Confession and its impact on the criminal proceedings

1 Confession and its impact on the criminal proceedings Abstract The aim of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive view of the issue of confession, to characterize this legal concept and describe its importance in matters of substantive and procedural criminal law. For this purpose, the author synthesized the available legal, doctrinal, judicial and other relevant information with her own opinions and considerations de lege ferenda. The content of the thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter contains a historical introduction covering the development of confession from the 14th century to the political trials of the 1970s. The second chapter characterizes confession in terms of content and form, focusing on particular requirements for confession and various situations in which it can be made. It also focuses on the legal concept of declaration of guilt, its differences from confession and the mutual relation between the two aforementioned in the light of the recent amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code. The third chapter deals with confession as the evidence and its significance even in case it is revoked or obtained in an inadmissible manner. The fourth chapter deals in more detail with forced confessions, methods of physical and mental pressure on the defendant and presents the results..