SPECIFIC CRIMINAL PROCEDURE RULES AGAINST CORRUPTION IN HUNGARY

Abstract

In the context of corruption, one of the areas of political controversy related to
criminal procedural law in Hungary in recent years has been the question of joining or
not joining the European Public Prosecutor's Office, and this issue has primarily arisen
in connection with the detection of corruption offenses. As a compromise, an
intermediate solution was reached: from November 24 of 2022, Hungary introduced the
"Procedure for major crimes related to the exercise of public authority or management
of public property" as a new Chapter CV/A of Act XC of 2017 on Hungarian criminal
proceedings (CPC) ("conditionality procedure"). The paper reviews the main provisions
of the conditionality procedure and examines the problems associated with them. Finally,
the author raises the fear that conditionality proceedings will become the scene of daily political battles rather than a real alternative to establishing criminal liability.