Austrian delegation pays visit to Law Faculty
An international comparative law conference was held on 11 May on the topic of laymen involvement in criminal law judgments, focusing on the problems and experiences of Austrian criminal hearings. The conference was jointly organized by the Institute of Criminal Sciences (Faculty of Law, ME), the Miskolc branch of the Committee on State and Legal Science (Hungarian Academy of Sciences), and the Research Centre for European and International Criminal Law (Faculty of Law, ME). Prof. Ákos Farkas and Dr. Judit Jacsó were among the organisers.
The objective of the conference was to examine how the participation of laymen works in the criminal law systems of Austria and Hungary, and also to provide an opportunities for experts and representatives of different bodies to gather and discuss their perspectives and experiences regarding this topic. This is timely, as the number of cases involving lay judges has been considerably restricted in Hungary since the introduction to Act XC of 2017 on criminal procedure, while lay judges are part of panels at various levels.
Among those presenting at the conference were Judge Stefan Apostol (Vienna State Court for Criminal Matters), who spoke on practices involving laymen in the criminal courts of Austria, while Viennese lawyers Prof. Dieter Kindel and Dr. Ihor-Andrij Maritczak, representing the viewpoint of defence lawyers on issues relating to lay judges. Dr. Árpád Répássy (Miskolc Regional Court) presented the experiences of past decades with lay judges, and Prof. Ákos Farkas (Faculty of Law, ME) provided insights into the role of laymen in criminal courts. Dr. Krisztina Hircsu, a lawyer working in Miskolc, discussed issues with the participation of laymen in Hungarian legal procedures from the viewpoint of a lawyer. Participating in the conference were judges, prosecutors, lawyers and law students.
On the following day, Prof. Kindel and Dr. Apostol, accompanied by members of the Faculty of Law, paid a visit to the Miskolc Regional Court (at the invitation of Dr. Répássy) and the county branch of the Hungarian Bar Association (at the invitation of Dr. Lajos Cserba).