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7 Baltic J.L. & Pol. 1 (2014)

handle is hein.journals/bjlp7 and id is 1 raw text is: BALTIC JOURNAL OF LAW & POLITICS
VOLUME 7, NUMBER 1 (2014)
ISSN 2029-0454
http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/bj p
Cit.: Baltic Journal of Law & Politics 7:1 (2014): 1-11
DOI: 10.2478/bjlp-2014-0001
TOWARDS AN AMERICAN MODEL OF CRIMINAL PROCESS: THE
REFORM OF THE POLISH CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
Monika Roclawska
Ph.D. Student
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Faculty of Law (Poland)
Contact information
Address: UI. Wkadyskawa Bojarskiego 3, 87-100 Torun, Poland
Phone: +48 606 916 654
E-mail address: rolos@poczta.fm
Adam Bulat
Ph.D. Student
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Faculty of Law (Poland)
Contact information
Address: UI. Wkadyskawa Bojarskiego 3, 87-100 Toru, Poland
Phone: +48 697 150 871
E-mail address: adam.bulat@vp.pl
Received: December 30, 2013; reviews: 2; accepted: May 5, 2014.
ABSTRACT
In September 2013, the Polish Parliament passed an amendment to the Code of
Criminal Procedure. The legislators decided to expand a number of adversarial elements
present in current Polish criminal proceedings. When these changes come into effect (July 1,
2015), Polish criminal procedure will be similar to American regulations, in which the judge's
role is to be an impartial arbitrator, not an investigator.
The authors of the article describe the meaning of the principle of adversarial trial in
Poland. They also emphasized relations between this principle and the concept of material
truth. The changes established by the amendment are shown in perspective of the American
definition of adversarial trial. The authors analyze the reform and attempt to predict the
problems with new regulations in practice.