PROCEDURAL RIGHTS OF THE ACCUSED IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

Abstract

Criminal law in the broadest sense consists of three components: criminal substantive law, criminal procedural law and the law of enforcement of sanctions applied against perpetrators of criminal acts. Criminal procedural law, as a positive scientific discipline, has a general character and contains abstract legal norms that find their concretization when taking specific procedural actions taken during the criminal procedure. The largest reform of criminal procedural legislation was made in 2010 with the adoption of the new accusatory Law on Criminal Procedure. The right of the state to punish is implemented through the decision to protect certain goods by imposing penalties and other measures against the perpetrators of the incriminated actions. We will concentrate on the rights and position of the defendant in criminal proceedings, who is considered a person against whom an indictment has been filed or an indictment has been issued. We will also consider the rights and position of the defendant in the context of criminal proceedings. The subject of this paper is the general procedural rights of defendants in criminal proceedings, with a special emphasis on the comparative analysis between national legislation (Criminal Procedure Act – CPC), international standards (European Convention on Human Rights – ECHR), as well as German and American law. The aim is to investigate how the fundamental rights of defendants are ensured and to point out the similarities and differences in the different legal systems.