EUROPEAN CRIMINAL LAW ’22-23
Inhoud
1. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................3
2. HISTORY, SOURCES AND INTERPLAY BETWEEN SOURCES..................................................................5
3. From Council of Europe to EC.............................................................................................................5
4. Council of Europe...............................................................................................................................6
5. European Court on Human Rights......................................................................................................6
6. Interstate cooperation Council of Europe...........................................................................................8
7. European Union..................................................................................................................................9
8. FROM EC TO EU................................................................................................................................10
1. Impact of European community law on members states criminal law.............................................10
2. EC-law and its sword function..........................................................................................................11
3. Impact of the European Union (pre-2009 vs post- 2009).................................................................15
2. Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice: towards an area of freedom, security and justice......................17
3. Treaty establishing a Constitution for the European Union..............................................................18
4. Political deadlock, judicial breakthrough 2005.................................................................................19
5. (The new world) Lisbon : EU gets a role in defining crimes and sanctions........................................21
6. Subject matter area of freedom, security and justice in Title V TFEU...............................................22
7. Incorporation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights..................................................................23
8. ECJ≈>CJEU: Pivotal role post-Lisbon.................................................................................................23
9. Interplay between EU-ECHR law.......................................................................................................25
1. As it was in 1997: ECJ Kremzow........................................................................................................25
2. Accession to ECHR............................................................................................................................25
3. Not asking EU-preliminary ruling as a violation of art 6 ECHR?........................................................25
4. Case law can make legislation superfluous.......................................................................................26
5. DEFINITION OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR, DEFENSES, LIABILITY (SUBSTANTIVE CRIMINAL LAW)........27
1. ECHR.................................................................................................................................................27
2. Art.3 ECHR: prohibition of torture – obligation to crimininalise corporal punishment?...................29
3. Art.4 prohibition of slavery and forced labour.................................................................................30
4. Art.3 + article 8 right to respect for private and family life...............................................................31
5. Conventions council of Europe.........................................................................................................32
6. Union Law.........................................................................................................................................32
7. SHIELD FUNCTION: INVOKING EUROPEAN LAW AS A DEFENCE.......................................................33
1. Pretty v. UK, art. 2 and 3 (right to life)..............................................................................................33
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,2. Grogan v. UK (services in the EU: criminal in one, legal in another MS)...........................................33
3. ECHR 2010, Josemans case...............................................................................................................34
4. Omega Case (2004)...........................................................................................................................34
5. BWIN Portugal..................................................................................................................................35
6. PERPETRATORS.................................................................................................................................36
7. INVESTIGATIONS: METHODS, CROSS BORDER COOPERATION AND HR LIMITS................................39
1. Interpol.............................................................................................................................................39
2. Trevi..................................................................................................................................................40
3. OLAF.................................................................................................................................................41
4. Europol.............................................................................................................................................41
5. Eurojust............................................................................................................................................43
6. European Judicial Network in Criminal Matters................................................................................45
7. Standing Committee on Operational Cooperation on Internal Security (COSI).................................45
8. Future? European Public Prosecutors Office (EPPO)........................................................................46
9. Obligation to investigate and cooperate..........................................................................................48
1. Positive hr-obligation to investigate and cooperate.........................................................................48
2. Mutual assistance.............................................................................................................................49
2. Impact ECHR on mutual assistance...................................................................................................51
3. EU needs swifter crossborder investigations....................................................................................52
4. Search actions...................................................................................................................................55
1. Questioning suspects........................................................................................................................55
2. Article 6 ECHR: right to a fair trial.....................................................................................................56
3. Right to silence/ privilege against self-incrimination........................................................................57
4. Art.6, §3: Everyone charged with a criminal offence has the following minimum rights..................66
