Abstract
Private law's influence in criminal procedure is reflected especially in the question of damages and in related issues concerning the injured party's rights and position in criminal proceedings. The author firstly addresses the current scope of procedural rights of the injured party and the accused, and concludes that under the current legislation, the injured person is not in a signifi cantly unequal position.
The scope of the injured party's procedural rights shall be inferred also from the substance of the criminal procedure itself. Granting a wide range of procedural rights to the injured party, up to a level comparable with the accused, usually leads to an increased formal complexity and slowdown of proceedings, which paradoxically reduces the chances of the injured party to a fast and effective compensation.
The author further presents seven suggestions to improve the injured party's position in Czech criminal proceedings. Among others, the author addresses the question of refining the legal definition of the injured party, decisions on whether a person is or is not the injured party, possibilities to establish a private or subsidiary indictment, criminal prosecution with consent of the injured party, or the injured party's right to file an extraordinary appeal - appeal against a summary judgment ruling on damages in criminal proceedings.