The Right to Appeal and Individual Application in Criminal Proceedings in Hungary, with Special Regard to the Defendant’s Participatory Rights

Abstract

This paper covers the system of appeal as an ordinary legal remedy in criminal cases under Hungarian criminal procedural law. First, the system of courts as an institutional background will be outlined, then the procedural and substantial conditions of appeal will be described. The framework of any remedial (appellate) system is determined by the following factors: the personal scope of the right to appeal, the grounds of appeal, the rights of the participants in the appellate proceedings, the form of court proceedings, the scope of revision, and the type of decisions the appellate court can deliver. This paper briefly describes all these factors so that the typical features of appeal under Hungarian criminal law can be seen. The paper covers both the institution of first and second appeal, highlighting the cases where a second appeal needs to be made available. Furthermore, the functioning of the constitutional complaint in criminal cases will also be drafted. This kind of constitutional remedy was first put into practice in the Hungarian procedural and constitutional system in 2012. Of the various problem points, the paper focuses on the participatory rights of the defendant in appellate procedures, highlighting the main debate and features of this topic under Hungarian criminal procedural law.