<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> In September 2013, the Polish Parliament passed an amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure. The legislators decided to expand a number of adversarial elements present in current Polish criminal proceedings. When these changes come into effect (July 1, 2015), Polish criminal procedure will be similar to American regulations, in which the judge’s role is to be an impartial arbitrator, not an investigator. </p><p>The authors of the article describe the meaning of the principle of adversarial trial in Poland. They also emphasized relations between this principle and the concept of “material truth”. The changes established by the amendment are shown in perspective of the American definition of adversarial trial. The authors analyze the reform and attempt to predict the problems with new regulations in practice.</p></abstract>

In September 2013, the Polish Parliament passed an amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure. The legislators decided to expand a number of adversarial elements present in current Polish criminal proceedings. When these changes come into effect (July 1, 2015), Polish criminal procedure will be similar to American regulations, in which the judge’s role is to be an impartial arbitrator, not an investigator. The authors of the article describe the meaning of the principle of adversarial trial in Poland. They also emphasized relations between this principle and the concept of “material truth”. The changes established by the amendment are shown in perspective of the American definition of adversarial trial. The authors analyze the reform and attempt to predict the problems with new regulations in practice.

Towards an American Model of Criminal Process: The Reform of the Polish Code of Criminal Procedure

Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Faculty of Law (Poland) Contact information Address: Ul. Władysława Bojarskiego 3, 87-100 Toruń, Poland

Baltic Journal of Law & Politics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

In September 2013, the Polish Parliament passed an amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure. The legislators decided to expand a number of adversarial...

Towards an American Model of Criminal Process: The Reform of the Polish Code of Criminal Procedure

Published Online: Oct 08, 2014

Page range: 1 - 11

Received: Dec 30, 2013

Accepted: May 05, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bjlp-2014-0001

Keywords
Polish criminal procedure, American criminal procedure, principle of adversarial trial, concept of “material truth”

© by Monika Roclawska

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Towards an American Model of Criminal Process: The Reform of the Polish Code of Criminal Procedure

Published Online: Oct 08, 2014

Page range: 1 - 11

Received: Dec 30, 2013

Accepted: May 05, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bjlp-2014-0001

KeywordsPolish criminal procedure, American criminal procedure, principle of adversarial trial, concept of “material truth”

© by Monika Roclawska

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Polish criminal procedure, American criminal procedure, principle of adversarial trial, concept of “material truth”