Hungary’s legal foundation is out of the civil law system, which is quite different from the common law tradition familiar to Americans and that originated in Great Britain. Civil law is based on a codified system, with judges rather than juries as the deciders of facts in a case. From one point of view, though, this actually opens the door wider for consideration of wrongful convictions in Hungary.
“Hungary does have a concept of a retrial. A criminal case can be reopened if particular facts emerge” that could lead to a different outcome, Irene says. Unlike many other legal systems around the world, no time limit or statute of limitations exists that stands in the way of a reconsideration of justice. In a small number of instances, this has actually happened in Hungary, but these have been exceptional circumstances, she adds.
Generally, Hungary is another nation where wrongful convictions are a legal possibility, but occur infrequently. Important measures like statutory rights to post-conviction DNA testing are not guaranteed.
Diving into this project did have a personal impact on Irene, though. She previously had seen herself with a future in corporate law, but the breadth of topics and the variety of ideas she has been exposed to through the UC LLM program, including by volunteering for this WCILTF project, has her rethinking things.
“This project has relit the spark I had for international law,” she says. “It’s more risky in terms of career prospects, but for now, I’m looking at what the options could be.”
An outcome like that is exactly why Wagner thought it could be such an excellent addition to the educational opportunities offered to the international students in the LLM program.
“It’s relatively easy to bring a group of passionate lawyers, law students and advocates together around an issue of importance, but that group becomes exceptional and exponentially more creative and more powerful when it includes brilliant minds from a wide variety of backgrounds and trained in various legal traditions,” she says. “The WICLTF team itself is a perfect example of this already, and we simply expanded that model by including our LLM students.”
In 2025, the WCILTF filed reports against 25 countries, of which the LLM program participated in six. Going forward, many more reports against additional countries will be filed in future years, and Godsey envisions the LLM program playing an even larger role.
Efforts by the WCILTF have already begun to produce results in countries such as Malaysia and South Korea, where the UN Human Rights Committee is advocating for certain interests of innocents in prison as “universal human rights” derived from the right to a fair trial because of previous WCILTF reporting. Examples of recurring themes identified by WCILTF across multiple countries include ensuring the right to DNA testing of crime scene evidence, the right to legal mechanisms to reopen a case if new evidence of innocence surfaces after conviction and the right for exonerees to receive compensation.
This summer, members of WCILTF will convene in The Netherlands. Godsey and Wagner plan to discuss expansion of UC Law’s LLM involvement, as well as additional ways for international lawyers and law students to train alongside the Ohio Innocence Project at Cincinnati Law.
“The door is wide open,” Godsey says, “We’re excited to welcome more international lawyers and law students to join us in Cincinnati for real-world experiences in innocence work and to contribute to this important initiative.”
