Szerződési szabadság a 16-18. századi magyar nemesi házassági vagyonjogban

The so-called prenuptial agreements played an immense role in the forming of the Hungarian customary law also in the era previous to the bourgeois political and legal transition of 1848. The article tries to find an answer to the following questions by focusing to these prenuptial agreements. Was there a standard form of contract that had to be followed in these prenuptial agreements? Were there any substantive requirements binding to the contracting parties? Could the future husband provide assets from his properties for his future wife by undertaking a contractual guarantee towards his relatives having also right to the husband’s property? Was it true that the future wife became legally and economically defenseless to her husband? What kind of possibilities did she have to protect her property rights, if not? How could she protect herself in her husband property? Was the property of the wife a free property of which she could freely dispose both in life and for her death