Ochrona praw oskarżonego poniżej 18. roku życia na tle nowelizacji Kodeksu postępowania karnego z 14 kwietnia 2023 r.
Protection of the rights of defendants under the age of 18 in the context of the Amendment Act to the Code of Criminal Procedure of 14 April 2023

Summary/Abstract: On 14 April 2023 the Sejm adopted the Act amending the act – Code of Criminal Procedure and certain other acts. The need for specific protection of defendants under the age of 18 was noticed by the European Union’s legislature over 10 years ago. Notwithstanding, Poland had not adopted until 2023 relevant changes in its domestic criminal procedure law to implement the 2011 and 2016 EU directives intended to strengthen the procedural guarantees in criminal cases for defendants under the age of 18. Because of the importance of these changes in the law, the Authors considered a reflection on the aforementioned Act and formulating de lege lata conclusions as justified. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the introduced changes in relation to present regulations of Polish criminal procedure. The means and quality of the implementation of EU directives in the context of the principles of legislative drafting are assessed. The legislator’s explanatory memorandum to the draft act has also provided a point of reference. The study also presents research concerning how far participants of criminal proceedings comprehend instructions. Moreover, opinions of Polish legal academic commentators regarding protection of the rights of defendants under the age of 18 have been cited. The summary presents conclusions and an assessment of the Act of 14 April 2023 and underlines that new regulations constitute a step in the right direction. However, the way of introduction of said changes and the correctness of the implementation of the European laws raise legitimate doubts regarding, inter alia, the delay in adopting a necessary regulation based on Article 607l(4) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

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