8 - Day Fines in Hungary

Summary

The chapter – after providing a brief history of day fines in Hungarian criminal law – analyses how the Hungarian Criminal Code regulates day fines. The article analyses how day fines fit into the system of Hungarian non-custodial sanctions, and also analyses the case law. Following this chapter, using data from the sentencing database of the National Office of the Judiciary, looks at the sentencing practice of Hungarian courts applying day fines. The core argument of the chapter is that – as the data clearly shows – Hungarian courts, despite the fact that the broad range of both the days and daily amounts would allow day fines to be used as a severe pecuniary non-custodial sanction, appear to be reluctant to consider it as an alternative to imprisonment for more serious offenses.