Udviklingen i den strafferetlige lovgivningsproces i perioden 1980 til 2022

Despite frequent public concerns about accelerated legislative processes, political time pressure, and the observed increase in legislative activity within criminal law, there is a notable lack of research on how the temporal dynamics of criminal lawmaking have evolved over the past four decades. This article investigates changes in the duration of the Danish criminal legislative process from 1980 to 2022. The study is based on a quantitative analysis of the legislative timelines of all 177 amendments to the Danish Penal Code adopted during this period. Three key phases of the legislative process are examined: the consultation phase, the parliamentary deliberation phase, and the implementation phase. Our findings reveal a clear and sustained acceleration in all three phases, particularly from the early 2000s onward. The article situates these findings within broader academic and policy discussions on legislative speed and its implications for legal certainty, democratic participation, and legislative quality. By empirically documenting shifts in legislative tempo, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of structural developments in criminal lawmaking and their rule-of-law consequences.