Hungary: National Regulations in the Shadow of a Common Past

Abstract

Hungarian criminal legislation underwent substantial changes in the process of replacing the former socialist law enforcement principles with the rule of law. It is against this background that the new Criminal Code (Act C of 2012), Criminal Procedure Code (Act XC of 2017), and Penal Code (Act CCXL of 2013) were drafted. Accordingly, this study analyzes the provisions of the new Criminal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, and Penal Code in detail independently and in their context. After analyzing the general part of the Criminal Code, the study analyzes certain groups of crimes and the statistics associated with them. After addressing the criminal law questions, the main characteristics of Hungarian criminal procedure law are analyzed. Of these, it is worth highlighting the issue of the principles of criminal procedure law, the stages of the Hungarian criminal procedure, the possibili- ties of diversion in Hungarian criminal proceedings, and the characteristics of judgment. After the rules of the Criminal Procedure Code, the study describes the purpose and principles of penitentiary law and the Hungarian prison system in detail. The work concludes with a presentation of the main provisions of international criminal cooperation. In Hungary, the main sources of basic criminal science during the regime change in the 1990s were derived from the 1970s. Therefore, the sources of the criminal sciences require major revision. Nonetheless, legislation needs to change constantly to keep up with the challenges of a changing society.