PRAWO KARNE MATERIALNE PIERWSZEJ REPUBLIKI CZECHOSŁOWACKIEJ
THE SUBSTANTIVE CRIMINAL LAW OF THE FIRST CZECHOSLOVAK REPUBLIC

Summary/Abstract: The criminal law of the First Czechoslovak Republic was based on the Austrian criminal code of 1852, which was in force in the lands of Bohemia and Moravia, as well as on the Hungarian criminal code of 1878, which was in force in Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia. The regulations set by those codes were considered outdated by many scholars in the newly independent Czechoslovakia. Therefore, several significant laws were passed in order to reform the country's criminal law, including the Act for the Defense of the Republic of 1923, the Act on the Judiciary over Youth of 1931, and the Act for the Protection of Honor of 1933. Even though these acts modernized some parts of the criminal law, the two 19th-century codes still constituted its foundations. Two drafts of a new criminal code were prepared; however, they were never passed. More significant reforms of the criminal law were impossible not only due to a lack of political interest but also because of concerns regarding the costs and the presence of judiciary conservatism in Czechoslovakia.

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