The Historical Development of the Hungarian Plea Bargain

Abstract

The new Criminal Procedure Code entered into force on 1 July2018. Based on the experience of the last four years, the settlement has not beenpopular, but confession at the preparatory session has become favoured.Hungarian academic literature considers the settlement to be the institutionclosest to the American plea bargain. In addition to the two new legalinstitutions, the Criminal Procedure Code contains several simplifier options.Both the previous and the current Criminal Procedure Code provide successfulsimplifier tools (e.g., penalty order), however, neither the settlement nor itspredecessor — the waiver of trial — could break through. In my PhD study Iam looking for the answer to why the Hungarian plea bargain cannot breakthrough, for which purpose I examine the antecedents of the settlement from ahistorical point of view. A fundamental shortcoming can be observed: similarly,to German criminal procedure law, the principle of consensus as a legitimizingprinciple is missing from Hungarian criminal procedure. It would beworthwhile to examine the results that the introduction of the consensusprinciple would lead to. In addition, it would be important to examine thedifferent simplifier institutions in relation to each other, i.e., to which groups ofcases and how they are applied. It is possible that the aim of speeding upprocedures may be reached more conveniently by the authorities by othersimplifier solutions.