The Oxford Handbook of Criminal Law reflects the continued transformation of criminal law into a global discipline, providing scholars with a comprehensive international resource, a common point of entry into cutting edge contemporary research and a snapshot of the state and scope of the field. To this end, the Handbook takes a broad approach to its subject matter, disciplinarily, geographically, and systematically. Its contributors include current and future research leaders representing a variety of legal systems, methodologies, areas of expertise, and research agendas. The Handbook is divided into four parts: Approaches & Methods (I), Systems & Methods (II), Aspects & Issues (III), and Contexts & Comparisons (IV). Part I includes essays exploring various methodological approaches to criminal law (such as criminology, feminist studies, and history). Part II provides an overview of systems or models of criminal law, laying the foundation for further inquiry into specific conceptions of criminal law as well as for comparative analysis (such as Islamic, Marxist, and military law). Part III covers the three aspects of the penal process: the definition of norms and principles of liability (substantive criminal law), along with a less detailed treatment of the imposition of norms (criminal procedure) and the infliction of sanctions (prison law). Contributors consider the basic topics traditionally addressed in scholarship on the general and special parts of the substantive criminal law (such as jurisdiction, mens rea, justifications, and excuses). Part IV places criminal law in context, both domestically and transnationally, by exploring the contrasts between criminal law and other species of law and state power and by investigating criminal law's place in the projects of comparative law, transnational, and international law.

Criminal law is one of the most rapidly changing areas of contemporary EU law and integration. The Treaty of Lisbon has elevated it to a central place in the constitution of the EU, within the dynamic area of freedom, security and justice. The phenomenon of EU criminal law as such is however far from new but has developed on an ad hoc basis, not least as a result of the case law of the European Court of Justice. Central to the Court's reasoning in this area has been the principle of effectiveness. A main theme running through the book is therefore the role of the axiom of effectiveness, which is critically examined, with particular attention to its use by the European Ccurt of Justice in recent leading cases. This book explores the constitutional principles underlying it, both those determining the substantive values it embodies, and those determining its scope and extent. Other chapters consider the phenomenon of preventative criminalisation at EU level and the protection of subsidiarity and proportionality in EU criminal law. The balance between effective EU action, proper control of competence and adequate protection of individual rights is of growing importance as EU criminal law expands, but, as this book suggests, has not yet been fully articulated or entrenched by the institutions of the EU.

For decades, the EU has developed a system of criminal justice consistent with the mixed (sometimes contradictory) tendencies embedded in its very own structure. The Lisbon Treaty consolidated some federal elements that have an impact on the future development of this area of law. The sovereign debt crisis of 2010 and its progeny have, if anything, consolidated the need for the federal protection of EU financial interests at the EU level. This book provides new insights in the federal dimension of these developments. Beginning with an analysis of the current state of affairs, the book also tackles the federalizing elements contained in such issues as the creation of a European banking supervision authority, the establishment of the European Prosecutor Office, or the enactment of a EU regulation containing the grounds rules of its functioning. Throughout, the reader will find constant references to the most efficient system of federal criminal law, i.e. the US system. This comparative law note serves the purpose of confirming the federal nature of what has been achieved so far at the EU level and providing guidelines for its future development. The basic contention is that such regulation and its enforcement at the EU level is a fundamental tool to achieve the goals that the EU has already set forth in the upcoming agenda. In a nutshell: although the EU is not a federal state, it has the same problems as if it were. Subject: European Law, Criminal Law, Comparative Law, Financial Law]

EU Criminal Law is perhaps the fastest-growing area of EU law. It is also one of the most contested fields of EU action, covering measures which have a significant impact on the protection of fundamental rights and the relationship between the individual and the State, while at the same time presenting a challenge to State sovereignty in the field and potentially reconfiguring significantly the relationship between Member States and the EU. The book will examine in detail the main aspects of EU criminal law, in the light of these constitutional challenges. These include: the history and institutions of EU criminal law (including the evolution of the third pillar and its relationship with EC law); harmonisation in criminal law and procedure (with emphasis on competence questions); mutual recognition in criminal matters (including the operation of the European Arrest Warrant) and accompanying measures; action by EU bodies facilitating police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters (such as Europol, Eurojust and OLAF); the collection and exchange of personal data, in particular via EU databases and co-operation between law enforcement authorities; and the external dimension of EU action in criminal matters, including EU-US counter-terrorism co-operation. The analysis is forward-looking, taking into account the potential impact of the Lisbon Treaty on EU criminal law.

Over the past 20 years the European Union has been increasingly active in the area of criminal law. Meanwhile, the status of European Union citizenship has been progressively developed and strengthened. Adopting an expressive and communitarian perspective of the criminal law, this book considers EU criminal law in light of EU citizenship with a view to revealing the structure of the EU's political community as expressed in its criminal law. It argues that while national communities remain dominant, through transnational processes certain features of a supranational community can be said to emerge. The book will be of interest to scholars of EU citizenship, EU criminal law and EU law and integration more generally.

This timely book provides an astute assessment of the institutional and constitutional boundaries, interactions and tensions between the different levels of governance in EU criminal justice. Probing the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of the EU's approach to transnational crime, it proposes improved mechanisms for public participation in the governance of EU criminal law, designed to ensure better transparency, accountability and democratic controls. Influential scholars from across Europe analyse key practical challenges to the governance of EU criminal law in the context of specific crimes, including financial crime, cybercrime and environmental crime. Offering sector-specific perspectives on tackling transnational crime, insightful chapters examine the potential options for criminal-law cooperation between the EU and the UK after Brexit, and consider to what extent these avenues may represent enhanced mechanisms for the governance of transnational crimes and common security threats in the future. This important study will prove crucial reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students examining EU, transnational and comparative criminal law, as well as European integration studies and constitutional law more broadly. Practitioners and policy-makers working in the EU's Area of Freedom, Security and Justice will also benefit from this book's practical insights into the mechanisms of EU law and justice.

This textbook provides an explanatory and contextual view of EU law and its impact in a simple and easily accessible yet analytical manner. It illustrates the power struggles behind a given EU law act, to allow for full understanding of how it developed. This allows the student to understand EU law as a force in the increasingly globalized world, rather than as technical and doctrinal subject. The textbook begins by setting the scene of EU integration, how we got there and why it is important. Thereafter it explores the constitutional framework for understanding EU law in context and by discussing inter alia, division of competences, accountability, legitimacy, enforcement, human rights, participation rights and so on as well as the general principles of the EU and citizenship rights. Subsequently the textbook explores the essentials of the internal market as well as the principles of competition law. It also discusses free movement rights and links to the growing “Area of Freedom, Security and Justice”. Finally the textbook offers fresh insights on the external dimension of EU law and the role of the EU in the world today before concluding with an outlook on the future of EU law including the consequences of events such as Brexit.