member of Parliament, writer and publicist. The award constitutes the highest professional distinction within the Budapest Bar Association. It is conferred by those members of the Presidency who are themselves recipients of the Eötvös Károly Award.
Recipients are selected from among those who, by enhancing the reputation of the legal profession, practise law in an exemplary manner and at an outstanding professional level, with due respect for the interests of their clients and the rule of law, and who have demonstrated their commitment to public life through concrete actions.
Prof. Dr. Balázs Gellér
Prof. Dr. Balázs József Gellér is the managing partner of Gellér Law Firm and Head of the Department of Criminal Law at the Faculty of Law of Eötvös Loránd University.
As an attorney, he acts exclusively in criminal matters, primarily as defence counsel. In recent years, his practice has focused on international criminal cooperation, European Union criminal law, and so-called “white-collar crime” cases (e.g. budgetary fraud).
He graduated summa cum laude from the Faculty of Law of Eötvös Loránd University in 1992. Thereafter, he worked as a trainee lawyer in Germany at Münchheimer und Partner Anwaltskanzlei and, in 1993, in New York at the Manhattan Legal Aid Society. Following his PhD studies at Cambridge, he became a trainee lawyer at the Budapest Bar Association in 1999, and since 2004 has practised as an attorney, leading first the Gellér and Kis Law Firm, subsequently the Gellér and Bárányos Law Firm, and currently Gellér Law Firm. Drawing on his practical experience, he has participated in the drafting of several significant Hungarian criminal law instruments.
Particular mention should be made of his continuous involvement since 1997 in matters relating to criminal organisations. In this field, he has not only participated in codification efforts but has also authored the highest number of extraordinary review petitions as defence counsel, which have generated considerable professional debate. The issues and proposals he has consistently raised over the years were, to a certain extent, reflected in the amendments introduced by Act LXVI of 2019 to Section 459(1)(1) of the Hungarian Criminal Code.
Upon a motion submitted by Gellér as defence counsel, the Szeged Court of Appeal was the first to refer the constitutionality of life imprisonment without parole to the Constitutional Court. This initiative resulted not only in Decision No. 3013/2015 (I. 27.) AB, but also led to the amendment of the Penitentiary Code (Act LXXII of 2014), establishing, albeit controversially, a system of mandatory clemency proceedings for persons sentenced to life imprisonment without eligibility for parole.
Reference should also be made to Act CIV of 2001 on criminal measures applicable to legal persons, the theoretical foundations of which were developed with his contribution upon the invitation of Kálmán Györgyi, then Government Commissioner responsible for the codification of the Criminal Code. He also contributed to the drafting of the International Criminal Code together with Professor Norbert Kis, which was circulated for administrative consultation by Péter Bárándy in his capacity as Minister of Justice.
He was a member of the codification committee of the new Criminal Code, with particular contributions to Sections 1–3 (principle of legality and temporal scope), Chapters XIII–XIV (crimes against humanity and war crimes), the redefinition of damage in fraud, and the offence of budgetary fraud. Perhaps most notably, he played a significant role in the reconceptualisation of self-defence, as a result of which the requirement of proportionality was removed from the classical conditions of lawful defence.
Representing the Association of Resident Doctors and upon the invitation of the Hungarian Lawyers’ Association, he delivered lectures on the criminal law assessment of informal payments (“gratuity”), published extensively on the subject, submitted legislative proposals to the Office of the Prosecutor General and the Ministry of Justice, and acted as defence counsel in related cases. The impact of this work is reflected both in the Curia’s decision BEH 2015.09.B27 and in the amendment of the Criminal Code by Act C of 2020.
As an attorney who has submitted the highest number of constitutional complaints in criminal matters, Prof. Gellér delivered lectures at the Constitutional Court on the Day of Lawyers upon invitation by the Hungarian Bar Association and the Budapest Bar Association: in 2018 on “Constitutional Complaint from the Perspective of a Practising Lawyer”, and in 2024 on the institution of subsidiary private prosecution.
In recent years, he has delivered numerous lectures at the invitation of regional bar associations and the Budapest Bar Association, addressing issues such as the concept of criminal organisations, budgetary fraud, corruption offences, and crimes related to border control measures. He has also organised several professional events enabling attorneys to participate free of charge in continuing legal education and obtain credit points (e.g. the international conference held in April 2024 at Eötvös Loránd University on the 20th anniversary of Hungary’s accession to the European Union, for which he was responsible for the criminal law section).
He is the author of two ELTE textbooks (General Part and Special Part of the Criminal Code) and co-author of three commentaries on the Criminal Code. He is a member of several Hungarian and European professional organisations in the field of criminal law, including the European Criminal Bar Association, the Hungarian Association of Criminal Law (Chair of the Supervisory Board), and the Hungarian Society of Criminology (Chair of the Supervisory Board). He also serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious international and Hungarian journals, including Criminal Law Forum (regional editor), ELTE Law Journal, Ügyészségi Szemle, and Acta Juridica Hungarica.
