Procedural obstacle specified in Art. 17 (1) (6) of the Code of Criminal Procedure in view of changes of periods of limitation : (constitutional context)

The procedural obstacle of limitation involves a prohibition of initiating proceedings or, if they have already been initiated, a requirement that they be discontinued. The amending statute adopted in 2015 changed the wording of Art. 102 of the Criminal Code (CC) to provide that if, within the time period provided for in Art. 100 CC proceedings were initiated against the person, the offence commited by the person ceased to be punishable upon a lapse of an uniform period of 5 years of the end of that time period. In 2016 the legislature changed the period of limitation again. In the amending statute of 2015, the legislator failed to provide an inter-temporal rule that would resolve the conflicts between Art. 102 CC in the previously applicable wording determined by the 2015 amending statute. On the other hand, pursuant to the 2016 amending statute, in case of offences committed before the entry into force of that statute, the provisions on limitation applied in the wording as amended by the 2016 statute except if the period of limitation had elapsed. This article is an attempt at analysing the above-mentioned problems from the perspective of constitutional standards of criminal trial.