Magic is not in it Staying the Same, but in the Changes– Legal Harmonisation of Substantive Criminal Law in the Eurepean Union and its Appearance in Hungarian Criminal Law

Abstract

European criminal law came a long way – starting out as intergovernmental cooperation in crim- inal matters – before it became a real common European Union policy, in the framework of which the European Union may lay down specific legal harmonisation obligations for the Member States. Nowadays, criminal law affected by the European Union evolved into a significantly developing discipline as the legislation of the Member States must comply with the European requirements. During the past sixteen years, EU membership has introduced a considerable number of obliga- tions for Hungary in the field of legislation – this paper aims to give a critical summary of this phenomenon.