New Legal Institution in the Hungarian Criminal Procedure System Enabling the Rapid Prosecution of Criminals

Abstract

In Hungary, in 2017, the Act on Criminal Procedure (hereinafter: CPC) was re-created. The most significant reason necessitating codification was the fact that sometimes it took years from the commission of the crime to the prosecution of the perpetrator, a fact which had an extremely negative effect on both general and special prevention. Ensuring timeliness clearly formed the basis of enacting several legal institutions. The purpose of the proportionate prosecutorial motion is that it allows the prosecution service to present its position regarding the specific term and/or length of the criminal punishment or measure in the given case. If the accused has actually committed the crime and finds the sanction presented in the proportionate prosecutorial motion acceptable, he/she will confess the commission of the crime and waive his/her right to trial. A fundamental novelty of the CPC in the preparation of the trial is that it allows the criminal liability of the accused to be established at the preparatory hearing. The accused has the opportunity to plead guilty to the offence stated in the indictment, irrespective of the substantive gravity of the offence on which the proceedings are based. According to the provisions of the CPC, if the court has accepted the accused's statement of guilt, it will not examine the merits of the indictment and the question of guilt, and may not impose a more severe punishment or apply a more severe measure than the one proposed by the prosecution service. The new rules on the preparatory hearing have significantly reinterpreted the function of the formerly marginal preparatory hearing, which made it possible to convict the defendant rapidly, in compliance with the requirements of due process.