Towards the consensus: sentencing without a trial and a voluntary submission to a punishment before and after the amendments of the Criminal Procedure Code in 2013.

There are many ways to reach an agreement in Polish law in criminal proceedings,. These agreements are a way of consensual conclusion of proceeding . The most conventional forms of consensual conclusion of proceedings in Polish law system are “sentencing without trial” and “voluntary submission to punishment”. These institutions were introduced to the Polish legal system with the new Criminal Procedure Code in 1997 and amended in 2003. By implementing the demands of representatives of the Practice of law, Polish legislator by the amendment from 27 September 2013, expanded the possibility of application the consensual conclusion of proceedings. The purpose of this article is to show the shape and comparison of “voluntary submission to punishment” and “sentencing without trial” in form before and after amendment from 2013. This work also includes some opinions of Polish legal doctrine on this amendment and some comments on functioning of these institutions in practice. The last point of this thesis, besides the benefi ts arising from the use of such institutions, contains also a reference to certain risks associated with misuse or mismanagement of these institutions