The Crime of Armed Robbery in the Second Half of the 19th Century

Abstract

The crime of robbery has always been the most dangerous violent crime against property and was also included in the first modern criminal code of Hungary, the Codex Csemegi. The crime of robbery, contrary to the currently effective regulations, did not cover the qualification of ‘armed’. This, however, does not mean that the crime of armed robbery has not existed: it has developed through the judicial practice in the second half of the 19th century. Through the judicial practice, the qualifications of ‘armed’ and ‘committed with a deadly weapon’ started to evolve and to differentiate from each other. Along with the judicial practice, the legal literature has also worked with the crime of armed robbery as after the Codex Csemegi was accepted, the legal experts analysed in details the crime of armed robbery. While covering this crime, these legal experts also analysed the results of the German legal praxis and legal literature in this area. The aim of the present study is to show how the crime of armed robbery was introduced to the Codex Csemegi and in the legal praxis and how these laws and praxis were affected by the German law, praxis and legal literature.