CYIL vol. 13 (2022)

JIŘÍ MULÁK CYIL 13 ȍ2022Ȏ in order to determine the guilt of the accused, he has the option of having his case reviewed by a court of appeal. This is due to the fact that the continental model of criminal proceedings expresses a certain “distrust of state authorities”. This was not the case in common law systems in history. Nowadays, the concept of appeals in criminal matters is similar in common law model and continental model of criminal procedure - the principle of appeal is recognized (it can be simply said that in cases where no guilty confession has taken place, the principle of full appeal is upheld) and in cases where when it is necessary to clarify the matter more factually, or to provide more extensive evidence, the principle of cassation is also applied. So we have and know two basic systems - the appellation system and the cassation system, and it is always a combination. An appeal in criminal proceedings is therefore a proper remedy against a judgment of a court of first instance, which according to Czech criminal law is based on the principle of appeal with certain elements of cassation, while always having devolutive (it is always decided by a higher court) and suspensive (suspension of legal force) effects. By filing an appeal, the decision on it is transferred to a higher court than which delivered the judgment under appeal. This is because in the appeal proceedings, self-remediation is not admissible, which is used in the proceedings on complaints against the resolution within the limits permitted by the Czech Code of Criminal Procedure. We can say that “ an appeal ” is a certain concentrate of all the principles, structural elements and application constraints that can generally be identified in reliefs (ordinary and extraordinary). 2 I will briefly state that the appeal in Czech criminal procedure serves to correct defects of fact, law and procedure, is bound by a strict prohibition of reformationis in peius (prohibition of change for the worse), is associated with suspensive (the legal force of the court of first instance is suspended) the immediately superior/higher court, the principle beneficium cohaesionis applies to it, is based on the modified principle of binding review and is built on a balanced application of the appeal and cassation principles. 3 A summary of grounds of appeal can be found in the provisions of § 257 (1) and § 258 (1) of the Czech Code of Criminal Procedure. However, they can also be filed for defects not defined here. It is very interesting from the point of view of the right of appeal, also from the point of view of constitutional law and also from the point of view of the case law of the ECtHR is § 262 of the Czech Code of Criminal Procedure, when an appellate court (court of appeal) remits a case back to the first-instance court for a new examination, it may order that the case be assigned to another chamber of the first-instance court. 4 If there are important reasons to do so, it may also order that the case be assigned to another first-instance court. Perhaps the only peculiarity of appeals is the fact that, unlike a complaint, the “auto-remedure” is not allowed for appeals. From the point of view of the planned/prepared recodification of the Czech Code of Criminal Procedure, there should be three more fundamental changes from the point of view of appeals. First of all, the time limit for lodging an appeal should be 15 days (currently: 8 days). With regard to the changes themselves, the cases in which the accused is summoned to a trial should be newly identified, the appellate court will be able to decide on the accused to

2 JELÍNEK, J. et al. Trestní právo procesní ( Criminal Law Procedure ). Prague: Leges, 2021, pp. 658–666. 3 See more Ibidem, pp. 667–713. 4 The ECtHR decision in Tempel v. Czech Republic of 25 June 2020, appliacation no. 44151/12.

178