5. Examination of witnesses (d)............................................................................................................66
6. Illustration: are ANONYMOUS witnesses compatible with art.6, §3, d)?..........................................69
7. House search....................................................................................................................................72
8. Wiretaps and contemporary interception of communications.........................................................73
2. Proposal Directive 2018:...................................................................................................................78
3. 2018 Proposal Regulation on E.Production + E.Preservation Order.................................................79
4. Pending/ future (difficult) issues.......................................................................................................83
5. DNA-testing......................................................................................................................................89
6. Covert observation...........................................................................................................................91
7. Infiltration (undercover agents)........................................................................................................93
8. Seizure and asset freezing................................................................................................................96
9. Arrest, Detention on Remand, Extradition and EAW........................................................................96
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,2. Extradition and surrender...............................................................................................................100
1. CoE European Convention on Extradition.......................................................................................100
2. European Union..............................................................................................................................103
3. Evidence.........................................................................................................................................114
1. Presumption of innocence (Art. 6 §2 )............................................................................................114
2. Directive (EU) 2016/343 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2016...........114
3. Limits in using evidence..................................................................................................................116
4. Criminal sanctions...........................................................................................................................119
2. Changes in legislation: which law applies?.....................................................................................121
2. EU-conform interpretation, deficient national criminal law and legality principle.........................123
3. (Cross border) execution of sanctions............................................................................................124
4. Obstacles to the normal course of criminal proceedings................................................................125
2. Ne bis in idem.................................................................................................................................126
1. Integration via Schengen acquis.....................................................................................................126
2. Caselaw ECJ....................................................................................................................................128
3. Obstacles to prosecution: Prescription (Statutes of Limitations)....................................................131
1. INTRODUCTION
Criminal law, but not as you know it, because it does not exist at a European level
- No European Criminal Code or Code of Criminal Procedure
- No European criminal courts, prosecutors until 2020, judges, juries or prisons
o Very small group of prosecutors with limited authority
- Reason for this? sovereignty (do we want to give up the power to the decide to
the EU-level) = the right to decide what you want to do on your territory
o Is the core essence of a state
o Very much linked to criminal law, because of the power needed to enforce criminal
law
Lock someone up, search warrant, …
the intrusions in your system of criminal law can be far reaching so there has
to be some kind of trust and balances → it infringes the most fundamental
rights of people under a jurisdiction
sensitive because the sates has the right to use legitimate violence (eg. Force
someone to leave their house)
the trust in the criminal systems differs very much in the different states but
we still trust our own system the most (maybe not because we like it but
because we
know it the best) → eg. some states are very keen on keeping their jury
system
- Criminal law was traditionally excluded from the partial transfer of sovereignty to
supranational institutions
o Freedom is more easy to sell than repression
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, - Historical events such as the Nazi occupation have had effects on the evolution of European
criminal law
Driving forces of the “europeanisation” of criminal law and criminal justice
- Life has changed: internationalisation of social and economic life, increased mobility
& boom in communications (people don’t live within the strict limit of the national borders)
- Increasing incidence of European law on national law, criminal law as the strong
arm of national law (other law are in relation with it: they are usually not criminal until
people stop applying them) cannot escape it
- the fight against economic crime (eg. avoiding the taxes on cigarettes) in general and
infractions of Union law (stealing EU money) in particular
o eg. European subsidy fraud: you spend your Erasmus money from the EU in your
domestic country → your domestic country is not interested to handle this because
it is not their money, so to what extend does the EU have to handle this itself?
- the fight against organised crime and terrorism
o since the opening of the borders & the fear for the Italian mafia
o since there is terrorism criminal has become top issue at European level (security is a
major concern)
→ evolution which has culminated in Lisbon Treaty in 2010 (criminal law became a full part of the
EU) Criminal has become a top issue at the European level
Chronology of the ECL-course until 2010
Member states still in charge of criminal law, but strongly influenced by:
- ECHR case law
- Interstate co-operation Council of Europe
- European Community and criminal law (expl. not part of the story)
- European Union Third Pillar: Co-operation in police and criminal matters merged with the
Community in EU after Lisbon
o Separated institutional framework for criminal law because it was so sensitive
- Interaction between levels and member states
Not a European Union law course, in real life you have to use EU law and HR law
Continuous interaction between different levels of Europe and MS
- Yellow = power at MS level, red = European sovereignty
- ECHR can overrule the decisions of MS & the European Community used to have the
possibility to do this → but because of the 3rd pillar the MS have their grip back (more
traditional MS-level approach)
- The red part becomes bigger and bigger
Before Lisbon:
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