Changing the Role of the Victim in the New Criminal Procedure Act

Abstract

During the course of the development of criminal law the victim party lost his/her former leading role in the procedure and was pushed to the periphery of justice. Legal experts have come to realize that this tendency is drastically unfair towards the victim. The European documents on the legal position of the victims increasingly called the attention of the legislature to the need of bringing about changes. Last year the Government of Hungary adopted the presentation of the Minister of Justice on the new concept of criminal procedure. The new law was passed in June 2017. The Code will come into effect in 2018, and will strengthen the procedural position of the victim. The study analyses legislative changes related to the role of the victim. However, we still have debts concerning the improvement of the victim’s situation.