Abstract

The latest amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure indicate that the legislator has given more attention to the issue of the right to information about the rights and duties of the parties in criminal trial. The article analyses that problem from the defendant’s point of view and with respect to three legislations, the first of which was in force until 1 July 2015, the second – from 1 July 2015 to 14 April 2016, and the last one thereafter. It may be noticed that returning to the quasi inquisitorial model of criminal trial the legislator left intact the regulation concerning the defendant’s right to information introduced by the „adversarial amendment” of 27 September 2013. The article evaluates the lists of instructions given to the defendant in trial before the court of first instance from the viewpoint of their correctness, usefulness at a given stage of the proceedings and possibility of using that information. It also considers whether the scope of procedural information should be the same in the quasi inquisitorial and the quasi adversarial model of criminal trial.