Hungary: National Regulations in the Shadow of a Common Past

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 possibilities
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.

KEYWORDS: Hungary, criminal justice, criminal law, criminal procedure, prison law