In the EU's fast-growing Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, the principle of mutual recognition should play a key role in the field of judicial cooperation in criminal matters.Since mutual recognition was enshrined as a cornerstone of judicial cooperation in the EU by the European Council of Tampere in 1999, an increasing number of binding instruments based on this principle have been adopted in the framework of the EU's Third Pillar.The considerable impact of those instruments on national criminal legal systems has often required a major effort by Member States in adjusting their national legislation so that it complies with the new mechanisms agreed at EU level. What are the real difficulties encountered by Member States in the transposition of these legislative texts into national law and, even earlier, when the texts are being negotiated within the Council of the EU? What lessons can be learned from the early years of their practical implementation by the competent judicial authorities? And, above all, what will be the future role and scope of the principle of mutual recognition in criminal matters in Europe? The entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty and the adoption of a new multi-annual programme (replacing the Hague Programme) to strengthen the EU's Area of Freedom, Security and Justice are both pending. In this crucial time of transition and uncertainty, the book seeks to provide answers to the above questions and many other related issues. Through its country by country approach covering the vast majority of the Member States, it intends to provide policymakers, practitioners, academics and researchers with a comprehensive analysis of the problems that have emerged and the solutions envisaged by each State in their implementation of mutual recognition instruments. The country chapters are followed by a final EU-wide analysis that seeks to identify common themes and obstacles and to consider future options and possible scenarios. The whole study, based on in-depth research combined with interviews conducted with hundreds of practitioners and experts from across the EU, amounts to a remarkable team performance carried out together with academics and researcher members of ECLAN (European Criminal Law Academic Network).

Examining the principle of mutual recognition in the EU legal order, this book takes a cross-policy approach to focus on the principle in the internal market and in the criminal justice area. It asks whether the principle of mutual recognition, as developed in relation to the free movement provisions (internal market), can equally be applied in judicial cooperation in criminal matters (the area of freedom, security, and justice), and if such a cross-policy application is desirable. Divided into three parts, the book first looks at the way this principle functions in the internal market. Part II examines how the principle works in judicial cooperation in criminal matters, with the final part answering the book's central questions. In each part, further related questions are asked: What is the object of the principle of mutual recognition? Who are the main actors involved? How does the mechanism of mutual recognition operate (with an emphasis on the existing limits to mutual recognition)? How does mutual recognition relate to harmonization and to mutual trust? What is the relevance of equivalence requirements and the distribution of competence between the home (issuing) State and the host (executing) State? What are the main characteristics of the principle of mutual recognition? And is it a workable principle? Through an in-depth analysis of the relevant Treaty provisions, EU legislation, EU case law, and EU policy documents, the book comes to the conclusion that a cross-policy application of the principle of mutual recognition is both feasible and desirable.

This important volume provides an up-to-date overview of the main questions currently discussed in the field of EU criminal law. It makes a stimulating addition to literature in the field, while offering its own distinctive features. It takes a four-part approach: firstly, it addresses issues of a constitutional nature, such as the EU competence in the field of criminal law, the importance of the principle of subsidiarity and the role played by the different EU institutions. Secondly, it looks at issues linked to the quest of the right balance between diversity and unity, and focuses in particular on the special relationship between approximation and mutual recognition. Thirdly, it focuses on the balance between security and freedom, or, in other words, between the shield and sword functions of EU criminal law. Special attention is given here to transatlantic cooperation, data protection, terrorism, the European Arrest Warrant and the European Investigation Order. Finally, it examines the importance of balanced relations between criminal justice actors.

Discover the various scientific debates that Mario Telò has been involved. This edited volume, which has been drafted in honour of Professor Telò’s research career, offers the reader an overview of the various scientific debates that he has been involved in throughout his distinguished career. The aim was to highlight, contextualise and build on his most innovative contributions to each of these debates. This book revolves around four thematic areas, each of which brings together a number of contributions that offer timely reflections on a given question or challenge covered by Professor Telò’s research. EXTRACT We wanted to have a personality of international calibre, espousing different political systems across the world. But we also wanted to bring a good teacher into the fold filling students with enthusiasm, able to lead them to develop their study projects, to establish their vocation as researchers and even to train personalities active in every day life, in fact to promote a European conscientiousness. We know that Mario Telò has perfectly fulfilled these many wishes, in particular through his commitments towards his colleagues as well as his very active role as member and President of the Institut d’études européennes – Institute of European Studies (IEE-ULB), but also through the support that he has given numerous researchers who have completed brilliant doctoral theses under his supervision. It is difficult to pay him tribute, however, as Mario Telò has engaged in and still engages in multiple and international academic activities. We have lost count of the number of foreign invitations that have been extended to him as well as his numerous speeches to defend and to explain the need for a European area. Mario Telò knows better than anyone that European values still need to be defended, that European studies cover several aspects, not just the political integration process in Europe but also the analysis of the behaviour of actors, decision-makers and citizens. We know that the ‘EU acquis’ is often temporary and several times the work has to be redone, as the difficulties of functioning with twenty-eight member states, and soon to be twenty-seven member states, show. The European Union does not always respond to the democratic deficit, the political integration approach needs to show the usefulness and expected benefits of European cooperation essential to its existence in a very tense global context. The energy of Mario Telò, his creativity, his international engagement, his academic openness will always be essential to the ULB. A member of the Académie Royale de Belgique [Royal Academy of Belgium], in the Classe des Lettres et des Sciences morales et politiques [section of letters and moral and political sciences], Mario Telò will always find the opportunity to express his analyses and proposals to get through the currently very troubled time of Europe’s and the world’s evolution.

Over recent years most of the criminal justice systems in Europe have witnessed a tendency to enhance the role of pre-trial inquiries. Different kinds of pre-trial measures have had a heavy impact on the fundamental rights of individuals involved in criminal procedures.The book contains a comparative study of four European countries on pre-trial precautionary measures limiting personal liberty. This comparison is part of two general frameworks concerning the ECtHR case-law and the EU legislation in the field of the right to liberty and security. In its two level approach, the book provides a critical guide for understanding the most significant changes which occurred in the area of liberty and security in the pre-trial phases of criminal proceedings as well as the protection systems developed in Europe both at national and supranational level to face the new challenges of the modern criminal investigation.

This book explores the relationship of mutual trust and fundamental rights in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) of the European Union and asks whether there is any role for proportionality. Mutual trust among Member States has long been presumed by the Court in a manner that mutual recognition was prioritised in regard to, but to the detriment of, the protection of fundamental rights. After thoroughly reviewing this relationship, this book offers a comprehensive framework of proportionality and explores its impact on the protection of fundamental rights in a mutual trust environment. It applies a theoretical and a normative framework of proportionality to two case studies (EU criminal and asylum law) by reference to several fundamental rights, enabling a carefully constructed analysis with useful parallels. The book argues that such analysis, based on proportionality, is not always desirable and helpful for the protection of fundamental rights in this area and thoroughly explores its impact on the protection of fundamental rights vis-à-vis mutual trust.

The Commentary on the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (four volumes) is a major European project that aims to contribute to the development of ever closer conceptual and dogmatic standpoints with regard to the creation of “Europeanised research on Union law”. Following on from the Commentary on the Treaty of the European Union, this book presents detailed explanations, article by article, of all the provisions of the TFEU, discussing the application of Union law in the national legal orders and its interpretation by the Court of Justice of the EU. The authors are academics and practitioners from twenty-eight European states and different legal fields, some from a constitutional law background, others experts in the field of international law and EU law.Reflecting the various approaches to European legal culture, this book promotes a system concept of European Union law toward more unity notwithstanding its rich diversity grounded in national traditions.