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Public Hearing as a Safeguard of Fair Trial in Criminal Proceedings
46-61Views:148The primary aim of my paper is to examine the questions related to the institute of public hearing. As we know, publicity is one of the most important safeguards of fair trial in criminal procedure. In my opinion, it is necessary to examine these procedural questions in a scientific depth in the light of both the case decisions of the High Courts and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. The study examines one of the important pledges of a fair trial, the effectiveness of the basic principle of publicity in the criminal procedure. It explores the principle from a dogmatic point of view, and also in the light of both the European standards and the regulations currently in force. It mentions the limitation and exclusion of publicity, and the legal consequences of violating publicity in a great detail. Classic legal institutes are shifted into new dimensions by the technical improvements of the modern world and the media broadcasts from courts, and the paper points it out that for the sake of having an undisturbed court hearing and verification, some modifications on certain legal regulations may be justified. The study also mentions the standpoints of legal literature regarding the notion of publicity in detail, and by summarizing them it attempts to define the notion of the given basic principle as per aspects of law science, considering the characteristics of the 21st century. After the establishment of law theory principles, besides introducing the regulation in force and touching upon court practice, my paper analyzes questions that are more and more current, especially due to the reports by the electronic media, which sometimes cannot only disturb the order of the court, but also the procedure of verification. So, after the examination of basic hypotheses and the legal institute, it draws the conclusion that the development of the legal institute justifies the modification of the procedural law in the future, especially in connection with informing the press.
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’The more speech, the better’: Review of the Book of András Koltay on New Media and Freedom of Speech
Views:255At first glance, the new book of András Koltay seems to be a translation of his recently published volume, New Media and Freedom of Expression: Rethinking the Constitutional Foundations of the Public Sphere (Hart International, 2019). Therefore, one would expect that the work itself does not provide any new information to those who already know the original in English. That could not be less true. As we get to the bottom of this false impression, the review shows the many virtues and minor mistakes of the book.
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Towards a European Legal Scholarship. Recommendations of the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) on the Development of Education and Research
54-61Views:106The German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) in 2012 published its study „Perspectives of Legal Scholarship in Germany. Current Situation, Analyses, Recommendations”. The recommendations are preceded by empirical and quantitative descriptions that provide information on the current situation of legal study and research in Germany. The document emphasizes the importance of cooperation between theoretical and practical part of the legal education. The report considers that students should acquire the ability of critical approach to legal prac- tice instead of memorising the substantive legal rules.
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Basic Trial Rights and Trial Ethics in Criminal Proceedings
32-55Views:173The number of criminal court trials is constantly decreasing, as the domestic legislature has introduced a number of legal institutions aimed at diverting criminal cases from the court system, or avoiding charging. Nevertheless, there will always be crimes, the adjudication of which cannot dispense with impeachment based on direct judicial investigation. The trial is undoubtedly the "highlight" of the criminal proceedings, since it is here that the adversarial process takes place in its entirety, and here the defense counsel and the prosecutor have the opportunity to form opinions on factual and legal issues in each other's personal presence. The amendment of the Criminal Procedure Act naturally raised many questions, such as who in the near future will actually control the evidence taken in court proceedings, and what basic procedural rights should be provided to the participants of the proceedings. In this study, I would like to reflect primarily on these questions, based on some ECtHR decisions.
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A Philosophical Approach to Law
11-22Views:154Bjarne Melkevik’s book is one of the best comprehensive treatments of legal philosophy currently available in Canada. First of all, the reader will find in the form of a long introduction a bookchapter translated into Hungarian, which is a general description of Melkevik’s jurisprudential views, provided by Mate Paksy. The chosen chapter organizes the reflexions on legal philosophy into three interrelated ques- tions. Melkevik’s first, thought-provoking question is as follows: why do we need legal philosophy? He views legal philosophy not as foundational legal scholarship, but mainly as an elucidation of public, reflexive argumentation on law which isn’t at
odds either with an empirical methodology. The second question concerns whether studying legal philosophy is useful for lawyers. Here Melkevik endorses again a post-positivist position according to which both law and legal philosophy are essentially practical discourses. Though the third part of the paper is heavy with disciplinary boundary-drawing, which emerges from questioning the place of legal scholarship vis-à-vis other, more empirical branches of social sciences such as history or anthropology, Melkevik’s reflexions here are still inspired by a sort of Neo-Kantian legal philosophy and Habermas’ communicative ethics.
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Current Challenges of Confidentiality and Publicity in the View of Information Security
24-41Views:152The paper analyses the issues of confidentiality and publicity, arising from current information security legislation in Hungary. First of all the information security as a state task is analyzed. In Hungary, the information security controls of state and local government entities are regulated. Afterward, on the one hand, the information security as a tool for data protection regulation, state secrets and freedom of information were discussed. On the other hand, information security can be an object of the law, when the protection of security controls is required. One of the main findings of the research was that the information security controls applied at state entities are generally public data (according to freedom of information regulation). Thus it might not stay confidential. We formed proposals to solve this issue.
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Facebook files – is Hate Speech Deleted? The Human Rights As- pects of Content Control of Social Media Platforms
115-136Views:461The internet intermediaries, such as services like Google and Facebook became important actors who can influence the media supply through the personalised information flow tailored by their own algorithms and due to the content moderation of their own platforms. These services have exceeded their previous activities which were merely of an intermediary scope and this change affects substantially the fulfilment of international human rights standards. The article analysed first and foremost the operation of the internet intermediaries, especially of the social media platforms from the freedom of expression point of view. It seeks answers to the question to what extent does the moderation of the user generated content on the platforms, i.e. removing and blocking contents which do not comply with the terms and conditions of the platforms, comply with the requirements of the restriction of human rights. Based on the analysis of Facebook’s own regulatory framework, it evaluates content moderation activity on hate speech on the platform in the context of human rights. It points out the guarantees of human rights which are missing from the content control mechanisms of Facebook.
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Critical Remarks on the Acquittal of Vojislav Šešelj with regard to Instigation, Aiding and Abetting
97-109Views:124Vojislav Šešelj was acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on 31 March 2016. The Trial Chamber of the ICTY assessed evidence on the recruitment of volunteers (who later became perpetrators of international crimes), the defendant’s extremist, nationalistic and public hate speeches, and drew the conclusion that he is not responsible for war crimes or crimes against humanity. The present paper discusses gaps and mistakes appearing in the judgement from the point of view of two criminal liability concepts: instigation and aiding and abetting. After briefly summarizing the standards applied by the ICTY, the author presents a reassessment of the facts referring also to the major arguments of Judge Flavia Lattanzi (dissenting).